Flying Fishes and other sea-creatures in the air

Did I sensed a microtrend? It seems, that fishes and other biological stuff that is normally hidden under the surface of the ocean, is going to prepare the takeover in the air. At least in the robotic variant.

Festo is pushing this boundary project like the Airjelly or the air ray: In German you call this "Manta Rochen" and I think it is a real clever idea, to fill up ultralight structures with gas, that is lighter than air. In the result you get floating objects, that are move and navigate like object under water. The controls of this are very subtle. The only question that remains: What can be the use of such robots..? Well, except pure pleasure of competition and excitement?

Nautical objects in the air seem to get popular. In fact, the entry-barriers are not very high. In the end pleasure days like the Airship Regatta will become a counterpart to American events like the Death Match Killer Fighting Robots?

More infos on the Festo Blu Ray at their website. I also found more floating stuff on Eggshell: the Blimp and the Blubber Bots.

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Tags: air, festo, biological, play, floating, festival, europe, germany
Oct_23:2008 .020200 Comments(0)

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Airjelly: Jellyfishes from Festo float through the air

Festo, the air and pneumatics specialists from Germany, came up with a really simple, but yet effective idea. The design is closed connected to a jellyfish. In the mid is hoovering a balloon, filled with fine helium-gas. The tentacles, made of a thin and light material, make them shift and floating in the air, with peristaltic motion we know from underwater living. Once again a very impressive showcase from Festo! Did they visit the Wilhelma for inspiration?

PS: Incredible, how close we can get now to this fiction.

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Tags: air, outdoor, art, germany, festo, giving-birth
Sep_03:2008 .020200 Comments(0)

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FlyTech Bladestar from Wowwee

Wowwoo is up with another cool robotic-toy for children or the child in us. The FlyTech Bladestar is basically like a remote controlled helicopter. In addition to it, the Bladestar has some smart abilities. It detects if it hits a wall and changes direction than. It can figure out if it is near objects. This makes it cool for "post-navigate" or "co-navigate" this heli-bot using your hands or other objects. Get the whole experience at the bladestar-webpage.

Tags: air, play, toy
Jun_04:2008 .020200 Comments(0)

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