Robots and humans interact – part 3 of 3

Improbable’s final (previous here) look at the RO-MAN Workshop 2012. – the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, which was held September 9-13, Paris, France. Part 3 : Floating-in-the-air ‘bot ‘Humanoid’ robots go back a long way,  and nowadays there are numerous flying robots in the skies, but there are very […]

Pyramids can fly, under certain circumstances

Pyramids can fly, under certain circumstances. This new study explains: “Intrinsic Stability of a Body Hovering in an Oscillating Airflow,” Bin Liu, Leif Ristroph, Annie Weathers, Stephen Childress, and Jun Zhang, Physical Review Letters, 108, 068103 (2012). The authors, at New York University, explain that in their experimental setup [pictured below]: “weight support and orientational […]

Man-bearing squirtgun

Behold a device called the JetLev flyer (thanks to Wendell Maradonna for bringing it to our attention). The manufacturer opines: “A flexible water supply hose delivers power to the jetpack with pressurized water. It also serves as the tether, enforces a flight ceiling, discourages the pilot from flying over land, acts as a stabilizer, dampens […]