WOW: Flying robot "quadrocopters" juggle ball

By: Bailey Johnson
Topics

(CBS) - Robots have already bested humans at chess and Jeopardy. Now the next step on their road to robo-domination is, apparently, juggling. From Switzerland's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control comes this video of flying robots (quadrocopters) juggling a ball individually and in teams.

The quadrocopters in the video are operated by humans (for now.) They do, however, have on-board computers and are able to fly themselves if properly programmed. As humanity continues to propel itself towards the inevitable robot apocalypse, it's nice to know that our future machine masters will at least be able to keep us entertained.

Also, it is a pretty cool video. Check out how the quadrocopters work in the video below.

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by dice43 April 1, 2011 1:33 AM EDT: "The quadrocopters in the video are operated by humans (for now.) They do, however, have on-board computers and are able to fly themselves if properly programmed."

Wow, that's some fine reporting there (why yes, that is sarcasm)

Here's how this really works: There is a motion capture system (several cameras) at the ceiling of the testing area, which feed information about the robots positions back to computers. These computers control the robots. The onboard electronics are there to provide additional sensor information and to control the individual rotors of the copter. So no, these are not operated by humans, other then the fact that humans built them and programmed the computers.; Reply to this comment


by rccardude2011 March 30, 2011 9:47 AM EDT: OMG that is awesome i want one!!!; Reply to this comment


by jabailo March 29, 2011 11:14 PM EDT: "The quadrocopters in the video are operated by humans..."

Does that mean that my bicycle is an independently guided personal robot transportation system?; Reply to this comment