‘Pull This Out of Your Pocket, Throw It Into the Air’: See the Drone Modeled After a Maple Tree Seed
- Posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:44pm by
Liz Klimas
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Many drone manufacturers are pulling ideas from nature to create a variety unmanned aerial vehicles. Here on the Blaze we’re shown you the quadrotors that swarm like bugs and the hummingbird drone as examples. Lockheed Martin has veered away from the animal kingdom with one of its newer designs and taken inspiration from the seed of a maple tree — you may think of them as those “helicopter” seeds.
Maple seeds that inspired the Samarai drone spin as they fall off the trees. (Photo: Shutterstock)
This screenshot shows Samarai spinning in action from Lockheed Martin's recent YouTube video.
Lockheed announced the successful flight of this drone — the Samarai — last year but has more recently released a video demonstrating how it works and explaining the technology. Check it out:
Talking Points Memo recently spoke to Lockheed about the drone, which began development in 2007 as part of DARPA’s “nano air” project. Bill Borgia, head of the company’s Intelligent Robotics Lab, told TMP to imagine “dropping a thousand of these out of an aircraft. Think about the wide area over which one collect imagery. Instead of sending one or two expensive, highly valuable aircraft like we do today, you could send thousands of these inexpensive aircraft, and they are almost expendable.
“You can literally pull this out of your pocket, throw it into the air, and it can start flying,” Borgia told TPM. “It can take off and land vertically indoors.”
So, if the drone spins like a maple seed, wouldn’t the video footage captured by it be nauseating? Borgia said a computer algorithm “de-rotates“ the video into a form ”similar to what you would see on any basic TV.”
Borgia declined to tell TMP, how long the drone can remain in the air and who its current and potential customers for it are.
According to Lockheed Martin’s announcement of the drone’s flight last August, it was printed using 3-D printing technology, weighs less than a half a pound and is 16 inches long.
Use of a 3-D printer to create the drone reduces production costs and greatly increases the speed and quantity with which they can be created.
(H/T: SlashGear)
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Comments (56)
NeapTide
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 8:18pmBird Shot
Report Post »Wolfgang the Gray
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 6:51pmIf you can see the thing. How many times might a hummingbird (bigger than this drone) fly in and out of your yard without you knowing it? Besides, most people can shoot a shotgun in their yard without the cops coming to take away your 2nd Amendment right for discharging a firearm inside city limits. I actually think a garden hose with a good spray head would be a better anti-micro-drone deterrent. You see the thing, blast it with water, it falls to the ground, you stomp on it. Then you can claim you thought it was a wasp so you squashed it.
Report Post »mark
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:31pmYes, and I can see a risky “Mineshaft Gap” in our future.
Report Post »Seriously, I am very concerned about this gov’t snooping, but it does lend to the notion that they are truly more afraid of us than we are of them.
shogun459
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:21pmA great tool for honest law enforcement and battlefield scouts,
Report Post »a terrible weapon for a Dictator to use upon Citizens.
DisposableWorker
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:13pmHas anybody thought about drones made like tiny dirigibles?
Report Post »Irish Mick
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 12:50amthat was done years ago
Report Post »Wolfgang the Gray
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 6:52pmDirigibles are bad because they are so sensitive to wind. Look at how many air ships in the early days were destroyed by storms.
Report Post »Lightman98
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 6:02pmWay too cool! Another example of God creating out of nothing, and humans creating new things because we are created in the image of God.
Report Post »tonythefisher
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 11:10pmLoved your observation, thanks.
Report Post »JEANNIEMAC
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 12:33pmOnce upon a time, a group of scientists challenged God to a contest. They said they could make anything He could make. God agreed, on one condition. They use their own materials.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on July 7, 2012 at 12:31am@Lightman Physicists have already shown something can come from nothing. No god necessary.. Evolution is smarter than you!
Report Post »blazingaway
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 5:11pmCool … Loved those whirlybirds as a kid
Report Post »DeOppressoLiber
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 4:16pmHere build one and keep an eye on Big Brother. It is a great site.
http://diydrones.com/
Report Post »DisposableWorker
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:10pmCool. thanks!
Report Post »oldschool66
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 4:07pmand i thought my maples were just for the syrup they produced lol
Report Post »Brother Winston Smith
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:34pmHad enough?
Really?
Ron Paul 2012! Constitutional law, liberty, PRIVACY! NO EXCUSES! And The Constitution Party and The Libertarian Party FOR ALL ELSE!
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 5:59pmRon who? Is he the guy with the son that backs Romney?
Report Post »Brother Winston Smith
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 7:40pmNope, RepubliCorp. He’s the guy with the Presidential campaign that the leftist Establishment democrat/republican machine is working MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT to bury. Remember when you suddenly woke last night? Sweating. Shivering. From the nightmare of your Establishment plantation crumbling and the American SLAVES escaping?
THAT was Ron Paul.
