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Nano Quadrotors Form Stephenson's Dog Pod Grid
Take a look at this video showing a swarm of about twenty nano quadrotors, presented by Daniel Mellinger and his colleagues Prof. Vijay Kumar and Alex Kushleyev.
(Nano Quadrotor swarm video)
In his 1995 novel The Diamond Age, science fiction author Neal Stephenson wrote about a similar swarm of devices tasked with surveillance and security - the dog pod grid:
Atlantis/Shanghai occupied the loftiest ninety percent of New Chusan's land area - an inner plateau about a mile above sea level, where the air was cooler and cleaner. Parts of it were marked off with a lovely wrought-iron fence, but the real border was defended by something called the dog pod grid - a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats...
(Read more about Stephenson's dog pod grid)
See also this video showing quadrotor robots with building skills.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/3/2012)
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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