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Toys Technology

Epson Creates Tiny Flying Robot 261

Posted by CowboyNeal from the really-expensive-remote-control-helicopters dept.
xyote writes "As reported by the Inquirer. More info on Epson's website with a nice picture with explanatory labels and all. It weighs a little over 10g, uses an 'ultra-thin ultrasonic' motor and Bluetooth for remote control." Epson is using the robot to showcase their micromechatronics technology, and by exhibiting it, they hope to discover and test problems with using robots in three dimensions.
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Epson Creates Tiny Flying Robot More

Epson Creates Tiny Flying Robot

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  • Featured Use? (Score:2, Funny)

    by dukeluke ( 712001 ) *
    Nice - now all we need is a handy super miniature X10 cam to attach to it!

    Seriously, what other useful projects than a camera could we attach to this little contraption?
    • Put a couple of print heads on it, and use it for graffitti.
    • What else but a nose hair trimmer?

  • Epsonborg... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ambienceman ( 721763 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (seyeflowyzarc)> on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:13PM (#7503038) Homepage
    "You have been trying to install third party ink cartridges...you will be assimilated..."
  • Maybe it is because I am currently listening to "They're Everywhere" and am a little paranoid because of it, but that could be used to remotely place bugs or be used for illegal survalience by the FBI or intelligence agencies anywhere, couldn't it?
    • man, they don't need to be everywhere. it has been proven, in practice, that you can have a total police state just by using the people themselfs to spy on each other(horrible system, because you'll never know who rats on you and anybody can rat on anybody without proof anyways).

      but since you're worried about something that's already illeagal, shouldn't you be worrying about that some separate authority looks after them and locks them up if they break the law(internal investigations)? if you're worried abo

  • They're practically giving these robots away... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:15PM (#7503064)
    ...but the replacement wings will cost a fortune.
  • When at college, I remember "radio bonk" where some enterprising student would sneak into another students room and hide a microphone, broadcasting the nightly "entertainment" over the airwaves for all to hear...

    Sounds like a small radio transmitter and could make the perps. life a lot easier :-)

    Simon.
    • You must have had some pretty good walls. I remembering hearing the nightly entertainment in other rooms without any devices!

      --RJ
    • > I remember "radio bonk"

      You think that's good? In my hall we had drop-cielings in the hallway, but not in the rooms. We would drill a hole above our door (wooden panel above doors instead of brick - THE FOOLS!) and run RCA cables to the "victim's" door and mount a camera inside the dropped ceiling and point it through another hole there. Granted, the picture quality was pretty crappy since it was a new camera in 1996 and it would be too obvious to drill a hole too big, but it worked well enough.

      Onl

  • Hrmmm (Score:4, Funny)

    by JamesD_UK ( 721413 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:16PM (#7503078) Homepage

    Communicates by bluetooth does it? Who's going to be the first to create an automatic fly swatter to take this thing out when it flys near? Of course I wouldn't build such a device because I personaly welcome our minature flying robot overlords. Sorry, got carried away there.

    :-)
    • I think Bluetooth may be a little bit of a bad choice for remote control of a flying robot. Lets hope it can't fly more than 10m...

  • Where does the power come from? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by comnenos ( 689785 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:16PM (#7503082)
    In the picture at the Epson site, it looks like there are power lines running off of the unit. The description makes no mention of having a battery attached to it. So yeah, maybe you have wireless control, but what's the point when you're tethered anyways?

    • Re:Where does the power come from? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The powerlines could be for charging, but I also noticed there's no mention of flight time. Something you would think would be important if it was battery powered.

