Nanocopters, though, bring awesomeness to a new level, with their maneuverability and dare I say cuteness. As robots go, they aren’t the smartest on their own — since they rely on nearby computers for high-level programming and in this case their vision — but as a system they are capable of some amazing stunts. These two quadcopters, shown in the ETH’s Flying Machine Arena in Zurich, can respond to the ball more quickly than a human pilot would be able to.
To give you a better idea of what swarms of nanocopters are capable of, here is a video from the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP lab, featuring a variety of solo and “swarm” stunts.
However, if you think humans are about to let a bunch of plastic ‘bots take the formation crown, think again. These Japanese show that humans can perform in unison as well:
If you’d like to learn more about what it takes to program a swarm of nanocopters, there is an excellent TED Talk on the how to of building and programming nanocopters:
Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, robots indeed have their own version of silly kitty videos. Here the University of Pennsylvania’s swarm is programmed to play the theme from James Bond:
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