Fun Innovations Friday: MIT's Agile Grabber Drone Could be a Step Toward Drone Sports
Sept. 13, 2024
MIT's soft drone grabber that can grab and move objects at impressive speeds has the potential to create exciting developments not just in robotics, but in drone athletics and entertainment.
You know how there are those insanely cool drone light shows where they create huge images in the sky? Well, there's another area for possible entertainment with drones. Imagine a baseball team made up entirely of drones.
What I'm imagining is people's eyes spinning out of their heads from trying to track all of the moving drones. Given their size, it seems like it would be hard to keep your eye on the ball...or the drones for that matter.
Why am I talking about drones playing baseball? Because Alexis Gajewski, senior content strategist at Plant Services, recently reported about a drone created by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) SPARK Lab that can swiftly grab and move objects at impressive speeds. The drone combines a soft aerial manipulator—a fancier term for soft foam legs on the drone—with onboard perception capabilities that allow it to aggressively grasp objects. Why soft grippers? The researchers state it helps mitigate positioning/perception errors.
Once you watch the video below, you'll be able to better imagine a team of drones playing baseball.
Created by the editors of New Equipment Digest and Plant Services, Fun Innovations Friday is a feel-good blog that showcases how advances in science, math, engineering, and technology are making our world more whimsical. Here’s another post that is guaranteed to brighten your day.
