Nanocopters, Smartbirds, and beyond

Hardly a week goes by without an amazing new robot video showing up on the web. After diligently watching well over a hundred of them, I’ve collected a number of videos that demonstrate the incredible capabilities of modern robotics. Think of this as a primer on awesome robot videos as well as a refresher on some of the most viral technology videos to hit the web recently.

Quadcopters are definitely cool, like the construction ‘copters we wrote about earlier this year. Nanocopters, though, bring awesomeness to a new level, with their maneuverability and dare I say cuteness. As robots go, they aren’t the smartest on their own — since they rely on nearby computers for high-level programming and in this case their vision — but as a system they are capable of some amazing stunts. These two quadcopters, shown in the ETH’s Flying Machine Arena in Zurich, can respond to the ball more quickly than a human pilot would be able to. To give you a better idea of what swarms of nanocopters are capable of, here is a video from the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP lab, featuring a variety of solo and “swarm” stunts.

However, if you think humans are about to let a bunch of plastic ‘bots take the formation crown, think again. These Japanese show that humans can perform in unison as well:

If you’d like to learn more about what it takes to program a swarm of nanocopters, there is an excellent TED Talk on the how to of building and programming nanocopters:

Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, robots indeed have their own version of silly kitty videos. Here the University of Pennsylvania’s swarm is programmed:

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