Aggresive quadrocopters fly through thrown hoops

[Deleted_171835]

Spoiler: Youtube Video

The future of humanity is assured. Assuredly doomed, that is. That blur you see up above is one of our familiar foes, the GRASP Lab's autonomous quadrocopter, flying through a thrown hoop without the assistance of a human director. Yes, it's downright insane that we're allowing this so-called research to continue our descent toward the robot uprising -- where's the FBI, the CIA, hell, why is DARPA sleeping on this thing? The lethal precision of these quadrotor helis doesn't end there, however, as they've now been enhanced with the ability to recover from "extreme" starting conditions. In simpler terms that just means you can toss one up into the air and it'll right itself into a steady hovering position. From where it can strike upon the unsuspecting and complacent humanoid populace. [/p]

Source

This is freaky stuff!

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Hello Skynet.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Hello Skynet.

beat me to it

 

[Gnargle]

Fucking manhacks. I fear for my life.

 

[worlok375]

Time to get to work on my EMP's.

 

[Goli]

Awesome... But kinda scary at the same time.

 

[Terminator02]

Imagine how loud that would be when it's 10x bigger, and then imagine a heat-seeking death gun

 

[Canonbeat234]

Lawlz this amazing and terrorist can put deadly gas inside them and attack us thinking its a toy heli...wait...

 

[NDStemp]

When it was flying in circles, it sounded like a swarm of bees.

 

[Forstride]

*Sees title* Oh...Awesome!
*Sees where it's being developed* OH SHIT THAT'S CLOSE!

I live in PA, and they're being developed at the University of Pennsylvania...The location of the place is in Philadelphia though, and I live in Pittsburgh...Well, I know what states going first when/if a fullscale model is developed and/if something goes wrong.

 

[Sephxus]

We're doomed!

 

[Slyakin]

Time to break out the hammers.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

I want one.

 

[Veho]

...yeah, we're doomed. Remember how we used to think we could outrun or outmaneuver or hide from the robotic drones sent to anally probe us? You know how in movies you can hide by ducking somewhere the killbots can't follow? Well these things fit anywhere your chubby ass can fit. It's like a electronic death bee.


[insert "horrible vengeance for making them jump through hoops" joke here]

 

[Slyakin]

...yeah, we're doomed. Remember how we used to think we could outrun or outmaneuver or hide from the robotic drones sent to anally probe us? You know how in movies you can hide by ducking somewhere the killbots can't follow? Well these things fit anywhere your chubby ass can fit. It's like a electronic death bee.


[insert "horrible vengeance for making them jump through hoops" joke here]

I thought you said "fit in your chubby ass".


:Vomit:

 

[Veho]

I thought you said "fit in your chubby ass".

You're just projecting your sunbonscious desires.


On a more serious note, I can't wait for a a) human-sized, and b) bee-sized version.

*drools

 

[Deleted User]

It definitely looks awesome, but somehow I want to hit this thing with a crowbar.

 

[Rayder]

OK, so I'm assuming this thing has got some kind of AI-assisted manual control, right? Or is it just that you have such phenomenal control over it that you can fly it through hoops? I mean, it's not supposed to be completely autonomous or anything, is it? The video is kinda vague on these points. They talk about trajectories, but not how they collaborate with manual control to gain these abilities.

 

[metamaster]

That is amazing. I'm sure that after the military has fully exploited this, it will be an expensive kids toy.

 

[Veho]

It's fully autonomous, and given a target (and, optionally, a set of checkpoints) it can calculate and follow an optimum trajectory and reach the target completely on its own, avoiding obstacles and compensating for outside interference like wind (or fly swatters). You tell it where to go, it gets there. In remote control mode, the AI stabilizes the drone, making it easier to operate.

The thrown hoop thing is slightly different. You tell the drone to fly through the hoop. Given the signal, the drone "looks" around, identifies the hoop, and flies through it, all by itself, and faster than any human controller could.

That is amazing. I'm sure that after the military has fully exploited this, it will be an expensive kids toy.

It's already been announced