    • Re:Ni-MH battery? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Bastian ( 66383 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @01:16PM (#7503665)
      I know micro RC planes often use tiny NiMH batteries. Some of the planes weigh in as light as seven grams, and it's not uncommon for the battery to give at least 10 minutes of flying time.
      • But those are fixed-wing planes, not helicopters. Helicopters need a lot more power than planes. In the limit, fixed-wing planes can consume zero power, i.e. they can glide. AFAIK, the smallest powered planes weigh about five grams, and are powered by twisted rubber bands. The wings are made by pouring nitrocellulose enamel over water and letting the solvent evaporate. To glue that skin over the balsa wood frame, you dip the frame in the water under the skin and drag it up *very* carefully.

    • Does noone on /. have any imagination? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by NoNeeeed ( 157503 ) <slash@@@paulleader...co...uk> on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @01:43PM (#7503906)
      This is a research robot. It is for *experimenting*. Saying "what's the point" just because it is tethered is just lacking in imagination.

      Epson have not created this so they can test out battery technology, but to experiment with the problems of robots that operate in three dimensions. This is about solving the problems of navigation and control, not power supply, that's a job for Duracell.

      Not everything has to have an immediate use, commercial or otherwise, to be worthy of existance. To get from here to there, you have to got to all the places in between.

      Have we become a population with such a short attention span that we can no longer appreciate the value of long-term research? Far too much research is being scuppered these days because people keep asking "but what's the use of it", and "can we make a profit". Can't we just appreciate it for it's coolness and leave them too it.

      Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I think that if this attitude continues to grow, we will ultimatly be screwed by a lack of blue-sky research.

      Paul
      • Epson have not created this so they can test out battery technology, but to experiment with the problems of robots that operate in three dimensions

        One of the biggest problems in controlling a 10g flying robot with a tether, is the frigging tether.
      • I thought what you were saying was interesting, but you lost me somewhere after the second paragraph...
      • Have we become a population with such a short attention span that we can no longer appreciate the value of long-term research?

        Huh? Sorry, what was that you were talking about?

      • This is a research robot. It is for *experimenting*. Saying "what's the point" just because it is tethered is just lacking in imagination.

        The article seems to imply this will lead to a commercial product, and is not simply pure experiment. The article also doesn't mention that the robot is tethered by a power cable, though that's certainly the case. Not mentioning the power tether is a major ommision.


        Epson have not created this so they can test out battery technology, but to experiment with the p
      • Have we become a population with such a short attention span that we can no longer appreciate the value of long-term research? Far too much research is being scuppered these days because people keep asking "but what's the use of it", and "can we make a profit". Can't we just appreciate it for it's coolness and leave them too it.

        You are ABSOLUTELY WRONG! I grew up in the Internet/VideoGame age, i have no problems at all when I like to keep things going the way I want when.. - I am thinking, Does anyone
    • It says "ultrasonic motor". Maybe the power source -is- ultrasonics; meaning it is passively powered by ultrasonic waves from a nearby transponder.
  • ... would come up with the word "micromechantronics".

    Micro-mechan-tronics. Like something out of anime.

  • Epson (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:19PM (#7503115)
    Yeah, but does it Print?

  • It's interesting how a company so well-founded in image-related technologies can only manage something that looks like it was cobbled together by a secretary.
  • The robot is only $100 but replacement ink cartridges for it cost $50 each.

  • Anyone read "Prey" (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Popadopolis ( 724438 )
    The Crichton book, about swarms of nanobot robots. Is this our future, or just an interresting possible outcome?
  • So when are they going to start selling them to people who want ever more spurious gadgets for their mobile phones?

    You can already get toy cars you control from your phone using Bluetooth, I'm sure you could also sell toy helicopters. You can just see people flying these things around the office!
  • The "sensor units" are actually a wireless camera, useful when the unit will be flight tested in the women's shower at the local gym.

  • Payload (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John Courtland ( 585609 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:21PM (#7503144)
    So what kind of payload can these things carry? I bet if they beefed up the drive assembly even only slightly, it could carry enough VX poison to kill a specific target.

  • micromechatronics? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:22PM (#7503149)
    What the hell? Where did they get a name like that?

