Invasion of the Flying Robots

Name: Sameeha

Posting #2

Topic: Technology

Title of article: Invasion of the Flying Robots

Author: Richard Galant

Publication Name: CNN

Date of Publication: March 4, 2012

Length of article: 1286 words

Last week, at a TED talk in Long Beach, several speakers showed the audience the extremely technologically advanced robots that they invented. One speaker brought a robotic hummingbird that was able to fly around through the auditorium and another talked about a hypersonic plane that was capable of flying from New York to California in 11 minutes. One invention that was especially impressive was created by engineering professor Vijay Kumar, who showed a video of his robots called the "Autonomous Agile Aerial Robots." These tiny flying robots are capable of performing many intricate maneuvers, like flying through hoops and other confined spaces. Also, they are capable of working together to complete tasks without colliding or interfering with one another. When the robots are formed into a flotilla, they are able to calculate and adjust their distance from other robots as fast as a hundred times per second. One robot, that weighs about a tenth of pound is capable of hovering when its four rotors spin at the same speed. Adjusting the speed of each rotor can cause the robot to fly higher, tilt, and flip over, without losing its stability. These robots would be extremely useful to help us respond to structural collapses or fires. The robots cooperate to build simple structures and can therefore enter a building for the first time and construct a map that could help firefighters or other response teams to assess the damage.

These robots are amazing because they are going to have applications in the real world and make a difference in our everyday lives. They can be used in construction because they can fly into buildings and quickly produce a simple map of the building's structure, helping contractors to determine which parts of the building they need to tear down and which parts can remain standing. As I mentioned before, they can also be used to help respond to emergencies. Dealing with fires, earthquakes, collapsed buildings, and other dangerous situations can be made safer if humans can avoid going into the buildings themselves until they know which parts of the building are stable and which parts aren't.