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This week’s video comes from Festo, a company continuing its recent tradition of robotic concepts with FreeMotionHandling, an autonomous flying ‘gripping sphere’ coordinated by indoor GPS.
According to Festo, the indoor flying machine manoeuvres autonomously in any direction, independently picking up and delivering objects where they are needed.
The Esslingen, Germany-based company add that the machine’s handling system consists of a carbon ring with eight adaptive propellers; centred in the ring is a rotatable helium ball with an integrated gripping element.
The video shows FreeMotionHandling handling a bottle of water but Festo envisage a time when similar spherical concepts could transport people to work at height or in hard-to-access areas.
I’m sure the guy could just walk over and pick up the bottle – or is he somehow glued to the spot? A fantastic solution to a non-existent problem. Well done!
A large autonomous ball that could transport a human? The Prisoner anyone ?!
Presumably the helium sphere achieves neutral buoyancy in the atmosphere but it seems a very large sphere is needed to lift quite small items. How big a sphere would be needed to lift a bag of cement to the top floor of a building under construction?
In answer to Allen’s question 1m3 of helium will lift approximately 1kg. Not quite there but close enough as a first approximation
and the point is?
Of course there’s a use for it. Serving canapes at cocktail parties is just the start …