    "Our use of micromechatronics will help us succeed in our quest", stated project lead Optimus Prime. "We will defeat the decepticons and obtain all minicons", he then went on to say. Megatron was unavailable for comment.

    • After Bill Gates "bought out" Compuhyperglobalmeganet, he sold the IP off in pieces.

      es
    • Its actually not just techno-blither. Mechatronics actually refers to a specific engineering disipline which walks the the fine (or not so fine sometimes) line between mechanical and electrical engineering. We have had this option at my university (UBC) for several years now (it used to go by a different name though). I must say though, as an engineering student myself I have a lot of respect for the guys who take this program, as it is five years of an absolutely gruelling courseload.
  • I like the phrase ...causes levitation by use of contra-rotating propellers.... Somehow, helicopters levitating sounds far more dramatic than simply flying. I guess the advantage of these things is that when the power runs out, they can autorotate to the ground. It looks a little like one of those Orgasmatron head massagers though ...
    • Which reminds me of a saying about choppers: "Helicopters don't fly. They are so ugly the earth itself repels them." Or something to that effect!

  • Rip-off (Score:2, Interesting)

    by spektr ( 466069 )
    This [epson.co.jp] is obviously a rip-off [videovista.net] from Leonardo da Vinci.

  • What a wimp... (Score:4, Funny)

    by UnAmericanPunk ( 310528 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:24PM (#7503175) Homepage
    That little thing would totally get it's ass kicked on battlebots...
  • ...I'm going to call him Jet-Jaguar.

    As far as I'm concerned, he's got the right-of-way.

  • Tiny flyers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:28PM (#7503212)
    A big problem with all of the tiny flying devices is that you really can't use them outside. The problem is the wind. Even an imperceptible breeze can blow these things off course, making them incredibly painful to control. The Piccolo [modelairplanenews.com] weighs in at about 250 grams or so and it's damn near impossible to control outside.

    Plus it sounds like this Epson thing is tethered because there ain't no power source on it.

    What was that paper about the CIA developing a dragonfly? It worked but they couldn't use it outside because it was too light.
    • If you ever read 50's-60's Scifi for boys (I know, small subset) there is a book called Danny Dunn and the Invisible Boy which talks about a small robotic dragonfly (actual size and look, as well) that uses bursts of air to fly, has video and sound output to a fully immersive virtual reality headset back at the base station, and can grab and move small objects.

      I can't find it on my shelf right now, but the Professor who invented it destroyed it because of the *privacy implications*, before the military too

      • OMG - I READ that book! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by BLKMGK ( 34057 )
        I seem to recall that it had some sort of immersive technology and that he crashed one and could feel it burning his hands or somesuch when it was destroyed? WOW, been a looooong time since I read that and now that you've mentioned it I remember it well although not the title or character names. Scary!

        But also kind of cool - if an immersive headset were built for even a largish kind of flying toy I'd think it would be pretty cool! The micro helicopter review linked\mentioned above made for a good read and
    • "A big problem with all of the tiny flying devices is that you really can't use them outside. The problem is the wind."

      Well, I must respectfully disagree; I don't think it's "near impossible", merely an unsolved problem at this point. Trillions of lightweight insects seem to make do pretty well, so there should be no fundamental obstacle from a basic physics standpoint.
    • True I suppose. But then how the heck do real dragonflies and real butterflies manage?
  • Using these robots, Epson also realized the world's smallest full-blown robot ballet theater.

    Come on, is that really the best demo application they could come up with. How about a battle simulation. Or at least a Cirue de Soleil type thing. This is definetly a move by Epson to erode the geek badge of pride.
  • And when the swarms of flying microrobots converge on the last outpost of humanity, their edged weapons gleaming in the dying sunlight, will we at least then think to ask "Is creating flying microrobots really such a good idea?".
    • They're not self-replicating Von Neuman machines... yet!
      • As the swarms of flying, self-replicating, microrobots converge on the last outpost of humanity, their edged weapons gleaming in the dying sunlight, will we at least then think to ask "Was creating flying microrobots really such a good idea? And should we really have trusted that they wouldn't figure out how to self-replicate?".

