Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Eye-bot Lands On Your Ceiling
The Eye-bot is a quadrotor UAV with a special feature; it can attach itself to the ceiling, resting in a perfect position for surveillance.
(Eye-bot V3 video)
The current version is Eye-bot-V3:
The system incorporates three levels of control, the low-level flight stability controller, middle-level autonomous controller and high-level guidance system (figure 4). The two lower levels are incorporated in a single printed circuit board which also contains 3D inertial sensing and connectivity for additional sensing. The guidance system is based on a custom developed (at the LSRO) i.MX31 floating point processor board running Linux.There are several onboard sensors to help the eye-bot navigate through an indoor environment and coordinate with other eye-bots (figure 5) including:
Sonar and pressure sensing for altitude control
Optical-flow for drift detection
Magnetometer for heading determination
360° infrared distance scanner for collision detection and navigation
Relative positioning sensor for swarm co-ordination and communication
Custom 360° pan-tilt 3MP camera system
The Eye-bot-V3 also has some interesting autonomous capabilities, including stable flight with leveling off, automatic take-off and landing, collision avoidance and anti-drift and, of course, autonomous ceiling attachment and detachment.
The Eye-bot-V3 was created by James F. Roberts and Timothy Stirling, supervised by Prof. Dario Floreano and Dr. Jean-Christophe Zufferey at the School of Engineering of the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne.
SF fans recall such early perching UAVs as that amazing fictional miniature flying machine, the Scarab Flying Insect Robot from the 1936 story by Raymond Z. Gallun.
I'd also mention the servo-optical stick-tight, a spy cell supported by rotary wings described by Jack Vance in his 1964 novel The Star King.
Read about other Stealthy, Persistent Perch and Stare UAVs and the Perching Autonomous Aircraft Perfects Prop Hang .
From The eye-bots at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems via Botjunkie.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/21/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 4 )
Related News Stories - (" Surveillance ")
FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.' - Pournelle and Niven, 1981.)
Perching Ambush Drones
'On the chest of drawers something was perched.' - Philip K. Dick, 1956.
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.' - Jack Vance, 1954.
LingYuan Vehicle Roof Drones Now Available, ala Blade Runner 2049
Accompanied by a small selection of similar ideas from science fiction.
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.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million
'The population of Castle Hagedorn was fixed...'
Project Silica Offers 'Long-Term' Digital Storage
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
Can 'Tactical Umbrellas' Shield One From Drones
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say?
A massive space borne lifeform from ST:TNG.
Garçon! A Menu For Artemis II, S'il Vous Plaît
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'
Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.
Rogue AI Replicated Itself
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
When AI Takes Its First Breath
Any suggestions?
Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners
Daytime version.
The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.'
Transporting Antimatter
'...drawing plans for the magnetic tongs and bed plates and relays.'
Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...'
