OpenWarfare.org

[Via Engadget]

I have seen some pretty amazing autonomous maneuvers with standard helicopters.  I always assumed that quads should be capable of pretty crazy maneuvers but have never seen any.  Well the wait is over.  Check out the project page over at Daniel Mellinger’s UPenn site.  On a site note.  it looks like perching is going to be the new must have for MAV’s.

This is a very cool project out of Stanford. It is a MAV that can land on rough surfaces and hang there.  The possibilities that come with this capability are far reaching.  Recharging, hiding, surveillance and seeking refuge are just a few.  Put an eInk skin on its back, weaponize it and you have a nasty little urban MAV.

via DIY Drones

Here is a really cool demonstration of soft body robotics and locomotion using “jamming”.  As far as I can see they use a balloon filled with sand (kind of like those stress balls) and then suck the air out of it to make it maintain a more rigid shape. This seems like it would be fairly easy to replicate cheaply.

I remember seeing a demo of a delta robot a while ago and being very impressed.  I have seen them used on assembly lines to quickly sort and organise objects but there are loads of other applications.  I know of one company that uses a delta design for a tactile feedback capable interface device.  I wonder if this sort of device would be good for routing/drilling/cnc type work?  If you are interested in the maths behind this sort of design you can check out this pdf.

via Hackaday

This is kind of a goofy video at first glance but when you think about it it is pretty cool.  This guy rigged up his Easystar based UAV with a FPV camera and some model rockets and fireworks.  It looks like great fun, flying around and shooting rockets but scale this up a little bit and you could really do some damage.

Wow. As a taxpayer I wonder from time to time where all the money goes.  I’m guessign DAS took a fair chunk of it.  I think we sometimes forget just how far ahead we are in the arms race.  I see something like that and the size of that gap quickly becomes apparent.  What a cool system, I’d hate to go up against an F-35 with a 4G fighter.  I wonder how feasable it would be to create a DIY system that merges the output from 6 cheap CMOS cameras into a 360 degree view of the world…

I have always been a big fan of designs based on bugs.  Here is a new one that I founds at HackADay.  As you can see it really scoots right along.  It has pnuematic legs that are power by a master pump (I think).  I would love to see what kind of terrain it can handle.  You can see more at the projects page at Stanford.

I have to admin, it was a little weird to watch the a kid get dragged around by robots.  Oddness aside, this was a really cool demonstration of swarm technology.  I thing swarm/pack behavior is going to be a mainstay of military robotics.

I was browsing YouTube last night and I came across a video of a tail-less RC X-36 that seems to be using some gyros to keep itself stable.  It also looks like he is using movable electric props to emulate vectored thrust.  They have a project page here.

I’ve been busy so there have not been any updates in a little while.  Due to the holidays there probably won’t be any more until next week.  I just came across this video on Gizmodo and thought it was funny and interesting.  Enjoy.