Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate
 

TED series

Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate

Absolutely awesome, Dave!!!!!

I seen this before I think here but love to watch it again and again.

As they perfect this with the small ones and prove they are dependable as well as programs that allow a loss of one or even two motors and still be able to land I believe that the technology for people to fly them will be ready before the batteries are.

However, that doesn't mean we cannot use the program to control four smaller gas motors and use the emergency landing program when an engine goes quite sputters etc. to remain upright and just land.

PS:
This video is different it is longer and has music that the other one did not!!

Yes. It looks like this is the future for VTOL craft that are to perform in-flight activities.


We [recreational rotorcraft aficionados] might also consider a genset as an alternative to the battery or multiple small gas engines. The 2-stroke engines that are used on recreational rotorcraft today could be direct-coupled to a simple generator.

A very small battery or capacitor could also be include for power-assist during takeoff and for power-assisted landing if desired.



The future looks interesting.



Dave

I think it likely that the technology will evolve to be even smaller rather than larger. Think nanotechnology. A swarm of tiny autonomous biotech robots, perhaps powered by an external magnetic field. Injected into the blood system of the human body they go in and target cancer cells, repair plumbing, etc.