Engineers at Caltech have developed a new control algorithm that enables a single drone to herd an entire flock of birds away from the airspace of an airport. The algorithm is presented in a study in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The project was inspired by the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” when US Airways Flight 1549…
No Motor, No Battery, No Problem
Engineers at Caltech and ETH Zurich have developed robots capable of self-propulsion without using any motors, servos, or power supply. Instead, these first-of-their-kind devices paddle through water as the material they are constructed from deforms with temperature changes. The work blurs the boundary between materials and robots. In the self-propelled devices, the material itself makes…
SPIDER Experiment Touches Down in Antarctica
After spending 16 days suspended from a giant helium balloon floating 115,000 feet above Antarctica, a scientific instrument dubbed SPIDER has landed in a remote region of the frozen continent. VIEW: Giant Helium Balloon Touches Down in Antarctica Conceived of and built by an international team of scientists, the instrument launched from McMurdo Station on New…