Watch as a trio of flying drones build a working rope bridge

[CtW]

Source: http://hexus.net/ce/news/gadgets/86615-watch-trio-flying-drones-build-working-rope-bridge/

 

 

Researchers at ETH Zurich have found new a practical use for drones – in making rope bridges. As you can see in the video embedded below, a trio of drones were equipped with rope spools before setting off on their tasks of constructing a rope bridge. The demonstration is part of a study into the construction of structures using flying machines. The video is sped up, as the construction took just under an hour.

 

 

The bridge spanned 7.4 metres between two sets of scaffolding. 120 metres of rope was used by the quadracopter constructors and the bridge was made out of nine rope segments. The drones controlled the rope tension and could fabricate knots, links and braids. We are told that the rope was made out of Dyneema which weighs just 7g per metre. In 4mm rope/thread thicknesses Dyneema can support up to 1300Kg.

In the video demonstration the drones were aided in their agile airborne navigation by the deployment of a motion capture system around the scaffolding. The scaffolding dimensions were also pre-measured for the drone navigation computations. So while this is an interesting demonstration to watch, setting up a new bridge 'in the wild' would probably be beyond the drone trio's abilities for now. This research into aerial construction with drones started in July 2012 and is ongoing.

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This is pretty damn cool and a very interesting usage for drones. I'd imagine something like this could be useful in disaster areas if the bridge was made of more solid materials. This also brings up the topic of whether or not large industrial drones could be used to replace cranes on building sites, due to the  massive space savings and potential cost reductions. I hope we see more of this kinda stuff in the future.

 

Relevant:

[Syntaxvgm]

It's only so the bigger  robots can always reach us during the robot apocalypse. 

[Syntaxvgm]

And as far as replacing cranes, if so, it would be limited, simply because of stability and safety concerns. 

I don't see anything short of a helicopter maneuvering something large in metal to just the right place and holding it there to bolt it down 

[Trik'Stari]

[Enderman]

theres no way a drone can carry a 50 ton spool of steel cable

you need multiple helicopters to do that...

[Toddwjp]

just wait till we have drones in space fabricating stuff

theres no way a drone can carry a 50 ton spool of steel cable

you need multiple helicopters to do that...

drones can get pretty big

[hk29]

nebraska has allowed the weaponizing drones for civilan law enforcement agencies with non lethals, tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

 

well the bridge is for the people