  • Just what we need. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Guano_Jim ( 157555 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:45PM (#7503382)
    It's only a matter of time before someone puts a wee little bomb on one of these and kills someone with it. Or at least puts an eye out.

    Then it's only a matter of time before someone makes a swarm of them with wee little bombs and turns them loose on a bigger target.

    Then it's only a matter of time before someone makes a counterswarm of them.

    Then slashdotters will have an unlimited number of slightly charred tiny flying robot parts to experiment with.
  • Welcome our new micronized mechanical...
    *SWAT*
    Damn bugs.. oh erm.. well.. nevermind...
  • The Epson site says there are no plans to market it. Now that we know it can be done, how long till someone re-creates it and puts up a site showing how to build one?

  • Power ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by rcastro0 ( 241450 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @12:55PM (#7503473) Homepage
    Maybe they won't need much in terms of batteries.

    Maybe they can have photocells, and convert the energy they need from natural or artificial light sources. So, at night we could see a bunch of those thingies hitting their heads on street lamps.

    Maybe they can fly down for a recharge every once in a while, landing on a bigger robot's back and sucking some electricity.

    And maybe, if all else fails, we can leave them energized by a thin wire, hanging from the tip of a long rod. They won't get far, but if you leave the rod close to the water you may be able to fool and electrically stun an obtuse trout, which you will then take home for dinner.
    • 860 mA at 3.5V isn't exactly trivial, especially if flight times are to be more than a few seconds.

      Yes, yes, your joking (just what I need, electronic moths in my house), but the reality is dissappointing:

      For those thinking solar/ambient light would be great, I'll spot you you 15% efficiency and 1200W/m^^2 full sunlight. You'll need 3W of continuous power. So as long as you can get a non-obscured, perpendicular line of site to the sun, you'll need about 1/1200/0.15*3=167sq cm or a 16.5cm diameter round
  • *Please note that this product is a prototype. There are no plans to market it as a commercial product.

    Damn. I was hoping to add one to my list for Santa/Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com]

  • For $40 you can get one of these flying saucers [save2much.com]. It uses IR instead of Bluetooth, but it's good fun. I bought one this weekend for, ahem, my friend's kids, but I've been testing it... jeff
  • I was suprised to discover that they were the same company. At first, I thought it was a recent acquisition overshadowed by HP/Compaq, but when I dug into their history [epson.co.jp] I found that the merger occurred back in 1985! I had always simply assumed that Epson was a wholey owned American company.

    Any slashdotters out there work for S-E? I'm curious if the corporate culture is more Japanese or American. Just wondering.

  • Dan Brown recently published a book that featured a robot the size of a mosquito with a camera on it... when we've got that, *then* I'll be excited!
  • I skimmed over the article but I didn't see an actual photo so they may not have built this microcopter but the counterrotating blades are not as efficient like insect flight. Flapping wings use vortices for lift and are very efficient.

    If anybody remembers the great TLC channel show 'Connections' will connect the dots here and see that SEIKO is a watch company and their microcopter looks a bit like a watch. Interesting. But more of a novelty .
  • What does this have to do with them making better printers?
  • ... because robots in 2 dimensions are so much easier to deal with :)
  • Here's what you can get in the way of small flying machines today:

    Ikarus Piccolo mini rc helicopter

    280 grams (.6 lb), about 50cm long (20 in)

    Some videos at dreamhobbies.com [dreamhobbies.com]

    Good fun.
  • Blown far off course, out of bluetooth range... bam! Hits a pedestrian and takes an eye out. Don't believe m? Ask your momma!
  • Wonder when I can buy this baby at ThinkGeek?

  • Alternative uses: (Score:3, Funny)

    by chiph ( 523845 ) on Tuesday November 18, 2003 @03:05PM (#7504707)
    My cat would love this thing.

    Chip H.

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