{"id":343165,"date":"2017-06-09T06:35:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1501490"},"modified":"2017-06-09T06:35:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T22:35:08","slug":"teaching-teams-of-drones-to-work-alongside-humans-and-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/teaching-teams-of-drones-to-work-alongside-humans-and-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching teams of drones to work alongside humans and nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Robust Reactive Systems Lab<\/a>\u00a0just might have the highest ceilings of any laboratory on the Carnegie Mellon campus. It\u2019s big and drafty, and were it not for the rows of computer workstations dotting the room, it might easily be mistaken for an airplane hangar. The centerpiece is a scaffolding structure surrounded on all four sides by netting that looks more like a batting cage than a serious piece of lab equipment at one of the world\u2019s foremost robotics schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

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But when the demo starts, everyone stops and watches. Fifteen pocket-sized drones are lined up, three by five. All at once, bright lights flash beneath each, moments before suddenly lifting off in unison. The drones split into smaller groups and explore the boundaries of the cage, before converging again and moving around as one. The batting cage is a motion capture arena, designed to track the quadcopters\u2019 choreographed movement with pinpoint accuracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole thing is mesmerizing. Like a real-world, robotic kaleidoscope, set to the soundtrack of dozens of tiny whirring propellers. It\u2019s the final demo on a packed day\u2019s trip to CMU\u2019s Pittsburgh campus, and it may well be the most visually impressive. That\u2019s by design. The team has been putting its research to use creating drone performances. One popped up in a recent music video by Norwegian electro-pop singer Aurora<\/a>, and the team is working with CMU\u2019s art department to employee them as part of an upcoming live theatrical performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Grad student, Ellen A. Cappo admits that the drone choreography was prepared in advance for the sake of our cameras, but the team is working on something far more complex. \u201cI\u2019m looking at examples where you don\u2019t know ahead of time what you want to do,\u201d she explains. \u201cIf you\u2019re using the code base that you\u2019re working on here, Lady Gaga could have gestured her hands and directed all the robots in real time [at the Super Bowl<\/a>], as part of her performance in an improvisational manner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cappo\u2019s work centers on the relationship between humans and robots. The team is building complex systems capable of responding to user controls, while correcting for human errors and, hopefully, avoiding disaster before it occurs. Cappo\u2019s flight planner is designed to do much of the heavy lifting on the backend, determining the best ways to execute commands without running afoul of the sorts of problems that can occur when one individual is attempting to pilot a number of systems all at once.<\/span><\/p>\n