Posted on 03/15/2013 10:56:17 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Video: Watch an eagle-like drone grab objects mid-flight
AS IF being eyes in the sky weren't enough, drones are now getting arms and legs, too. With their newfound limbs they are learning to grab objects in mid-flight or even change a light bulb.
Inspired by the way a bald eagle swoops down to seize a fish from the water with its claws, Justin Thomas and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have developed a fast-acting, talon-like gripper for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
When the team studied the eagle's behaviour, they noticed that the bird employed a useful trick to buy more time to grab its prey. The eagle would sweep its legs and claws backwards as its talons closed on a fish, so there was no need to slow down.
The team have mimicked the eagle's strategy by attaching a 3D-printed, three-fingered claw to a 10-centimetre-long motorised leg. With the appendage fixed below its centre of mass, the drone can snatch a stationary object as it flies by.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
From the same lab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUeGC-8dyk
Just a coincidence that this was developed by...
GRASP Labs at the U. PA.
One of the original military goals of the Space Shuttle was to snag Soviet satellites and return them to earth in one orbit.
Almost every single one of my blue-collar buddies, who I grew up with, are and were extraordinarily apolitical, right up into middle age. They didn't vote. Irritated the heck out of me. What did they like? For the most part, they liked football, baseball, cars, trucks, guns, partying and women, not necessarily in that order. Oh, and some of them were church-going men. And that's about it. If you threaten to take their guns, they'll come out to vote. They did in 2000, in numbers barely sufficient to defeat Gore. But people like them did get the job done. I hope to high heaven they'll turn out in much greater numbers as the threat from gun grabbers ramps up, before confiscations begin, or who knows what's going to happen? Something a bit unpleasant, I'm sure.
I for one am looking forward to our new insect-like UAV overlords.
...he said as he wondered what sort of buckshot will work best
That is one hell of an expensive way to go duck hunting.
You read my mind. Can they grab #4, buckshot or slugs?
Heh, let’s call them ‘skeet’ ...
Soak ‘em in the seement pond for a week or two, marrynates ‘em in Granny’s spring tonic then roll ‘em out on the billyyard table! Yeah dogies, crunchy good vittles—yeeehaaaaa!
Jethro, don’t eat the antenna! Some day I gotta have a long talk with that boy ...
-— A drone grabbed my 48 oz. soda. ——
+1
Just about the right size for sporting clays practice. :-)
Lol, OMG, that’s hilarious, thx!
(Note to self: It does pay to re-read your threads so you don’t miss anything!)
Well, they’ll drone you when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll drone you just a-like they said they would
They’ll drone you when you’re tryin’ to go home
Then they’ll drone you when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get droned.
i actually started feeling this way under bush, when dhs was started and tsa made baggage handlers “officers”.
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