Hasta La Ideas

Nano-copters work together to make music in this amazing video from TED

Professor Vijay Kumar from GRASP, the robotics laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, just wrapped up a fantastic TED Talk on his robotics work. Using custom-built quad rotor nano-copters, Kumar’s team demonstrated the agility, versatility and programmable awareness of these small drone-like devices. Kumar’s work is focused on creating robots that can work together to achieve a common goal or complete a task. Kumar closed his talk out with the first public viewing of a stunning video depicting his flying robots working in unison to perform a rendition of the James Bond theme music. Kumar’s work on the ability of robots to function as a team, both in making music and flying in formation has impressive implications for the future of functional robotic technology.