Remember, in 2010, the Parrot French company launched A.R Drone, a quadricoptère controlled by your smartphone or tablet via an application and equipped with cameras for spying. Mini toys even make it possible to dogfight with other drones. Eh many researchers of the university of Pennsylvania (UPenn), in the United States, decided to improve and miniaturize the concept. For the moment, espionage will wait, because of a noise worthy of a flight of Frelons amplified to the loud-hailer; but the rapid progression of the innovation in this field of air robotics what left dreamer… or skeptic!

Resulting from the intense research and development from the General laboratory Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) of UPenn, this new type of drone has all the phantasm for a fan of robotics and the nightmare for a frightened cybernetic apocalypse come from to Skynet. Here comes the era of Nano Quadrotor.

Size of a fist, these minis quadricoptères (produced by KMal Robotics) fly in formation of 16 drones, pass from the obstacles while reorganizing in real-time and accomplish complex flights (reversals, 360°, crossings, hoverings etc). Of what to constitute an army of micro robots to the paces of clouds of insects.

For the moment, researchers of the university of Pennsylvania have a noble goal, that of research in disaster area, but one also knows how much armies are fond innovations, especially if those can fly in a coordinated way, intelligent and adaptive. For the moment, espionage will wait, because of a noise worthy of a flight of Frelons amplified to the loud-hailer; but the rapid progression of the innovation in this field of air robotics will leave us dreaming … or skeptic!

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors - YouTube