Joshua Bird set out to build a flying drone small enough to fit comfortably in a room without the bulk that usually comes with single-rotor designs. Most approaches either rely on a second rotor for balance or force the machine to grow large so its blades can produce usable control forces. He wanted neither, so […]
Photo credit: Mark Stone/University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington engineers have built DirectHop, a one gram robot small enough to sit in a palm that clears a standard stair step while setting its jump height to single centimeter accuracy. The prototype performs multiple hops in sequence and rights itself after most landings, steps toward an autonomous […]
Con Hathy printed a stubby PETG rocket named Spark, loaded an Estes B4, and sent it up a launch rod. Jolly Logic Altimeter 2 data put the flight at 81 feet, 48 mph, and 6.4 G. He then wanted the same motor to do more work by firing it from a closed tube, the same […]