Here's a neat-but-creepy way to get an aerial drone to move at ground level: teach it to walk on its wings. That's what researchers from Switzerland's Lausanne Polytech are showing off: in the air, their prototype drone is a straightforward and familiar configuration, with a rear-facing propeller. On the ground, however, the …
It's like a cross between a terminator and a baby turtle.
TERMINURTLE!!! There's a movie ion there for Syfy!
Or a Turtlenator! :-D
Icon appropriate to discussion.
How'bout the MOD UAV in GRFS?
I for one welcome our limping multi-modal robotic overlords
At least one future TV show.
"And at 5am the robot drones abandoned after the Great Drone War of 2025 start their painful ambling walk down the beach, hoping to find their solar lifeline before they get picked off by curious humans hoping to cannibalise them for parts. "
Re: I predict..
I read that in the voice of David Attenborough
Can't take off again, though can it?
Looks like once it's down, it's down for good.
See also: http://www.bgobeyond.co.uk/video/
That one's more of a car that can fly than a fly that can walk, but has the same drop out of the sky and keep going sort of thing to it.
One has to ask, but why?........
If the plane is grounded the actual distance it may travel if it doesn't actually get stuck, on battery life will be small.So what is the point its not like its going to be able to relaunch itself or return to sender.
Re: One has to ask, but why?........
1. Fly onto roof.
2. Crawl into place behind chimney/statue/air-con out of sight.
3. Poke camera around concealment.
Flying takes a lot of power. A drone capable of landing and moving to a hiding place nearby could operate for days on battery power, even weeks with a few solar panels and a power-savings mode. Just the thing for a stake-out, monitoring the comings and goings of people at a building. Someone can always collect it for reuse later on.
Not wishing to be picky but.....
...You don't actually see the impact at .56 the drone moves out of shot just before it "lands", then the camera moves to pick it up on the ground. Probably the same drone....but who can be sure these days!
Re: Not wishing to be picky but.....
Just like I think there was only one General Lee (the car, not the general, obviously only one of them).
had this idea first, but the drone met it's match when Stanley H. Tweedle hit it - with some interesting side effects.
On the ground, the drone can manage 0.2 metres per second
That should make it easier for our red-necked cousins to shoot them.
They were SO close!
DALER – Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot
Seriously; would it have been THAT much trouble to call it a Deployable Air Land Exploration Kit?
Re: They were SO close!
Depends. Would the newer models be able to handle stairs?
We need a blue phonebooth icon.
Easy to kill with a well aimed Boot,
think of the savings in ammunition costs!
I'll upvote this...
... for introducing me to the word "whegs".
Of concern is that it apparently relies on having elephants on the wings.
That's a HUGE pile of cocaine.
Clearly this drone will be sent to Columbia to gather intel for the War On Drugs™.
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