Insect-Inspired Flying Robot Handles Collisions And Keeps Going

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Insect-Inspired Flying Robot Handles Collisions And Keeps Going

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday October 30, 2013 @03:33AM from the great-for-robo-dodgeball dept.

Sabine Hauert writes "GimBall is a new flying robot that can collide with objects seamlessly. Generally, flying robots are programmed to avoid obstacles, which is far from easy in cluttered environments. Instead, researchers from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL believe that flying robots should be able to physically interact with their surroundings. Take insects: they often collide with obstacles and continue flying afterwards. Their robot uses a passively rotating spherical cage to remain stable even after taking hits from all sides. This approach enables GimBall to fly in the most difficult places without complex sensors."

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Insect like? by DougOtto · 2013-10-30 03:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

When I read "insect like robot" I don't expect it to be the size of a basketball. Thankfully, insects aren't that big where I live.

--
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
1. Re:Insect like? by decipher_saint · 2013-10-30 03:46 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yeah, I feel a bit swindled
  "Flying Death Sphere" would have gotten me to click just as well
  
  --
  crazy dynamite monkey
2. Re:Insect like? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2013-10-30 03:51 · Score: 1
  
  Who cares. All flying shit is cool!
3. Re: Insect like? by pollarda · 2013-10-30 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  The final version will probably be about the size of a Quidditch.
4. Re:Insect like? by Wycliffe · 2013-10-30 03:56 · Score: 2
  
  When I read "insect like robot" I don't expect it to be the size of a basketball. Thankfully, insects aren't that big where I live.
  Relative size isn't as important to be insect-like. Aliens from movies like Stormship Troopers are definitely insect-like but I
  don't consider a robot encased in a round cage to avoid damage as anywhere close to "avoid damage like an insect".
  I've never seen an insect with a protective round cage. I'm pretty sure they have other ways of minimizing damage.
5. Re:Insect like? by decipher_saint · 2013-10-30 03:59 · Score: 2
  
  I don't know, the monkey-propelled variety is kind of warm...
  
  --
  crazy dynamite monkey
6. Re:Insect like? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:02 · Score: 1
  
  I've never seen an insect with a protective round cage.
  Armadillidiidae, just saying.
7. Re:Insect like? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2013-10-30 04:06 · Score: 1
  
  I stand corrected.
8. Re:Insect like? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:11 · Score: 0
  
  you obviously don't live in Florida
9. Re:Insect like? by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  What exactly do you think an exoskeleton is?
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
10. Re: Insect like? by gstoddart · 2013-10-30 04:20 · Score: 1
  
  The final version will probably be about the size of a Quidditch.
  Pitch? Player? Fan? Broom? Arena? Quaffle? Bludger? Snitch?
  
  --
  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
11. Re:Insect like? by dpilot · 2013-10-30 04:40 · Score: 1
  
  So do you call them "pillbugs" or "rolly polies"?
  
  --
  The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
12. Re:Insect like? by Nidi62 · 2013-10-30 04:41 · Score: 2
  
  Looks kind of like a prototype version of the target Luke Skywalker used to practice with his lightsaber in Episode IV. Just stick some lasers on it.
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
13. Re:Insect like? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:55 · Score: 0
  
  Roly-polies of course ^^
14. Re:Insect like? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 05:29 · Score: 0
  
  Perhaps the Excalibur program can realize this dream! The robots should be shooting, with lasers, anything it hits in a fiery rage.
15. Re:Insect like? by SleazyRidr · 2013-10-30 06:59 · Score: 1
  
  They're slaters.
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
16. Re: Insect like? by magic+maverick+ · 2013-10-30 08:18 · Score: 1
  
  Mod parent down, has obviously read too many bad books.
  
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  HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
17. Re:Insect like? by Wycliffe · 2013-10-30 08:57 · Score: 1
  
  I've never seen an insect with a protective round cage.
  Armadillidiidae, just saying.
  Yes, they have a shell but they don't fly and they don't move while a ball and more to the point
  are nothing like the robot in a cage that this article references. The robot in this article is more
  akin to a bumper car than any insect I've ever seen.
18. Re:Insect like? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 17:28 · Score: 0
  
  Just double or triple the oxygen level where you live, wait for few million years and you got giant bugs.
Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 03:39 · Score: 3, Interesting

Hey researchers, a toy company beat you to market.
1. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by fldsofglry · 2013-10-30 03:48 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  err...not quite: http://youtu.be/yy63Cn7WVbU?t=31s
2. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:14 · Score: 0
  
  it's just a flying Sphero http://www.gosphero.com/
3. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:46 · Score: 0
  
