TheDmel
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2013–2018
1:43 · 8.5M views · Jan 31, 2012
A short demo from the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania showing a swarm of nano quadrotors flying in coordinated formations. The vehicles were developed by KMel Robotics.
HN refers to it as the viral university video that showed what autonomous multicopter swarms can do and helped spark interest in multicopters.
4 comments from Hacker News
You are postulating a group that is willing to hijack an unmanned truck in order to steal the goods being delivered and doesn't mind the risk of being seen because they "have a bandana and shades on". Question: What is so special about an unmanned truck given that circumstance? Wouldn't it be at least as easy for a group like that to hijack a manned truck? Why don't the same gangs pull a gun on the UPS guy and take all his stuff? That would be in some ways easier than taking stuff from an unmanned delivery van. The unmanned van can go into lockdown mode and doesn't have a driver who can be threatened to make him give up the key to the back. The cost for any private party to send up their own monitor drones is coming down very quickly and will likely be insignificant by the time unmanned delivery vehicles are common. If one unmanned delivery car sends out a distress signal, other unmanned delivery cars in the area could release drones monitored by a local security firm to go see what's happening, follow the bad guys, and tell the cops exactly where they went. The sort of drones I'm talking about might look like this: this video (You can already get copters of that sort with at least a 10 minute battery range for a mere few hundred bucks.)
Have you ever tried to fly a quadcopter drone manually? It's really hard ; I could barely get one to hover, after hours of practice. Yet AI quadcopters that can fly in ornate formations and execute complex maneuvers are well known [1]. Don't discount what AI can or can't do just because it's hard for humans. Other advantages in ferries' favor; unlike most streets, the docks for autonomous ferries could be designed around the AI's capabilities. Also, ferries don't travel at 70 MPH. :) [1] this video (6-year-old video!)
Pun intended? Anyways, a university experiment video that went viral [0] is the first I recall seeing a quadcopter in action. Maybe the tipping point if you care to investigate further. [0]: this video
Here are some papers that might be useful for budding quadrotor hackers and pilots: [LINK] and a video made by that school: this video