Featuring a lightweight carbon-fiber skeleton and folding into a book-shaped companion, this drone from Zero Zero Robotics can follow the user around like a tethered tripod, filming steadily during mobile first-person shoots.

The Hover Camera uses a mobile app that lets the user set height, distance and direction as needed, but the tracking software also automates the process when desired.

Four propellers and compensating technology help the device stay aloft and precisely positioned even outdoors in windy conditions.

Its incredibly light weight (less than 250 grams) lets the device skirt FDA regulations pertaining to larger drone use as well.

“We want to combine radical AI technology and small flying robotics to create products that empower people to enhance their livelihood, and Hover Camera is a very exciting first step towards accomplishing our larger mission,” said the company’s CEO Meng Qiu Wang, a former Twitter software engineer who co-founded the company in 2014.

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We all know that drones can safely go where humans cannot, but one other big upside is their potential to (sometimes literally) pave the way for people to follow, by doing things like weaving together physical bridges that can support a person’s weight.

As this video from the RTH Zurich Flying Machine Arena shows, a set of quadcopters can be programmed to braid and knot a sturdy rope bridge in midair. The effect is surprisingly graceful, each drone managing to avoid the other as they swoop back and forth in the room. The low strength-to-weight ratio of the materials deployed makes it possible for lightweight drones to construct surprisingly capable structures.

Motion-capture devices were used to map the space, taking positional measurements around which the drones could then operate. Nothing was left to human hands – even the tie-offs and other connections were completed automatically by drone. While scaffolding was provided in this case, there is no fundamental reason why the same drones could not work with existing supports in nature like rocks or trees. The open question: what will we call the works and processes of this new breed of robotic builders? Droneconstruction sounds a little too much like deconcstruction, but options are still open.

The post Dronestruction: Watch Drones Build a Working Rope Bridge first appeared on Gajitz.

Each year, over 25 billion trees are logged or burned, but only 15 billion are planted – addressing this unsustainable shortfall, a drone startup is working toward an initial goal of aerially planting 1 billion seeds per year.

Biocarbon Engineering‘s approach involves mapping the geography of target areas, assessing their needs and conditions, then shooting soil-penetrating seed pods directly into the ground below from around 5 to 10 feet above. Already germinated and encased in a nutrient-rich gel, the seeds can be shot at a rate of 10 per second and, with multiple drones, could put 36,000 trees in the ground each day for about 15% of the cost of conventional planting methods.

One of the group’s founders is a 20-year NASA veteran who knows the stakes and understands the technological needs of this ambitious plan. The group aims to work with global non-profits and forestry services to deploy their solution around the world, mapping, planting and monitoring the results for further interventions.

From the company: “Destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. We believe that this industrial scale deforestation is best combated using the latest automation technologies. We use emerging technologies to deliver precision planting and mapping to increase the uptake rates and the likelihood of healthy forest development.”

“There are a variety of tree-planting techniques, including planting by hand and delivering dry seeds by air. However, hand-planting is slow and expensive, and spreading dry seeds results in low uptake rates. Our solution balances these two methods. First, by planting germinated seeds using precision agriculture techniques, we increase uptake rates. Second, our scalable, automated technology significantly reduces the manpower requirements and costs. Finally, our mapping UAVs will also provide invaluable intelligence on planting patterns, landscape design and appropriate timing.”

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If you have ever seen ambulances, police cars or fire trucks stuck in rush hour traffic, you may already sense that the future of emergency response in cities is definitely destined to fly the friendly skies.

A vision of argodesign, this particular solution is compact, fast and contains the bare minimum needed to help save the estimated 1,000 lives lost per year to slow response times – specifically: a single emergency medical technician.

About the size of a car, this quadcopter can land in a single lane of a highway, bypassing traffic and not requiring and sort of special area for quick arrivals or departures from accident scenes.

The aerial ambulance could either be self-piloted (driverless) or the EMT could double as the driver, which they generally do already on roads.

Upon landing, the propeller sections fold upward to reduce the footprint of the flying vehicle. Meanwhile, a gurney and ramp unfold from one side for quick access to potential patients nearby.

The post Drone Ambulance: Fast Urban Quadcopter Flies with 1 EMT first appeared on Gajitz.