Flying Robot Bird Unveiled

mikejuk writes "Festo, well known for their biologically inspired robots, have a new creation called SmartBird. It is amazing to watch and all the more amazing when you realize that it flaps its wings and all of the control is via a torsion drive which twists the wings during each flap. The whole thing depends on the constant intervention of the software to keep it under control."

Comments

Wow, just wow. The uncanny valley extends ....

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

Well beyond humanoids.

It's so beautiful, interesting, and yet creepy in a way.

Humanity's advances in certain areas (like robotics) are amazing. The sad part is that we are way ahead in certain areas, but way behind in other three key areas:

a) Energy:

We still have to crack the energy issue. We lack both reliable ways to gather energy, and reliable ways to store it.

b) AI

We are still in diapers in weak AI, and not even started in strong AI.

c) Economy

We are still based on the stupid principle of scarcity. Until we realize that we can produce as much as we need of just about anything, and that we are limiting ourselves by creating artificial scarcity to keep alive a system that's been dead for a long time, we won't make that breakthrough into what we thought the year 2000 was going to be.