Thursday, 17 September 2015

Building a rope bridge with flying machines


Building a rope bridge with flying machines in the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena.


The video shows quadrocopters autonomously assembling a rope bridge. This is part of a body of research in aerial construction, a field that addresses the construction of structures with the aid of flying machines.

In this work, a rope bridge that can support the crossing of a person is built by quadrocopters, showing for the first time that small flying machines are capable of autonomously realizing load-bearing structures at full-scale and proceeding a step further towards real-world scenarios. Except for the required anchor points at both ends of the structure, the bridge consists exclusively of tensile elements and its connections and links are entirely realized by flying machines. Spanning 7.4 m between two scaffolding structures, the bridge consists of nine rope segments for a total rope length of about 120 m and is composed of different elements, such as knots, links, and braids. The rope used for these experiments is made out of Dyneema, a material with a low weight-to-strength ratio and thus suitable for aerial construction. Of little weight (7 g per meter), a 4 mm diameter rope can sustain 1300 kg.

The vehicles are equipped with a motorized spool that allows them to control the tension acting on the rope during deployment. A plastic tube guides the rope to the release point located between two propellers. The external forces and torques exerted on the quadrocopter by the rope during deployment are estimated and taken into account to achieve compliant flight behavior. The assembly of the bridge is performed by small custom quadrocopters and builds upon the Flying Machine Arena, a research and demonstration platform for aerial robotics. The arena is equipped with a motion capture system that provides vehicle position and attitude measurements. Algorithms are run on a computer and commands are then sent to the flying machines via a customized wireless infrastructure.

In order to be able to design tensile structures that are buildable with flying robots, a series of computational tools have been developed, specifically addressing the characteristics of the building method. The design tools allow to simulate, sequence, and evaluate the structure before building.

The location of the scaffolding structure is manually measured before starting the construction. The primary and bracing structure can then be realized without human intervention. Before realizing the stabilizers, the locations of the narrow openings of the bridge are measured and input to the system, which adapts the trajectories accordingly.

Just a Donkey In A Hammock


August 10, 2015 - Gôiania, GO, Brasil
Let me introduce to you Leo the Donkey!

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

1 Question That Reveals a Narcissist: "The Science of Us" Episode 9


Ever wonder if that self-involved friend of yours might actually be a diagnosable narcissist? Turns out you might be able to by asking him or her a single question.

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Arm wrestling: Devon Larratt vs. Hafthor Bjornsson (Game of Thrones The Mountain)


See The Mountain from Game of Thrones go up against WAL Heavyweight Champion Devon Larratt (an ESPN professional arm wrestler half his weight). The outcome is crazy!

Friday, 11 September 2015

Donald Trump Interviews Himself In the Mirror


Before his interview with Jimmy Fallon, Donald Trump interviews his "reflection" in the mirror.

Thursday, 10 September 2015

5 Amazing Movie Endings That You've Never Seen

5 Amazing Movie Endings 
That You've Never Seen

Top 5 Alternate Endings That Could Have Drastically Changed Movies! The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I Am Legend, Terminator 2 and more!

Writing a movie is a tough task, and arguably the hardest part of that is coming up with a memorable ending to your story. When everything in the film has been leading up to this one final moment, you need to deliver the goods or it’s going to derail the project before it even hits theatres. Sometimes the script will go through a few revisions, leaving some tantalizing conclusions that never see the light of day. Here are Screen Rant’s 5 Amazing Movie Endings That You’ve Never Seen.

Insults Around The World


Watchcut sent their producer Blaine around the world to learn bad words from locals.