Drones | World Tech Today

Drones are the next big things in the technology space as the market is finding new buyers year-over-year. It’s always a good look to navigating a drone with a controller in hand, but what if we could do it with the power of our brain?

Tekever, a company, based in Portugal, demonstrated the technology recently, and we have to say it is quite impressive. Not yet perfect, but what is most important here is that it works. The company claims the technology could be used to help disabled person’s control an aircraft.

The long term plan is to allow for the piloting of larger jets and cargo planes without the need of a crew onboard. As expected, the company believes the industry would not accept such a technology, and rightfully so. A pilot who is remotely controlling an aircraft via his or her brain filled with hundreds of passengers is not a good idea.

We’re not saying it the technology could not be used for such things, but a pilot who is remotely controlling a passenger plane will not experience the dangers of doing so first-hand.

“We believe people will be able to pilot aircraft just like they perform everyday activities like walking or running,” said Ricardo Mendes, Tekever’s chief operating officer.

“We truly believe that Brainflight represents the beginning of a tremendous step change in the aviation field, empowering pilots and de-risking missions, and we’re looking forward to deliver these benefits to the market with highly innovative products.”

At the end of the day though, we have to admit to ourselves that unmanned jets will come to fruition, but a pilot will not control them remotely. In due time, jets will be able to fly automatically from one destination to the other, and we doubt any amount of protest will be able to stop what technology companies will call progress.

The year 2014 can be considered as the robotic year as we have seen a number of robots. We have witnessed robots that can walk on the ground, fly through the air, and even float on or dive under the water. We even have observed robots hitting the surface of Mars. The common thing with all these robots or drones is that they can do just one thing. So the requirement at this point is we need robots that can do more than one of these things.

Latest study published in Bioinspiration and Biometrics has now challenged the norm. A team headed by Ludovic Daler has designed a robot that is a replica of the vampire bat and can use its wings for flight and for walking. The name assigned to the project is Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot (DALER).

The DALER Project

The DALER is being designed as a mutual project between NCCR, EPFL and LIS Robotics. The primary objective of the machine is to deal with search and rescue operations. The DALER uses a foldable actuator, which allows its wings to fold into a small space and then rotate around a pivot that attaches the wheel-legs to the body.

The design mechanism initially was quite typical as the team had to choose a primary technique of locomotion (in this case flight), and then look for a way to allow the robot to walk without adding up any extra weight. Reason being the extra weight would interfere with its primary method of movement.

The team also had to solve the problem of upholding most favorable center of mass for both flying and walking. In short, they had to make sure that after the DALER reallocated from one mode to the next one it had the accurate equilibrium for the next activity, walking or flying.

In tests, the DALER obtained maximum speeds of 20 m/s in the air and 6 cm/s second while walking.

New technology to let users control Drones through Brainwaves

The Vampire bat Robo drone DALER can walk and fly autonomously