Quadrocopters Work Together to Build a Rope Bridge

Posted on October 7, 2015

Researchers at the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena have developed technology so that flying machines can autonomously build a rope bridge. The completed bridge can support a person walking across it. A person can be seen crossing the bridge at the end of the video.

There are anchor points at each end of the 7.4 meter long bridge which is connected between two scaffolding structures. ETH Zurich says the tensile elements in the bridge and its connections and links "are entirely realized by flying machines."

The quadrocopters are carrying a motorized spool which enables them to control the tension acting on the rope when it is deployed. A plastic tube is used to guide the rope to its release point. A motion capture system is used to calculate the vehicle position and altitude. Computer algorithms and commands are sent to the quadrocopters through a wireless infrastructure customized by the researchers.

Researcher Federico Augugliaro writes in the YouTube entry, "In this work, a rope bridge that can support the crossing of a person is built by quadrocopters, showing for the first time that small flying machines are capable of autonomously realizing load-bearing structures at full-scale and proceeding a step further towards real-world scenarios."

Take a look:

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