#drones

#drones

The Beauty Of High-Rise Architecture, In Photographs The towering structures that loom over us during our walk around the busy city can look similar and bleak. With some of them opting for glass windows and minimal designs on their architecture, we might think that they’re all just bland– but not really!Photographer Chris Hytha decided to document historic high rises to show the different artworks that can be found atop a structure’s spire. Additionally, there is creativity and art involved in the choice of a building’s gilding and signage, which differentiates it from the rest of the city skyline.His initial idea to complete this project was to photograph them from adjacent rooftops, but it proved to be challenging. He then turned to the next idea on his list: photographing from a helicopter with a telephoto lens. This too proved challenging as the costs of renting helicopters were far too expensive for his budget. In the end, he decided to take the photos via drone photography. While he encountered issues with his drone, such as its low resolution, Hytha found a way eventually to solve them. “The high-rise images are created by scanning the building façade with images at each floor level, then manually stitching the series of landscape images into one vertical composition,” he shared. “This technique is time-consuming but well worth it for the extra sharpness and resolution it provides! One of the side effects of this method is the flattening of perspective, making the images almost like an orthographic architectural elevation.”Image credit: Chris Hytha via My Modern Met #photography #drones #dronephotography #highrise #art  

Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM): Flying 3D Printing Drones Inspired by Bees and WaspsDon’t fret! This swarm is just here to build some structures.Experts from the Imperial College of London have developed a new kind of drone that can actually print 3D materials while flying in mid-air. The flying robots were created with the collective building methods of bees and wasps in mind. These drones make up a system called Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM), where all of them work together to create something. There are two different kinds of robots in the said system.The first is called BuilDrones and is in charge of depositing materials during their flight. The second kind is called ScanDrones which measures the BuilDrones’ output and directs them to what they would do next. The researchers, led by professor Mirko Kovac of the college’s Department of Aeronautics, believe that the Aerial-AM’s in-flight 3D printing capabilities will be of great use for the construction industry. These drones will be perfect for building in difficult-to-access areas, such as tall buildings or even locations that got devastated by natural disasters. “We’ve proved the concept that drones can work autonomously and in tandem to construct and repair buildings, at least in the lab. This scalable solution could help construction and repair in difficult-to-reach areas, like tall buildings,” professor Kovac stated. Image credit: Yusuf Furkan KAYA, Aerial Robotics Laboratory of Imperial College London#robots #drones #3DPrinting #AerialAM #ImperialCollegeLondon #construction #manufacturing #technology #robotics #aeronautics 

Walmart Partners with Zipline, a Drone Company, to Test Possible Drone Delivery ServiceBentonville, Arkansas — Walmart has recently partnered with the medical product delivery company Zipline for a new service: a drone delivery system that will deliver select Walmart health and wellness products right into the customer's doorstep. Like Walmart pick-up, a store associate will collect the items and pass them to the Zipline crew. The latter will then prepare the said items for delivery. It is said that the items could be delivered in as little as 30 minutes.The Last Mile Walmart Senior Vice President, Tom Ward, states that the drones, which have a 50-mile radius, could help provide immediate service to the elderly in hard-to-reach areas.Learn more about this over at News Nation.(Image Credit: News Nation)#Drones #Delivery #Walmart #Convenience

Australian Ravens Attack Coffee Delivery DroneWe tend to be afraid of things unknown to us. Sometimes, we even become hostile to these things, just like these ravens who suddenly attacked a drone carrying coffee. They must have seen the drone as a threat to their territory.Ben Roberts, the man who waits for the delivery drone for his daily caffeine dose, recalls that feathers flew on the first day of the dogfight. However, by the third day, the birds learned to avoid the drone blades, and they were able to hit the man-made device.Thankfully for Roberts, the drones were still able to deliver his coffee.The birds in question are believed to be attacking the drone because it is the spring nesting season.(Image Credit: Ben Roberts)#Ravens #Weird #Drones

This Self-Righting Drone Uses Ladybug Inspired Wings to Get Back Up“When life knocks you down, you’ve got to get back up.”Ladybugs stand by this quote, and quite literally. When knocked down and stuck on their backs, ladybugs are capable of self-righting themselves by utilizing their strong outer wings, known as elytra, and by thrusting their legs or hind wings in order to reorient themselves.These little creatures have existed for a very long time and Charalampos Vourtsis—a doctoral assistant at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland—notes that “Over that time, they have developed several survival mechanisms that we found to be a source of inspiration for applications in modern robotics.” Inspired by this, researchers have developed self-righting drones, equipped with artificial elytra for the same purpose. This allows the drones to stabilize and reorient themselves when caught in awkward positions and even improves their aerodynamic capabilities during flight, as tests and experiments by researchers have shown. For example, long elytra, which they found were the most effective, were tested by the team on different inclines of 10°, 20°, and 30°. The drones were successful in self-righting themselves in all scenarios except for the steepest incline. The drones were also able to reorient themselves on several different terrains, namely: pavement, coarse sand, rocks, shells, and wood chips. While the drones were unable to do so in fine sand and grass, the researchers believe that further optimization may help the drones to accomplish this. A non-negligible lift offsetting the weight of the drone was also noted by the team, regarding it as a bonus.Image: EPFL-LIS#drones #ladybug #elytra #aerodynamics #insects #science #engineering #entomology #stabilization