  The difference is that they study the concept and publish the results. A company in China slaps together a few pieces of plastic, cashes the money and moves on. Robotics research is nowadays not so much about making new hardware, but about making new algorithms or like this finding ways of avoiding making complicated algorithms, which as usual with AI interacting with real-life environments are notoriously unreliable. Of course, the science part in here is that they have to analyze how well does it work as compared to other approaches. They have to show some numbers, as opposed to anecdotal evidence and a youtube video.
4. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 07:32 · Score: 0
  
  http://phys.org/news/2012-11-illinois-robotics-lab-hytaq-air.html
  There's probably more out there.
5. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Dr_Terminus · 2013-10-30 10:23 · Score: 2
  
  Or even better, one from 2011 which can fly and roll on the ground http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA
6. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Hentes · 2013-10-30 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  The advancement is not the cage but that it can rotate freely. That's what allows the robot to continue flying after a collision.
7. Re:Beat To Market By a Toy Company by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 18:55 · Score: 0
  
  Hey EPFL,
  http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/video-japans-new-ball-shaped-drone-wows-crowds-tokyo
  The Japanese have been researching that setup for years, sure a gimbal is cool, but the Japanese one flies horizontally. I want to see the video of it bouncing into trees and continuing--this video is too much a sales pitch.
Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 03:50 · Score: 0

The 30 dollar RC helicopters at Wal*Mart already have a plastic cage around them so they hit walls and such without snapping the rotors off.
This doesn't seem all that different to me, aside from an outer cage on bearings. So what's the big deal?
1. Re:Am I missing something? by pahles · 2013-10-30 04:03 · Score: 2
  
  Does your 30 dollar RC helicopter fly autonomously in a given direction, while bouncing against trees in a forrest?
  
  --
  Sig?
2. Re:Am I missing something? by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  I saw nothing in the videos leading me to believe these weren't rc controlled. You can even see a the small orange 4 channel receiver on the supposed bot.
  
  Why does an autonomous robot need a 4 channel receiver, unless it's being flown by a pilot?
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
3. Re:Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:45 · Score: 1
  
  About one minute into the video: "we just gave it a magnetic direction and without any obstacle avoiding technique it was capable of flying several hundreds of meters while encountering several collisions".
4. Re:Am I missing something? by Hizonner · 2013-10-30 04:47 · Score: 2
  
  You mean other than the part where the guy directly says that it's flying autonomously with nothing but a compass direction?
  Maybe it needs a radio because they sometimes fly it remotely?
5. Re:Am I missing something? by Kenoli · 2013-10-30 05:12 · Score: 2
  
  The 30 dollar RC helicopters at Wal*Mart already have a plastic cage around them so they hit walls and such without snapping the rotors off.
  This doesn't seem all that different to me, aside from an outer cage on bearings. So what's the big deal?
  A fixed cage can protect from damage, but does little to prevent crashes, since collisions will still affect the orientation of the rotor.
  
  I saw nothing in the videos leading me to believe these weren't rc controlled. You can even see a the small orange 4 channel receiver on the supposed bot.
  Why does an autonomous robot need a 4 channel receiver, unless it's being flown by a pilot?
  How they're controlled isn't relevant. The point is that collisions don't interrupt their flight.
6. Re:Am I missing something? by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  No sound I couldn't hear that.
  
  I stand corrected.
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
7. Re:Am I missing something? by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  98% of obstacles yes, but there are still obstacles that will bring it down regardless.
  
  A nice pointy stick from that forest would, like the gnarled trunk they dodged.
  
  Anything small enough to penetrate the sphere and break the prop will bring it down.
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
8. Re:Am I missing something? by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 05:46 · Score: 1
  
  I've got a few rc planes, that once in the air I can turn the transmitter off and they are capable of flying several miles without input, barring collisions of course.
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
9. Re: Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 09:01 · Score: 0
  
  Ok, so when your RC plane can do it WITH collisions and WITHOUT ending up going in some totally wrong direction after recovering from the first collision, come back and tell us about it.
Any more.... by sjwt · 2013-10-30 03:51 · Score: 0

Could this be anymore misleading.. Can maybe editors use an ounce of brain power before approving these?
Or as I sadly expect the case to be, at lest force advertisers to not make such crapy posts.
Maybe it should be titled "Forcefield protects Super AI Military bot, buy one yourself"

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1. Re:Any more.... by Laxori666 · 2013-10-30 04:28 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know what people are getting upset about. It does resemble an insect in the way it flies. You never seen a fly repeatedly bash itself into a glass pane?
2. Re:Any more.... by timeOday · 2013-10-30 04:39 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Jesus you whiny babies! This thing is cool, it does something new. Quit nitpicking whatever analogies somebody decided to apply to it (insects) or whatever preconceptions you're bringing for no reason at all (autonomy, slashvertisements). Either post a video of a different aircraft pushing its way through ferns and a maze of ceiling joists, or quit bitching... what it does is really neat!
3. Re:Any more.... by shipofgold · 2013-10-30 10:12 · Score: 1
  
  Looks just like an insect in the way it flies....could it be miniaturized? Most likely...
  The innovation is that it can get from point A to point B autonomously in an environment that most other flying objects can't. Using this tech I don't think it would be difficult to let this thing loose at Wall street with instructions to get to the Empire State Building.
  Pretty cool indeed. The weak minds are the ones that don't get it....
4. Re:Any more.... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 19:06 · Score: 0
  
