Appealing Innovation 3:Urban Automated Flight

This post is all about automated flight in urban environments. Although I would like to take this chance to put forth the idea of integrating these to concepts into one system. After all this is what innovation is all about seeing an idea and wanting to make it better.

The first is a spherical flying robot that flies in such an interesting manner I couldn't help but fall in love with the design. Hovering around the room in a manner that one could only associate it with science fiction.

The second is a system for automated flight in tightly confined urban environments the doesn't require GPS as a means of navigation.

First take a look at the video below which depicts the spherical flying robot developed by the Japanese Defense Ministry's Research Department.



Now let us take a look at the micro air vehicle developed by The Robust Robotics group at MIT. It flies without the assistance of external GPS or motion tracking.



Now let us take a quick moment and imagine these two concepts being integrated together and you have an autonomous robot that can travel just about anywhere and hover in place allowing it to scan an area. These two ideas put together would provide a highly mobile system that would have significant military applications and applications such as searching a disaster area for survivors without risking the lives of rescue workers.