Report Post »Wolfgang the Gray
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 7:03pmRomney has flip-flopped on his stance concerning Abortion, Immigration, Global Warming, Bail-outs, 2nd Amendment, and Foreign Policy. We really have no idea what he would do if elected than we did with Obama. Anyone can say they will do this, that, and the other thing when elected. It is only afterwards that you find out if they were lying. Obama has been the biggest lying president in modern times so I really want him to go, but most people I talk with say they are voting for Romney because he isn’t Obama rather than because they believe in what he stands for. How long are the American people going to dance the dance of voting for the lesser of two evils?
Remember Abraham Lincoln? He was a third party candidate (the Democrats and the Whigs were the two top parties back then). A third party candidate CAN get elected, but We The People need to wake up.
Sorry to veer off subject so bad. The drones are neat if they are going after the enemies of the USA. They are frightening if they will be used by the enemies of the Constitution.
Report Post »RightThinking1
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:31pmA cute toy, and probably a lot of fun to develop, but otherwise a yawner. The efficiency of this thing is awful. Even the worst fixed wing aircraft have *some* glide ratio (as does a real maple seed), but this thing is just a brick kept aloft by a motor. Even a helicopter can auto-rotate, this thing without power is just a plummeting object. That the guy calls it ‘stable’ is akin to calling a unicycle stable.
Report Post »Aside from the novelty, it’s just an engineering exercise, and a silly impractical one at that.
chips1
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:26pmAccording to the first picture, are all Maple Seeds males?
Report Post »THX-1138
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:11pmUseful and interesting. When you aren’t designing for a passenger you can do some pretty odd things.
We’re going to need counter drone drones soon (and/or a cheap/safe way to generate huge EMP’s to clear an area of the ones you *can’t* see).
There’s a ton of money to be made here…
Report Post »kent grotz
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 8:00pmHow will the EMPs be controlled? They could also destroy any electronic devices in the area such as pacemakers.
Report Post »Lothmar
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:06pmMisread that drone name as ‘samurai’ and my first mental image that came to mind when they said it was like a maple seed was for an attack drone. But then my brain was like if it‘s a swirling blade attack drone swarm it should instead be called ’shuriken swarm’. ~chuckle~
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:38pmTarget practice, Shoot it!
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:50pmalso just imagine what else you could load on that thing to obliterate a target. such a cheap one to produce to probably.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:32pmMeh.
Report Post »daxbrady
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:49pmcool that they were able to do this, but advanced quad copters look more maneuverable.
Report Post »Taldren
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:26pmQuadcopters would require a lot more energy since all the lift is generated by the motors. The lift on this craft is generated by the wing which is far more efficient … which means far more airtime.
Report Post »affinity
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:46pmLooks like its time to chop down the maple trees in back yards and at cabins.
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:32pmDrones are probably high on the list of needs for an administration that wants to punish this country for holding Guantamino Bay prisoners, but then using a nice clean drone to just kill them in cold blood just because they are “suspected” of something.
Drones are clean. Is there a group of people out in the streets protesting this administration? Drone goes out there and sprays them down. But who’s driving the drone? Who authorized it? Well, that’s on a need-to-know basis, and with this administration, there’s no need for us to know.
So we’ll never be able to hold anyone accountable for miscarriages of justices related to drones so “clean of blood”.
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:56pmwell………
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:31pmYet another talking head token black, taking credit for something he had absolutely nothing to do with creating.
Report Post »billydeez
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:48pmyou much like this whole fake propaganda site are an idiot
Report Post »blamb61
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:00pmYou are an idiot! He probably has more scientific knowledge in his little finger than your whole body! I do admit I sometimes will doubt, upon meeting an ethnic minorit,y as to weather they have legit credentials or not and more often than not they turn out to be brilliant people. I hate social promotion and affirmative action that is the seed for me thinking the negative thoughts to begin with.
Report Post »JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:09pmOk you hackers out there, go ahead and start developing your jamming signal software (though I am sure they are already hard at work). These unmanned drones are threatning our civil rights,more specifically our right to privacy and due process. Oh, ain’t this great? The answer is a resounding NO, no it’s not!
Report Post »teaisstronger
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:17pmCoUnTeRmEaSuReS
Shot gun loaded with bird shot or salt. No guns allowed, then CO2 operated shot guns. In NJ you no longer can buy CO2 cartridges and that means countermeasures are already feared.
Report Post »jackact
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:04pmMore weapons for Obama?
Report Post »RIDEMODELS
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:06pmDrones???……I got Gov subsidized drug dealers in my Hood…..Obama will take us out with their lead once he takes ours…..Thanks BHO…You are doing an amazing jobs for our citizens!!
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:00pmSeems like they would land and be taken. Then somehow be hacked. Doesnt seem worth it. Still cool though.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:55pmCool, but not a very efficient design.
Report Post »paperpushermj
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:55pmLooks great. How long is the Battery Life?
Report Post »RIDEMODELS
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 2:02pmThe battery life is 30min…..But my grandma could take it out with a BROOM……I guess these will be used to take out the mexican drug cartels??……WWJD??
Report Post »TelepromoterNChief
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 12:54pmCool and eiree.
Good job to those who developed this.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 3:33pmGod has the Patient.
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