great hopping helicopters!

[Admin]

A really simple unique idea . . . no longer does your heli need to worry about a safe landing or crashing into stuff. Probably a bit difficult to steer, however . . .

Hopping helicopter

[Razor Concepts]

That is a unique idea... but not really feasible. Also some other problems.

1. All he literally did was add a weight and CF strip cage to a standard RC coaxial helicopter. No "smart electronics" or anything. But I guess it proves a point.

2. "Less battery power". There is a huge aluminum weight at the bottom there, so while flying it is using considerably more power than other helis.

3. Less battery power because it can rest on the ground? Isnt that called "landing" a helicopter? If a quadrocopter wanted to "rest", a good programmer would be able to simply land it on the ground.

Interesting idea, but the idea of an excessive weight to stabilize is not a good one. How about combining a spherical robot with a heli instead? The heli can be programmed to be stablized in the air, and the robot part will stabilize it on the ground.

[SmAsH]

Yeah, im gonna have to agree that this isn't too impressive...
I would say it uses about the same amount of power as other helicopters, but lacks decent control...
I mean, anyone can strap a weight on a helicopter to stabilize it...

[Joker94]

That is a unique idea... but not really feasible. Also some other problems.

1. All he literally did was add a weight and CF strip cage to a standard RC coaxial helicopter. No "smart electronics" or anything. But I guess it proves a point.

2. "Less battery power". There is a huge aluminum weight at the bottom there, so while flying it is using considerably more power than other helis.

3. Less battery power because it can rest on the ground? Isnt that called "landing" a helicopter? If a quadrocopter wanted to "rest", a good programmer would be able to simply land it on the ground.

Interesting idea, but the idea of an excessive weight to stabilize is not a good one. How about combining a spherical robot with a heli instead? The heli can be programmed to be stablized in the air, and the robot part will stabilize it on the ground.

Yeah, im gonna have to agree that this isn't too impressive...
I would say it uses about the same amount of power as other helicopters, but lacks decent control...
I mean, anyone can strap a weight on a helicopter to stabilize it...

I agree with both of you.

[Admin]

2. "Less battery power". There is a huge aluminum weight at the bottom there, so while flying it is using considerably more power than other helis.

The weight could be a battery, control electronics, or sensors. It was very much a limited prototype in that video.


Think of this use - a soldier in the field needs to see in a hard to reach area, like check out a sniper tower or over a building . . . he just takes it out of his backpack and throws it up . . . it immediately hovers and sends video feed back to his visor. The controller could be a simple x/y joystick with a single button for 'fly'. No special autonomy needed outside of a balancing IMU.

You can't just pack a regular RC helicopter and launch super-fast during combat with a single hand throw. You can't wait for winds to die down. And you can't spend years training the soldier to use it.

What I liked was the ruggedness and simplicity of it.

[Razor Concepts]

I suppose there is hope, just that his demonstration example isnt exactly the best.

All helicopters already have the majority of weight under the rotors for stability, not sure why this guy made such a big deal? But the CF sphere cage was a good idea.

"Think of this use - a soldier in the field needs to see in a hard to reach area, like check out a sniper tower or over a building . . . he just takes it out of his backpack and throws it up . . . it immediately hovers and sends video feed back to his visor. The controller could be a simple x/y joystick with a single button for 'fly'. No special autonomy needed outside of a balancing IMU."

That still just sounds like a quadrocopter with a spherical frame, with the right programming it is hands-off flying, and can recover from crazy angles.