Robotic bird-like legs let drones hop over obstacles, launch to the skies
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"Search and rescue" in robotics translates to "We can't identify any obvious use case of this extremely cool technology we wanted to build, but it's possible the military will be interested". I fully support the search & rescue kayfabe because I like seeing cool robots built.
Maybe in a future war we'll see birdrones deployed in some way. Maybe for long duration stealth missions where the wings can have solar panels, & the birdrone can land to let the panels recharge its battery before continuing on its journey. One of a few ways you could give small electric drones an effectively unlimited range, with a tradeoff of a long travel time.
Cool article, thank you John!
Maybe in a future war we'll see birdrones deployed in some way. Maybe for long duration stealth missions where the wings can have solar panels, & the birdrone can land to let the panels recharge its battery before continuing on its journey. One of a few ways you could give small electric drones an effectively unlimited range, with a tradeoff of a long travel time.
Cool article, thank you John!
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Kinda putting an entirely different spin on the phrases, "Bird brained" and "it's for the birds". And it begs the question whether or not a bad takeoff is "flipping the bird"?
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Yeah, sure...
If this 'takes off' well, the first parcels it will be delivering will likely be of the exothermic nitrogen gas release variety, AKA explosives.
Not a bad thing per se, of course, as drones have been really important for defending certain countries against aggression from crazy genocidal dictators, but just wait til Skynet gets its legs... /s
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...anything in real life that looks whimsical enough to belong in a Hayao Miyazaki movie.
I genuinely do.
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For the military use, I could foresee an use as autonomic HEAT "landmines" of sorts – sow them over some rough terrain, use the leg jump trick to get them airborne and up to speed against any IFVs or other armoured vehicles. Probably plenty of other, much easier solutions for that scenario, but if we are talking hypotheticals...
Don't really see much other use than that.
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Interesting, and with possible potential for specific applications, though when I look at it I can't help but see lots of weight and drag.
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just use a tube launcher. like an air cannon, maybe for a "dropper" (bomber) drone as then you need to land.
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Between this and the drone with real pigeon feathers, I'm beginning to wonder if that birds aren't real guy was onto something.
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they could also be used potentially in the mine clearing device delivery system role (still explosives)
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It's not mentioned, but I presume that getting the weight so close to the hip, ergo the body, was also for centre of gravity and weight&balance reasons? Too far forward and it would be prone to nose dive, too far back and it's stall prone.
(yes, I am a pilot and it's a calculation you go through - or should - before every flight)
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Sorry, it was Jacek - forgot to flip the name over to him. Fixed now.
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Here I was picturing them wearing tennis shoes. A lifetime of watching futuristic flying machines designed by Chuck Jones is probably to blame.
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How about a swarm of these for the next Mars mission. Fly most the mission, set down and walk when something looks interesting.
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icebergFromLaputa
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
I still hope that in the future the humanity will become wise enough to just hang whatever bastards interested in starting a new war and use these machines for peaceful purposes.
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I'm thinking that the leg jump trick might give the ability to launch a much larger version of a Switchblade 600
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The real reason why attempting the Mile High Club in a 172 is probably a bad idea...
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Have to admit - this is not what I was expecting from the next interesting tech development.
I can see some use for this tech - a drone that goes walkabout to explore (or pre-position itself without having to have people risk life and limb to get them to the right spot), then, when it needs to get a better view, or over an insurmountable obstacle, takes off.
Oh, who am I kidding. The real use for this is one for me. I want one. Now. My cat would hate it.
I can see some use for this tech - a drone that goes walkabout to explore (or pre-position itself without having to have people risk life and limb to get them to the right spot), then, when it needs to get a better view, or over an insurmountable obstacle, takes off.
Oh, who am I kidding. The real use for this is one for me. I want one. Now. My cat would hate it.
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The Mars atmosphere is so thin (0.007 bar) that a conventional fixed wing aircraft would need to exceed the speed of sound just to take off. Ingenuity weighed about 1.5 pounds on Mars, and the dual 4 feet long propellers had to spin at around 2,500 RPM to fly for short distances. That rotor RPM is about 10X of what would be required on Earth.
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There are already landmines that launch an sensor-fuzed EFP puck over the target, complete with the ability to swivel to aim, for example the M93 Hornet
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"Birds aren't real [animals]. They're just drones."
There's a lot left to do, but it's increasingly easy to envision a world where distinguishing a random bird from a surveillance drone requires a very close look.
