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Hybrid Driving-Flying Robots Could Go Beyond the Flying Car

Whether they're swooping in to deliver packages or spotting victims in disaster zones, swarms of flying robots could have a range of important applications in the future, a new study found. The robots can transition from driving to flying without colliding with each other and could offer benefits beyond the traditional flying-car concepts of sci-fi lore, the study said.

The ability to both fly and walk is common in nature. For instance, many birds, insects and other animals can do both.

Robots with similar versatility could fly over impediments on the ground or drive under overhead obstacles. But currently, robots that are good at one mode of transportation are usually bad at others, study lead author Brandon Araki, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and his colleagues said in their new study.The researchers previously developed a robot named the "flying monkey" that could run and fly, as well as grasp items. However, the researchers had to program the paths the flying monkey would take; in other words, it could not find safe routes by itself.Now, these scientists have developed flying cars that can both fly and drive through a simulated city-like setting that has parking spots, landing pads and no-fly zones. Moreover, these drones can move autonomously without colliding with each other, the researchers said. "Our vehicles can find their own safe paths," Araki told Live Science.The researchers took eight four-rotor "quadcopter" drones and put two small motors with wheels on the bottom of each drone, to make them capable of driving. In simulations, the robots could fly for about 295 feet (90 meters) or drive for 826 feet (252 meters) before their batteries ran out.The roboticists developed algorithms that ensured the robots did not collide with one another. In tests in a miniature town made using everyday materials such as pieces of fabric for roads and cardboard boxes for buildings, all drones successfully navigated from a starting point to an ending point on collision-free paths.Adding the driving apparatus to each drone added weight and so slightly reduced battery life, decreasing the maximum distances the drones could fly by about 14 percent, the researchers said. Still, the scientists noted that driving remained more efficient than flying, offsetting the relatively small loss in efficiency in flying due to the added weight."The most important implication of our research is that vehicles that combine flying and driving have the potential to be both much more efficient and much more useful than vehicles that can only drive or only fly," Araki said.The scientists cautioned that fleets of automated flying taxis are likely not coming anytime soon. "Our current system of drones certainly isn't robust enough to actually carry people right now," Araki said. Still, these experiments with quadcopters help explore "various ideas related to flying cars," he said.The scientists detailed their findings on June 1 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore.

surrounded by old books with withered yellow pages curled around my finger that is my favorite place to be.

‘books’ from it starts like this by shelby leigh (via nothingwithoutwords)

Run your fingers through all the edges and curves and see what you find. Some nights you will sleep cold on your skin and wake up with the taste of salt on your lips from the sea of your heart that flows through your eyes waiting patiently for what you think you should be because honestly you haven’t quite pointed out who that person is and while you do it, you become a casualty of stab wounds that only you know of how severe sometimes it gets. Some days the sun shines too bright and with much cruelty that it leaves your lips dry and chirped from all the nonsense you keep repeating to yourself but not convinced just yet. And you will still curse the sun for it. Clearly we have devised ways of escaping this type of madness and we just stare at the space and dream it out painfully wanting to grasp it and orbit it about our hands to pick up on what can absolutely capture the need for a true story inspired by broken souls and it won’t feel so draining because an automation of words drawn from the ink in your blood stream to truly testify of the treachery and have a good laugh about it with one or two tear drops to seal the pain. Just mimicry of a stubbornness that has caused resistance that won’t barge at the stroke of an empty song that isn’t reverberated by the soul. So kiss my goodbyes and taste of the horrors that has kept my eyes wide open most nights.

(via misplacednotes)

Pelicans, like many sea birds, are aerial divers. They spot their prey from high above, bank, and dive into the water to catch the fish. Although they hit the water at high speeds, pelican diving techniques differ somewhat from plunge divers like gannets or boobies. Pelicans are only aiming for a shallow dive, so they have features – like their expandable neck pouch – that help them decelerate quickly instead of taking a full-body plunge. The goal is to increase drag after the head enters, slowing everything down. That can add more stress to the bird’s neck – the rest of the body is still moving quickly even after the head begins to slow. To counter this compression, the birds must have strong neck muscles to stabilize their spines during the impact process. (Video and image credit: Deep Look)

read classics - I know from experience its a slow but steady climb when it comes to reading classics, but it’s a worth while experience to put yourself in world that so different from the world now but mirrors it quite the same. Reading classical opens you mind to how simple but complex the human race is. It might seem like chore especially if your not a reader but you can start by just picking a classical that ficinated you the most  and listening to it on audiobook first. After a couple times of listening on audiobook you’ll get used to rhythm of the language and it’ll be easier to continue reading on your own. Also, pro tips- if you really wanna kick it up a notch, write a short review for every classic you read to help retain the info. 

