One day, drones won’t just fly by themselves: they’ll hunt in packs. Imagine a swarm of tiny, flying drones chasing after you, synchronising their movements to catch you in the most effective way possible. If you can’t imagine it, don’t worry: it’s already happened.
Devopled by the University of Pennsylvania and KMel Robotics, these nano quadrocoptershave been around for a little while. But now, the team of researchers has worked out how to get them to fly together in intricate patterns, and even squeeze though tight spaces without hitting each other. Each of the nano ‘copters is self-sensing: that means they can accurately position themselves and maintain balance through even the most complex of movements. This is not a movie. This is real life. Very, very terrifying real life.
The researchers keep the details on how they work close to their chests, for obvious reasons, so sadly there’s not much more we can say about them. Other than we want some. Especially if they can juggle, like these ones. [GRASP Lab — Thanks Patrice!]