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ascending technologies

LED quadrotors form 'Star Trek' logo over London

I can't say I'm a fan of the "Star Trek" reboot, preferring the days when the franchise was so bad it was good, but I have to admire this marketing stunt for "Into Darkness."

We've seen LED quadrotor displays before, and there's no denying that lighting up the night sky with small flying machines has enormous potential.

Ars Electronica Futurelab, the same outfit that illuminated the skies over Linz, Austria, last year, launched 30 quadrotors near London's Tower Bridge and flew in a formation that any Trekkie would salute.… Read more

Swarm of quadrotors lights up the Austrian sky

We've seen many uses of machines in visual art, but few seem as promising as this configuration of dancing lights.

Just check out the amazing vid below, shot in Linz, Austria, at the Cloud in the Net festival.

Ars Electronica Futurelab managed to fly 50 synchronized quadrotors, effectively forming luminous pixels in the night sky. … Read more

Robo-copter can navigate inside your home

Just when you were getting used to the idea of unmanned aerial vehicles patrolling the skies over your city, they're beginning to enter buildings.

This flying robot designed by a U.S.-German team recently won a contest in which the goal was to autonomously navigate inside a simulated nuclear power plant and find and image a control panel without the aid of a GPS.

The Pelican, based on hardware designed by German start-up Ascending Technologies with programming by a team at MIT, accomplished the mission on its fourth attempt, but with only a few minutes to spare. It … Read more