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Fully Autonomous Flapping-wing MAV Is As Light As 4 Sheets of A4 Paper
Hallie Siegel writes "According to its developers, the DelFly Explorer is the first flapping wing Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) that is able to fly with complete autonomy in unknown environments. Weighing just 20 grams and with a wingspan of 28cm, it is equipped with an onboard stereo vision system. The DelFly Explorer can perform an autonomous take-off, keep its height, and avoid obstacles for as long as its battery lasts (~9 minutes). All sensing and processing is performed on board, so no human or offboard computer is in the loop."
I can fly when I'm only three sheets to the wind.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
This is very cool. They could probably sell tens of thousands to kids (like me) if they need money.
In anticipation of the coming holy war, may I fire the first nuke by stating categorically and unequivocally that metric paper sizes are the correct ones and everything else is stupid.
Sorry, it's just that I've always wanted to push that button.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
How much does it weigh in a sane unit like dynes?
They don't even say what weight paper they're using, so the mass could be off by an order of magnitude if you use the wrong one.
Knowledge Brings Fear
Looks like a project from MAKE Magazine.
Very cool, and I assume that in a few months I'll be able to buy this from a kiosk at the Mall.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
So, how much wind can they take before being hopelessly blown off course?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
20g, so that's 4 nickels according to how an old roommate weed dealer calibrated his scale.
How much does it weigh in a sane unit?
Approximately 4.3 nano-Libraries of Congress.
4 sheets of A4? How much is it in a sane unit?
We are talking about 2.75577828e-9 of a fully loaded jumbo jet! Wow, that's light!
If you need area, it's 0.0000152737 of a football field.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
20g, so that's 4 nickels according to how an old roommate weed dealer calibrated his scale.
...
Sure, AC. Sure.
We believe you, really! It was your, uh, "roommate" with the side-biz.
Fully Autonomous Flapping-wing MAV
WTF does its guidance have to do with its propulsion method...?! (Seriously, assholes [editors!]!)
Clearly you have very little imagination. Read the article and marvel on how much functionality that they can pack into one gram. This kind of fundamental experimentation will eventually lead to intelligent small flying machines.
Pssssh, get rid of all those silly metric units like Dynes and A4 paper. A large number of us here are in the good ol' US of A and hereby demand that this be rewritten in terms of Imperial or US customary units - how about sheets of Letter paper?
This was the first thing I thought of.
Okay... so maybe I'm the fan. Still found it hard to ignore that Delfly sounds like an abbreviated form of "Delta Flyer".
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Imperial, huh? Okay... If the measurement they gave in grams in the article was precise, you can take your pick of imperial measurement here... either 308.65 grains, 11.29 drams, 12.86 pennyweights, or 15.43 scruples.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
So, it can turn on, fly at a certain height, and avoid things - all for 9 minutes. I mean, yeah that's sorta cool how they utilize the stereo vision, and that it's got the ability to slow one if it's "wings" in order to avoid things. But it looks like it's only going to work indoors, with all fans off. Being that there's no way to control it, seems like it'd be less than entertaining, other than to present to an unsuspecting audience, like slashdot. Other than that, troll me into oblivion, I suspect it's lame.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
The ability to see, and transmit what it sees, is far from useless. I think that the poster to whom you responded nailed it with his first sentence.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Not sure I want anything fapping around my backyard, thank-you-very-much.
I don't knock their work ... :)
All that needs doing is adding a helium ballon with additional battery payload. As long as the entire system is neutrally bouyant, this could hover for hours, streaming video. Even follow its owner around... Kinda like the "kino" orb in the Stargate Universe TV series, but with wings :)
It cannot carry a real camera...
Define "real camera".
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I read that it was equipped with an on-board stereo system. That would be one funky bird.
a camera where a human can tell what it is seeing
Light the paper on fire and LET IT FLY!!!
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
"[To Robert Fulton:] What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."
-- Napoleon I
So say we all
After marvelling, compare with a housefly (or similar) to see how far behind we are in terms of technology.
"AI" (including basic prediction), navigation, collision avoidance, flight performance (including flight time, speed and range, acceleration/"gees"), location of fuel and raw fuel conversion tech, self-manufacture (including autonomous miner bot aka maggot and fly-factory - pupae), etc. All in a 12 milligram package (typical).
An unladen honeybee is about 80mg.
Also compare with the smallest bird in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_Hummingbird
Weighs about 2 grams (for the US folk that's less than half a nickel).
Indoors stereo vision is so hard that if the DelFly actually navigated by stereo vision, this alone would be truly groundbreaking. Especially given the limited processing power on this thing. However, judging by the papers publicly available, the actual collision avoidance on the DelFly seems to rely on optical flow, and complementary, a new model of texture analysis called "appearance variation cue". Both of which do not inherently rely on stereo vision. I might be missing something from the more current papers though.
Then yes, it can. The quality may not be HD, but you can still clearly see what it is seeing (and this video is to a "micro version" of the one being talked about in the article, so the 20cm one would likely be able to carry an even better camera).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I'm not sure. I can barely see anything.
An unladen honeybee is about 80mg.
Is that an African or European honeybee?
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.