Name: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters
Uploaded: 2013-06-11T19:44:05Z
Duration: 15 min 54 s
Description: In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D'Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D'Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together -- and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.

Nonlinear quadrocopter attitude control

A platform for aerial robotics research and demonstration: The Flying Machine Arena

A flying inverted pendulum

Stability and control of a quadrocopter despite the complete loss of one, two, or three propellers

Adaptive fast open-loop maneuvers for quadrocopters

A computationally efﬁcient algorithm for state-to-state quadrocopter trajectory generation and feasibility veriﬁcation

Cooperative quadrocopter ball throwing and catching

Admittance control for physical human-quadrocopter interaction

Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D'Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D'Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together -- and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.

Quadcopters can now perform feats once reserved for athletes, like balancing poles, catching balls, and even flying with damaged propellers. Their agility comes from algorithms that use physics and control theory to learn and adapt, allowing these machines to make split-second decisions and recover from unexpected setbacks. In one demonstration, a quadcopter adjusted its moves every 20 milliseconds to hit a flying ball, showing how machines can master athletic skills through rapid calculation and practice. By combining machine athleticism with human gestures, new forms of collaboration and interaction are emerging.