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Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

csail.mit.edu

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Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#21

Post by eljimmy »

Strilanc wrote: post #12

Is... is the video intended to be a parody of something? It's like they took two shots of a drone turning slightly to avoid a tree in the middle of a field, and decided to hit it with a nuclear bomb of "MAKE IT FEEL MORE EPIC" in editing.

Yeah... I was expecting a drone to be weaving through a forest of trees. Not flying towards a single tree and maneuvering around it.

Still cool, but that music and editing was over the top.

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#22

Post by the8472 »

gherkin0 wrote: post #13
mmanfrin wrote: post #11

Compare to humans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBW8zoZUR4

That's a little misleading: the video has a "do you want to see the crashes" link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgrvrD_GOvg&feature=iv&src_v...

I'm sure the autonomous drone had a bunch of crashes too.

Flying with VR must be quite amazing anyway.

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#25

Post by nkozyra »

carb wrote: post #2

The video is too stylized for me. I would love for a more steady camera showcasing the drone avoiding obstacles as it flies around. The jump-cuts and music detract from the cool tech I want to learn about.

I just don't understand asking a human to run the camera drone.

Presumably there's more than one of these, have one follow and rely on the pace drone for positioning.

It was pretty hard to watch, but really watching sensing and localization applied in a 3D space is extremely cool.

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#26

Post by flashman »

kzhahou wrote: post #16

This does go a long way to explaining speeder bikes -- the human rider controls the gross movement, but the bike itself does obstacle avoidance. Otherwise, there's no way a regular stormtrooper could fly those through the thick forests of Endor.

Maybe you don't get to pilot a speeder bike unless you're somewhat Force-sensitive. I'm sure there's a continuum of Force-sensitivity between ysalamiri and Jedi Masters, with some humans just having great reflexes.

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#27

Post by keville »

kepano wrote: post #7

I guess I was expecting something more like this goshawk flying through a forest, but maybe it's too much to ask for :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM&start=100

Nice link. Makes you wonder what biomimicry might bring to drones in a couple of generations. Maybe in addition to a set of propeller motors, you could have a couple of servos running small deployable "fan-like fins" (or is that fin-like fans?) for fast maneuvering where just changing prop speed won't quite cut it.

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#28

Post by z2 »

The way the trees glow white in the plane view at 1:09 -- could they be using near infrared cameras or filters to help specifically with tree detection? Nowhere in the color video do the leaves look that bright. The paper doesn't seem to mention it though.

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-center/public_papers/Ba...

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#29

Post by paulftw »

nkozyra wrote: post #25
carb wrote: post #2

The video is too stylized for me. I would love for a more steady camera showcasing the drone avoiding obstacles as it flies around. The jump-cuts and music detract from the cool tech I want to learn about.

I just don't understand asking a human to run the camera drone. Presumably there's more than one of these, have one follow and rely on the pace drone for positioning. It was pretty hard to watch, but really watching sensing and localization applied in a 3D space is extremely cool.

maybe a camera drone would see the one in front as an obstacle and constantly try to turn away from it :)

Re: Self-flying drone dips, darts and dives through trees at 30 mph

#30

Post by bigiain »

rasz_pl wrote: post #19

in case you are wondering: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/robotics-center/public_papers/Ba... 20 watts, running on two ODROID-U3

Now I've got no idea where the $1,700 comes from - I was assuming it was ~$100 worth of typical rc flying wing, with $1500+ worth of cameras and computers on board...
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