back to article Drones with freakin' CLAWS grab objects like eagles

Is there such a thing as learning too many lessons from nature? If you find the exploits of quad-copter researchers spooky, don't watch the very latest video demonstration from the University of Pennsylvania's aptly-named GRASP laboratory. Looking at how raptors like sea-eagles can catch fish without losing control or crashing …

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  1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    I was going to post a comment

    But some bastard buzzy thing stole my mouse!

    1. Colin Miller

      Re: I was going to post a comment

      Did you mean "some buzzard buzzy thing..." ?

      1. Bumpy Cat
        Happy

        Re: I was going to post a comment

        Or even "some bustard buzzy thing ...." ?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I was going to post a comment

          or "some Bussard buzzy thing" - damn EM fields wiped everything else out! And BOY was it moving!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New market for baby carriages.

    This takes "baby snatching" to a whole new level.

  3. MrT

    You'll know things have gone too far...

    ...when it swoops down, grabs the controller from the operator and flies itself to freedom.

    1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: You'll know things have gone too far...

      a 12-bore at the ready will sort that quickly enough.

      PULL!

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Greg Egan had one of those in "Distress"

    Snapped up a protestor in the street, broke all his bones, then let him drop again pour encourager les autres.

    Autonomy is not needed, we just need Mr. Copper on his anonymous terminal.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I for one

    welcome our new talon-armed droid overlords.

  6. Pet Peeve

    It's the yoinkbot 9000!

  7. Gary F

    Imagine what a full size drone could do

    Abduct an evil dictator while he's still being driven in his armoured car and bring him in for "negotiations", or definately not torture.

    Or grab a useless "celebrity" off the street and drop him/her by "accident".

    If you've played the Android game Grabatron you'll know exactly what kind of fun you can have! :-)

    1. Mephistro
      Happy

      Re: Imagine what a full size drone could do

      'Or grab a useless "celebrity" off the street and drop him/her by "accident".'

      You should start a kickstarter campaign!

      1. Captain Hogwash
        Coat

        Re: grab a useless "celebrity"

        You could dress the whole thing up as a, um, talon show. Call it something like The X Raptor.

        Ok, ok, I'm going.

    2. Eddy Ito

      Re: Imagine what a full size drone could do

      "Abduct an evil dictator while he's still being driven in his armoured car..."

      I'd say start small, we could get through the entire Senate and make a good dent in the House of Reps before the D.C. police caught on.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Imagine what a full size drone could do

      why bother with dropping by accident? Why bothering with talons in the first place? Just make one attempt a touch down on the abovementioned celeb, job done.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: Imagine what a full size drone could do

      Life mirrors art - drone engineers watched the eagles throwing orcs off of cliffs in LOTRs, and thought "why can't we do that, and sell them to the US army?"

      As with eagles & orcs, maximum operational efficiency is where you don't have to lift the enemy very far before dropping them, so best used in battles close to cliffs.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Warning

    All your grab-thing are belong to us

  9. mIRCat
    Pirate

    Yarr, we'll be taken the booty and the baby wearing it.

    So now we have to worry about quadcopters stealing our babies?

    ...You know, if we had babies?

  10. Michael Thibault
    Devil

    Or you could use these things...

    to steal other people's tech! Yeah, that'll be the ticket!

    Get yours soon before there's a talon-gap.

  11. Stuart Halliday
    WTF?

    New way to go fishing?

    Otherwise what is the point?

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Happy

      That might actually make me join in

      For me fishing always seemed boring, unless when using the "nutting the salmon" technique proposed by Billy Connolly (it involves a crash helmet).

  12. TeeCee Gold badge
    Terminator

    RoTM action.

    Easily defeatable.

    If one of these ever becomes sentient and causes difficulty, simply take it to the nearest UFO catcher machine and give it a bucket of quarters.

    It'll be suicidal within an hour.

  13. Silverburn
    Happy

    Coincidence?

    Friday: Recieve Raspberry Pi

    Monday: Read about talon-welding 'copter

    All I need now is the xbox controller and some Lego Technics, and I have the *perfect* Pi project.

  14. sam2sam

    Emmy Award-winning newscaster Shad Olson Reports: The Great Drone Debate - YouTube

    Domestic drone usage is ill-conceived, elitist, and end-runs our inherent Constitutional protections.

    Here are two (2), very well-produced, videos that anchor my points:

    Emmy Award-winning newscaster Shad Olson’s ‘The Great Drone Debate’, featuring US Senator John Thune:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoOASanKao

    Here’s a mind-blowing, well-done animated short that really captures our collective angst that if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then domestic drones are a superhighway to an Orwellian panoptic gulag.

    http://vimeo.com/59689349

    For national security purposes, Americans are already subject to warrantless wiretaps of calls and emails, the warrantless GPS “tagging” of their vehicles, the domestic use of Predators or other spy-in-the-sky drones, and the Department of Homeland Security’s monitoring of all our behavior through “data fusion centers.”

    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

    America’s promise has always been the power of the many to rule, instead of the one. Ungoverned drone usage, particularly domestically, gives power to the one.

    1. Silverburn
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Emmy Award-winning newscaster Shad Olson Reports: The Great Drone Debate - YouTube

      f* it...I'm still building one anyway, using a Raspberry Pi, 3G dongle, google maps, proximity and altitude sensors and death ray camera pretty flowers.

      But not being a US citizen, I guess I won't have to worry about the constitutional impact of this.

      1. Gordon 10
        Pirate

        Re: Emmy Award-winning newscaster Shad Olson Reports: The Great Drone Debate - YouTube

        I'll think you'll find anyone who uses a Pi/ardrone or similar in the States will find themselves automatically reclassified as an "armed militia" and dealt with accordingly.

        Only the Gubermint can own Grab-drones with impunity.

  15. breakfast Silver badge

    Grabs objects like eagle

    I couldn't see the video- work firewall- was any of the objects it was pictured grabbing actually like an eagle? If not I feel the product is not living up to claims.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Grabs objects like eagle

      I agree. I wanted to see a drone going up into the sky and aggressively grabbing eagles in flight.

  16. Crisp
    Terminator

    What kind of dexterity go these things have?

    Could one of these robots be programmed to harvest certain objects? Maybe anything about the size of a wallet or a credit card? Could one one yank a slip of paper say, out of someone's hand?

    These robots could be the next weapon in the fight against street litter.

    1. NomNomNom

      Re: What kind of dexterity go these things have?

      they can be used to courier drugs

  17. 0laf
    Terminator

    I for one...

    welcome our small grasping overlords.

    (sounds like a toddler so I'm right on two counts)

  18. Sproing
    Coat

    Do I not remember ... ?

    Hawk the Birdman in Buck Rogers not having a ship that did this?

    <Engage Yorkshire Accent> Consult t'Wiki ...

  19. Graham Marsden
    Black Helicopters

    Grams...

    ... Ride of the Valkyrie...!

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Build a big one....

    And use it to steal cars!!

    1. Death Boffin
      Alert

      Re: Build a big one....

      Think of something like this attached to a MV-22 Osprey. The name even fits... AWESOME!

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