The problem with the notion that this will merely be used by The Military(tm) is that in the United States there are actually more than 18,000 officially sanctioned militias (colloquially known as "police departments") which utilize some level of military hand-me-downs under the guise of protecting the public welfare. Though these militias are nominally regulated, they often end up skirting around the rules and laws regarding the use of surveillance techniques.
Now, it's easy enough to make the argument that only Very Bad People(tm) ever get targeted for surveillance by police, but it's even easier to debunk the argument by pointing to the near limitless examples of Black people being stopped by police for the unenumerated crime of Existing While Black.
Think this won't apply to you because you're not Black? Well, considering the incoming federal administration's public statements, what happens if you appear to have Hispanic roots? What happens if you're one of the nearly 1 in 5 Americans who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community? What if you've made statements on social media that may appear supportive of the assumed motives of the assassin of a certain very wealthy healthcare CEO? What if you've simply expressed the view that, per the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, someone who actively encourages, aids, and defends the attempted violent overthrow of a democratically elected government should not be eligible to run for office?
Yes, sure, we're not going to see cheap bird-sized drones being deployed by police in the next couple of years. But the degree of surveillance that a person can potentially be under at any time is ever increasing, and this technology--while cool in a very abstract way--doesn't seem to have practical use cases which aren't part of the panopticon.
There's a lot left to do, but it's increasingly easy to envision a world where distinguishing a random bird from a surveillance drone requires a very close look.
The problem with the notion that this will merely be used by The Military(tm) is that in the United States there are actually more than 18,000 officially sanctioned militias (colloquially known as "police departments") which utilize some level of military hand-me-downs under the guise of protecting the public welfare. Though these militias are nominally regulated, they often end up skirting around the rules and laws regarding the use of surveillance techniques.
Now, it's easy enough to make the argument that only Very Bad People(tm) ever get targeted for surveillance by police, but it's even easier to debunk the argument by pointing to the near limitless examples of Black people being stopped by police for the unenumerated crime of Existing While Black.
Think this won't apply to you because you're not Black? Well, considering the incoming federal administration's public statements, what happens if you appear to have Hispanic roots? What happens if you're one of the nearly 1 in 5 Americans who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community? What if you've made statements on social media that may appear supportive of the assumed motives of the assassin of a certain very wealthy healthcare CEO? What if you've simply expressed the view that, per the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, someone who actively encourages, aids, and defends the attempted violent overthrow of a democratically elected government should not be eligible to run for office?
Yes, sure, we're not going to see cheap bird-sized drones being deployed by police in the next couple of years. But the degree of surveillance that a person can potentially be under at any time is ever increasing, and this technology--while cool in a very abstract way--doesn't seem to have practical use cases which aren't part of the panopticon.
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Evolution came up with an efficient design, engineers surprised. The point about rotary wing flight being inefficient would be the main motivation to use these things, but you'd still need flat open area for the take-off, so for most purposes giving a good toss would likely work just as well. Or just have some kind of spring-loaded launcher.
Cool idea, though, especially if they can figure out landing as well.
Cool idea, though, especially if they can figure out landing as well.
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Neat.
But definitely requires an extreme thrust/weight ratio to get into flight. I think V22 tilt rotor style would be more practical.
But definitely requires an extreme thrust/weight ratio to get into flight. I think V22 tilt rotor style would be more practical.
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Well in that case, thank you Jacek! I'm not sure I've read many of his articles yet but I'm very excited to see more based on this one.
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US police are a paramilitary organisation not local to the area they exert control over, with nearly no accountability to the civilian justice system & the authority to execute people on the spot as long as there's no footage that's too embarassing. I'm happy to include them in "military".
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Does it? If the drone had a TWR over 1 it could just take off vertically by tail-sitting, so the fact that they're using a jumping start suggests that the TWR is less than 1
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I’m impressed that they got even takeoff to work without flapping, which goes a long way towards getting the air moving over the wings. I wonder if distributed propulsion over the wings, along with blown flaps/wings could avoid the need for flapping on landing.
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I have my eyes on those Antarctic wall guards most people call penguins... and Emus are definitely HKs!
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Unfortunately, we are not in Laputa any more. Lionization, rather than hanging is our method of controlling our psychos, because it works so well.
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Yeah...I would have a hard time telling that it was a man made machine and not a biologic creature (also machines IMHO but several orders of magnitude more complex).
/s
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