expand your genres-  Everyones knows there’s a lot to be learned from movies, tv show and music but for most of us, once we learn what kind of genres we like we tend to never branch out and this limits our learning. You don’t have to like every genre but exposing yourself to different styles of music and movies teaches you tolerance and after a while of forcing yourself to do this, you might find your pallet start to shift.  

watch youtube videos- This is one of my favorite ways to not only be entertained but to get a general overview of a certain topic, usually if it sparks my interest i’ll do a little further research. Youtube channels such as ted-ed, asap science, scishow and today i found out do an amazing job of giving you a little bit of knowledge about everything.

listen to people who have different opions than you- I know this one is particularly hard one for most people, but your going to learn the least from having repeptive conversations with people with the same ideas as you. People with different opinions than you will have an impact on how you live your life wether you like it or not; its not your job to accept their ways of thinking but to understand why they think the way they do- you never know, you might just find that the other persons opinion has some merit and might make you more knowlegable about a certain situation. A great way to do this is to watch interviews, read articles about the opposing side of your opinion.

Accept that you’ll never know everything- This is an important one, you may be thinking, how does this have to do with educating myself? well, I added this one because I truly feel like you can’t educate yourself without acknowledging your ignorance. A person who thinks they know eveything has no room to learn. One of the most powerful ways to educate your self is to accept that you are never going to be finished learning, this opens you up and makes you more receptive to lessons we learn in life everyday. So in short, if you want to be more educated, just live! we’re all life long students and that’s okay. 

I love your blog and I constantly look to it for advice but I have a bit of an issue Can you give a few tips on forming good study habits? I've never really had to study and I've managed to keep good grades my entire life. I just started uni and I'm starting to struggle with work and keeping up with everything. Struggling academically and studying are both new things to me and I really regret being too arrogant to form good habits earlier

Studying Tips

1. Study schedule. Before you even start studying, sit down and plan out your time. Print out some weekly templates and physically write out your time schedule. Don’t schedule studying time during unproductive hours like early in the morning or late at night. Make sure to spend an equal amount of time on all your subjects (even the ones you “know” already) and to revisit each subject as many times as possible.

2. 90 Minutes. 90 minutes is the absolute maximum that you should study without taking a break. Over 90 minutes, and your ability to retain information is lost. Don’t push yourself! Take a break and come back to it later.

3. Make flashcards. You probably already have some lying around your room, if you don’t they cost like $2 at CVS. These are absolutely necessary for finals with lots of vocabulary (like History or English). See my flashcard procedure below!

4. Neat. You’re going to be starring at this study material for a long time- you might as well make it as clean and easy to read as possible! Rewrite any notes that were scribbled hastily. Make your study notes look like Mona Lisa!

5. Colorful. Highlight only what is absolutely necessary and study that, so that you won’t waste time studying what’s not important. Also, color code everything! Your Calculus notes are blue, so that it doesn’t get mixed up with English 102, which is green.

6. Post-its. Want another way to memorize vocab? Write words and definitions on post-it notes and stick them around your apartment/house/dorm. I like to put them in my bathroom so I have to stare at them while on the toilet, on the fridge at eye level, and by light switches.

7. Separate subjects. Don’t try to cram all of your subjects into one study session, especially unrelated subjects like Art History and Accounting. Take one study session to work through Art and one for Accounting, and so on.

8. Review before going to bed. Studies have shown that studying directly before bedtime does help us memorize things better. While studying before sleeping may not be a completely conducive process for you, try to incorporate some reviewing before you close your eyes. Go over vocabulary in your head, recite formulas, etc.

9. Study over time. Don’t try to study for all of your finals in one shot! Spread your studying over as much time as possible. Go back and review subjects that you already feel confident about.

10. Avoid the anxious atmosphere. I’ve always hated that anxious atmosphere that develops around people who are about take finals. You know- one of your classmates will be crying, another rocking back and forth while listening to music, yet another pacing up and down anxiously trying to memorize last minute equations. You don’t need to be distracted by all this anxiousness- you’ve already prepared as much as you possibly can! Unless you have somebody who is calm and willing to work through flashcards with you, avoid your classmates like the plague!

Flash Cards Procedure

This is my personal favorite way to study with flash cards!

1. Learn the first flashcard, recite the answer out loud and place the flashcard down in a pile.

2. Learn the second flash card, reciting its answer out loud.

3. Before finishing with the second flash card, turn back to the first flash card and recite the first flash card’s answer out loud.

4. Put both cards down in their own pile.Move on to the third flashcard, reciting its answer out loud.

5. Then recite the answers for both the first and second flashcard, before adding the third card to the pile.

6. Continue on this way, reviewing the answers to the previous cards before moving on to the next card.

This may seem super redundant, but it really works and got me through my History of Music 2 final which included 100 short answer vocabulary questions!

“If you are in this to see change in your lifetime, get out now.”  Love this story.