DFA: flying transformer robot

In cartoons and movies about transforming robots, the special joy of fans of this genre is the possibility of merging several robots into a single whole, possessing qualities that are qualitatively different than an individual robot. Of course, real robots, endowed with artificial intelligence, able to reason, defend and attack, are still far away. But the principle described above has already been put into practice. The Zurich development team has created several flying robots that can locate each other, and also assemble on the fly into a single aircraft.

The project is being developed by a joint group of researchers from IDSC and the Swiss Higher Technical School. Of course, this was not done without 3D printing: the casing of the robots was created using 3 printers. The case is hexagonal, and each robot is equipped with magnets, plus an engine with screws (of course, there is also a module that allows robots to locate each other).
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When robots fly by themselves, they act separately, moving as they have to. But they "are able" to gather in a single whole, moving then in the air, like a system. In addition, each element of the system determines the mode in which the own engine must operate at a specific point in time for the system to fly in a given direction. At the same time, the integrated system “knows how” and does not just fly.

The system is controlled either by an operator, using a joystick, or by means of external sensors, including GPS modules. Currently, the project is presented as a demonstration of the capabilities of a distributed flying system, and does not carry a practical goal. In the future, as developers hope, the principle underlying the project can be used for transport systems of a new type. It is worth noting that the work on the project of a distributed flying system was begun in 2008, and now we see excellent results:



via wired