Go for a jog with a helicopter drone

[UnrepentantLiberal]

By Paul Marks
NewScientist
June 1, 2012

Joggers who find it hard to set a steady pace could soon have a robot companion to help – a small, quad-rotor helicopter drone. The system, called Joggobot, is being developed by Floyd Mueller and Eberhard Gräther at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.

The duo plan to allow users to enter their preferred running speed into a smartphone app that controls the drone so it flies ahead of a jogger at just the right pace. Or it could be set to maintain a distance of a few metres no matter what pace a runner is going.

They tested their idea using the foam-fendered AR Drone made by Parrot of Paris, France. Using custom software, they programmed it to follow a bright blue and orange pattern painted on a runner's T-shirt (pictured below).

As soon as an onboard camera sees the shirt, the craft takes off and hovers about a metre off the ground. If it ever loses sight of the pattern, the drone lands automatically.

Mueller says he and Gräther are tinkering with settings to test what motivates runners. "How will people interact with a robotic exercise companion? Should the robot be more like a coach or more like a pet?" he asks. "One might make the exercise more effective, but the other might make it more fun. Which one is 'better'? And is there a 'better'?"

More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21877-go-for-a-jog-with-a-helicopter-drone.html

[Posteritatis]

1. Quadrotors are just neat. (nt)

[wandy]

2. I want one!

[EnviroBat]

3. That's pretty cool.

I wonder what it does if you try to catch it. How fast will it keep ahead of you...?

[MADem]

4. Maybe because I've been a very reluctant runner/jogger all my life....

(I fucking HATE doing it! Always have!)....

The concept, to me, seems more like THIS:



But I'll K/R this thread anyway, because it's a cool idea and might have other applications (put a camera on it and let it follow your kids to school, for example...).

[tclambert]

5. Does it come with Hellfire missiles?

[yesphan]

6. Might be OK if

you're running alone, in an open area where there is no traffic. Otherwise, no thanks.

[Posteritatis]

7. Some of the more advanced ones are kinda mindboggling

Like "throw one at a narrow passageway and it dodges through the gaps" mindboggling.

I kinda want a pack of the ones MIT was working on just for the hell of it.

[Little Star]

8. This would have had my husband very excited....

He loved running & gadgets too!

[stockholmer]

9. Cats away! Artist turns his dead pet into flying helicopter after it is killed by a car

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154283/Cats-away-Artist-turns-dead-pet-flying-helicopter-killed-car.html

[UnrepentantLiberal]

10. Was it really necessary to put that in this thread?

[NYC_SKP]

17. That darned cat!

I love that flying cat. A dear pet, departed from this world, preserved and, in a sense, still with its owner!

[bupkus]

11. This is just ridiculous

No one needs a drone to go for a run. Running for me, back when I could run, was not only about exercise but getting away from it all, technology included.

All you need to run is a good pair of running shoes (and hopefully a pair of shorts and a T shirt).

This is just desensitizing people to drone surveillance. Making drones your friendly little jogging buddy. Just what we need. This sounds like something straight out of Brave New World.

[Lisa0825]

12. A lot of people run better when they have someone to keep up with.

When I was in a training program, I worked a lot harder because of the people who ran with me. Now that I am on my own, it is harder to keep pushing myself to the same extent. I think this is an interesting concept. You could have a variety of training programs set up, like tempo runs, sprints, etc.

It's probably too expensive for me, but I think it is kind of cool!

[MADem]

13. Or chasing them menacingly (see post 4!)? nt

[Lisa0825]

14. LOL! nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. And yelling run faster fatty!!! Or install a cattle prod.

That's what I would need to motivate me to run.

[MADem]

16. Your words create a picture no artist could paint!!