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Festo's Drone Dragonfly Takes To the Air

Posted by samzenpus on from the little-flyer dept.

yyzmcleod writes "Building on the work of last year's bionic creation, the Smart Bird, Festo announced that it will literally launch its latest creation, the BionicOpter, at Hannover Messe in April. With a wingspan of 63 cm and weighing in at 175 grams, the robotic dragonfly mimics all forms of flight as its natural counterpart, including hover, glide and maneuvering in all directions. This is made possible, the company says, by the BionicOpter's ability to move each of its four wings independently, as well as control their amplitude, frequency and angle of attack. Including its actuated head and body, the robot exhibits 13 degrees of freedom, which allows it to rapidly accelerate, decelerate, turn and fly backwards."

24 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Off-Topic: Question about Slashdot by cheater512 · · Score: 2

    /dev/null

  2. Open loop control system? by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 1

    I was under the impression that a control system implies a closed loop or feedback mechanism i.e. a system that measures the current state, and decides an actuation mechanism to get to where it wants to go. Do they mean autonomous and non-autonomous modes instead?

    1. Re:Open loop control system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Probably not. It may mean that there's modes based on pre-programmed wing flap timings. It may also mean that there's hidden variables regarding the craft's real world state that the engineers have to guess at with sensors rather than know for certain.

    2. Re:Open loop control system? by Attila+the+Bun · · Score: 5, Informative

      I was under the impression that a control system implies a closed loop or feedback mechanism

      Feedback is a great way to stabilise a system, but it is not essential. A stepper motor - even a precise one, like the one in your watch - does not require readback from a position encoder to function. Digital audio amplifiers do not need negative feedback in order to achieve proper linearity, like analogue amplifiers do.

      Sometimes it is desirable to do without feedback. The auto-focus mechanism in a professional camera operates without feedback in order to work at the highest possible speed. The lens motor and AF sensor are carefully calibrated so that focus is achieved in a single measurement-movement cycle. This is faster than making multiple measurements, which requires the lens motor to be stopped during each measurement. Feedback is only used to confirm autofocus success, and trigger a second attempt in case of failure.

    3. Re:Open loop control system? by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 1

      But if you don't have feedback, what do you mean by a 'control-system'? An open loop control system would be like a look-up table or something: decide apriori what you want to do, and then apply the pre-computed action without any measurements or correction system. But then, there really isn't a control-system, because it doesn't account for errors (the only way to know if there are errors is via measurements, which constitutes feedback).

      For such a complex system, I'd be very surprised if they are doing open-loop actuation.

  3. Danny Dunn Lives! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Patent trolls take note - 40 year old prior art.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  4. Re:Off-Topic: Question about Slashdot by ThePhilips · · Score: 2

    You of course meant the /dev/zero.

    /dev/null is only good for writing into.

    --
    All hope abandon ye who enter here.
  5. And according to the pictures by Hentes · · Score: 1

    it's made out of Lego.

  6. Another triumph from Festo by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    Very nice. Festo, which is a German industrial robotics firm, does a technical tour de force every year. They built a robotic bird two years ago. In 2009, they built a robot penguin" which swims beautifully.

    Festo does this to sell their industrial robotics systems, which are very well made.

    1. Re:Another triumph from Festo by Moofie · · Score: 3, Informative

      The power tools built by their subsidiary are works of art.

      http://festoolusa.com/

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  7. Great target for the by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1

    Bug-A-Salt

  8. that band name by Jericho+Whiplash · · Score: 1

    13 Degrees Of Freedom - great name for a band

  9. That's one big dragonfly by damn_registrars · · Score: 2

    63cm wingspan? I don't know where this inventor is from, but I've never seen a live dragonfly with a wingspan anywhere near that.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:That's one big dragonfly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's about right for prehistoric dragonflies.

    2. Re:That's one big dragonfly by Longjmp · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, you haven't seen one, but they existed.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

      --
      There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
  10. It's not *where* they're from, by ridgecritter · · Score: 1

    it's *when*!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

  11. Danny Dunn Invisible Boy by sanman2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I read that book in my childhood - great to see it finally come to real life!

    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/727375.Danny_Dunn_Invisible_Boy

    Makes me shudder to think how many other sci-fi stories from childhood will come to real life.

    1. Re:Danny Dunn Invisible Boy by sanman2 · · Score: 1

      Here's more:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn,_Invisible_Boy

    2. Re:Danny Dunn Invisible Boy by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Makes me shudder to think how many other sci-fi stories from childhood will come to real life.

      See also, http://www.technovelgy.com/

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  12. Gimme a flock with frickin "lasers" on their heads by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

    ...and I'll rule the frickin world.

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  13. Helicopter Problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It should be noted that while helicopters can do all of these things, it really isn't that good at it. Hovering is actually quite a stress inducing activity, and most helicopters will completely avoid this as much as possible. This could in theory create a viable alternative that could be run with a simple up/down, turn, and movement interface.

  14. Re:Off-Topic: Question about Slashdot by camperdave · · Score: 3, Funny

    /dev/null is only good for writing into.

    Yes, thus answering the question "Who am I supposed to contact to whine about the new vote up/down buttons on stories?".

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  15. Re:Collective Pitch by camperdave · · Score: 4, Informative

    While angle of attack is accurate in describing rotor action, it's more commonly used to describe the angle at which a craft's nose cuts into the wind to offset the angle of sideslip in determine a heading.

    I've never heard angle of attack described that way. It's always described as the angle of the chord of the wing relative to the direction of the airflow - the pitch of the wing, not the yaw of the aircraft.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  16. How robust in windy conditions? by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

    "With a wingspan of 63 cm and weighing in at 175 grams..."

    Would it not just be blown all over the place?