  But researchers nit pick everything that's why they're researchers. So it's fair.... Why?
  This video is to take credit before any publication (if ever accepted), edited to be a sales pitch for some MBA to license the IP cause 'it's cool', and shows the basics of the system, but not the facts stated: bouncing off trees in the forest or how it actually "mimicks" insects. Hey where''s the hovering at least? This has been the approach for most research video as of late. Likely from publication pressures and a lot of grad teams trying to get VC attention to "start the next google".
  It's cool, but this video has some vapor smells to it.
The news here by tech.kyle · 2013-10-30 03:53 · Score: 2

I believe the news here is that it doesn't veer off in funny, hard to predict directions when it bumps in to something. Yes, toy companies have cages around their flying RC offerings, but having that fling thing be able to maintain stability is new. Check the video at ~48 seconds in.

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Space Sample Collection? by Tablizer · 2013-10-30 03:58 · Score: 1

Maybe this can be combined with other NASA collision technology for a fast-paced sample return mission.

--
Table-ized A.I.
"whifflebug" also a suitable name by Thud457 · 2013-10-30 03:59 · Score: 1

HOLY SHIT! Exactly how hard are these things bouncing off of stuff? They could just as well go through the walls!

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the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
bap. bap. bap. bap. bap. by Thud457 · 2013-10-30 04:03 · Score: 3, Funny

That's pretty big. It's going to be pretty annoying repeatedly bouncing off your daughter's window.

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the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Incorrect by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 04:14 · Score: 1

From all the videos they've posted all their devices are operated by a remote and pilot, this would make them little more than RC aircraft, nothing they've posted shows anything autonomous flight.

Big difference between an rc and an autonomous robot.

--
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
1. Re:Incorrect by Plazmid · 2013-10-30 04:20 · Score: 2
  
  Except the part in the video where they have it go in a constant direction in a forest using on board magnetometers.
2. Re:Incorrect by g0bshiTe · 2013-10-30 05:51 · Score: 0
  
  I've seen people do this with quads, what's the difference?
  
  RC's these days can be outfitted with auto pilots.
  
  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__37328__HKPilot_Mega_V2_5_Flight_Controller_USB_GYRO_ACC_MAG_BARO.html
  
  Still I see this as being little more than an RC with a crash frame.
  
  --
  I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Correction by jovius · 2013-10-30 04:15 · Score: 1

Drunkard-Inspired Flying Robot Handles Collisions And Keeps Going
All fun and games by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:16 · Score: 0

Until someone is hit in the eye
Oblig LEXX: The Dark Zone by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 04:39 · Score: 0

Bugman... Activated!
Bugman... sear..ching. Thodin.
Bugman... maalfunction, Thodin.
Bugman... re..activating. Thodin.
Target... conduit... located. Thodin.
Seamlessly? by wonkey_monkey · 2013-10-30 05:21 · Score: 1

GimBall is a new flying robot that can collide with objects seamlessly.

I do not think that means what you think it means.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
stuck on stick by jklovanc · 2013-10-30 05:32 · Score: 1

That method works great for obstacles that can not pass through the holes in the cage. What happens if the robot flies onto a stick end on? It will pass through the hole and may damage the inner workings. Sure the holes can be made smaller but then that increases weight and interferes with air flow.
This is a great assassination tool! by Simonetta · 2013-10-30 06:03 · Score: 1

This is a great assassination tool! Make it strong enough to carry a small anti-personnel bomb. Say for example a wad of C4 explosive about the size of a walnut surrounded by B-Bs or small ball bearings. Use the camera to get it close to your target. Use the novelty value of the device as a way to allow it to get close to the person who needs killing. Then when within range, BOOM! using a radio controlled detonator.
Think: " Black Sunday " (a 1976 film with Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller about a massive terrorist attack on the NFL SuperBowl) using this device focused on an individual instead of the Goodyear blimp.
I'm a German-American blond male. Of course, I think like this.
I for one... by zingfodd · 2013-10-30 06:06 · Score: 1

...welcome our new benevolent bouncy flying rulers.
Quidditch anyone? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 06:08 · Score: 0

Sounds like a golden snitch to me... all we need now is to beef it up and make a bludger and we're golden.
Manhacks? by nawid.karim · 2013-10-30 06:54 · Score: 1

Add a saw-blade and a bright red light, and this thing could pass as one.
Insect inspired?? by AC-x · 2013-10-30 07:42 · Score: 1

I was expecting some kind of ornithopter with flexible wings, how is this insect inspired? I don't remember any insects that fly around encased in a rotating sphere...
Nice post by azhar5012 · 2013-10-30 07:47 · Score: 1

Thanks for this useful post
Hell of a ride. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-30 12:16 · Score: 0

I'd pay good money to someone who'd scale this up and let me ride around in it.