What started as a platform for hobbyists is poised to become a multibillion-dollar industry. Inspection, environmental monitoring, photography and film and journalism: these are some of the potential applications for commercial drones, and their enablers are the capabilities being developed at research facilities around the world.
我們從一個愛好者平台開始, 有望發展成一個數十億元的產業。 偵查、環境監控、攝影、 電影和新聞業── 這些都是商用無人飛行器的潛在機會, 而它們的實現 得仰賴全球許多研究機構 所研發的各種功能。
For example, before aerial package delivery entered our social consciousness, an autonomous fleet of flying machines built a six-meter-tall tower composed of 1,500 bricks in front of a live audience at the FRAC Centre in France, and several years ago, they started to fly with ropes. By tethering flying machines, they can achieve high speeds and accelerations in very tight spaces. They can also autonomously build tensile structures. Skills learned include how to carry loads, how to cope with disturbances, and in general, how to interact with the physical world.
舉個例,在空中包裹運送 進入我們的社會認知之前, 一組自動化飛行機隊 就曾將一個6公尺高、 由1500個磚塊構成的塔, 就在法國當代藝術中心的 現場觀眾面前蓋了起來。 而在那幾年之前, 它們從帶著繩索飛行開始。 透過繩索連結飛行器, 它們可以在非常狹小的空間內 用很高的速度及加速度飛行。 它們還能自動建造高張力的結構。 它們學會的技能包含如何裝載貨物、 如何應付亂流、 以及概括而言, 如何和實體世界互動。
Today we want to show you some new projects that we've been working on. Their aim is to push the boundary of what can be achieved with autonomous flight.
今天我們想讓各位看一些 我們正在進行的新專案。 它們的目標是擴展自主飛行 所能達成的境界。
Now, for a system to function autonomously, it must collectively know the location of its mobile objects in space. Back at our lab at ETH Zurich, we often use external cameras to locate objects, which then allows us to focus our efforts on the rapid development of highly dynamic tasks. For the demos you will see today, however, we will use new localization technology developed by Verity Studios, a spin-off from our lab. There are no external cameras. Each flying machine uses onboard sensors to determine its location in space and onboard computation to determine what its actions should be. The only external commands are high-level ones such as "take off" and "land."
那麼,要讓系統能自動運作, 它必須知道所有移動物體 在空間上的位置。 在我們蘇黎世聯邦工學院的實驗室裡, 我們常用外部的攝影機來定位物體, 這讓我們能全神貫注, 將精力用在快速開發高度動態的任務。 然而,今天各位看到的展示, 我們將使用Verity Studios 所開發的新定位技術, 他們是我們實驗室的一個分支機構。 不用任何的外部攝影機, 每一個飛行器都用內建的感應器 判斷自己的位置, 並用內建的電腦判斷該採取的動作。 只有高階的指令來自外部, 例如「起飛」和「降落」。
This is a so-called tail-sitter. It's an aircraft that tries to have its cake and eat it. Like other fixed-wing aircraft, it is efficient in forward flight, much more so than helicopters and variations thereof. Unlike most other fixed-wing aircraft, however, it is capable of hovering, which has huge advantages for takeoff, landing and general versatility. There is no free lunch, unfortunately. One of the limitations with tail-sitters is that they're susceptible to disturbances such as wind gusts. We're developing new control architectures and algorithms that address this limitation. The idea is for the aircraft to recover no matter what state it finds itself in, and through practice, improve its performance over time.
這是一個所謂的立式起落機。 它就像一台什麼都想做到的飛機。 如同其他固定機翼的飛機, 它可以很有效率地向前飛行, 效果比直升機或之類的飛行器好得多。 但它又和固定機翼的飛機不一樣, 它可以在空中盤旋, 這讓它在起飛、降落 和一些通用動作上有很大的優勢。 很不幸地,天下沒有白吃的午餐。 立式起落機一個很大的限制 就是它們對於陣風之類的干擾很敏感。 我們正在開發新的控制架構和演算法 試著突破這個限制。 我們的想法是讓這個飛行器 無論遭遇什麼情況都能復原。 而且透過練習,還能逐漸提高效能。
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OK.
好的。
When doing research, we often ask ourselves fundamental abstract questions that try to get at the heart of a matter. For example, one such question would be, what is the minimum number of moving parts needed for controlled flight? Now, there are practical reasons why you may want to know the answer to such a question. Helicopters, for example, are affectionately known as machines with a thousand moving parts all conspiring to do you bodily harm. It turns out that decades ago, skilled pilots were able to fly remote-controlled aircraft that had only two moving parts: a propeller and a tail rudder. We recently discovered that it could be done with just one.
進行研究時, 我們經常問自己一些基本的抽象問題, 讓我們能直搗問題核心。 比方說,其中一個問題是, 要控制飛行, 最少要有幾個會動的零件? 我們有很實際的理由 探索這個問題的答案。 以直升機為例, 大家都認為這是一種 由上千個活動零件組成的機器, 每個零件都可能會導致你受傷。 事實是在數十年前, 技巧高超的駕駛就已能 遙控駕駛這種飛行器了, 而這個飛行器只有兩個會動的東西: 螺旋槳和尾翼。 我們最近發現,其實只需要一個。
This is the monospinner, the world's mechanically simplest controllable flying machine, invented just a few months ago. It has only one moving part, a propeller. It has no flaps, no hinges, no ailerons, no other actuators, no other control surfaces, just a simple propeller. Even though it's mechanically simple, there's a lot going on in its little electronic brain to allow it to fly in a stable fashion and to move anywhere it wants in space. Even so, it doesn't yet have the sophisticated algorithms of the tail-sitter, which means that in order to get it to fly, I have to throw it just right. And because the probability of me throwing it just right is very low, given everybody watching me, what we're going to do instead is show you a video that we shot last night.
這是「單軸機」, 世上結構最簡單的可控式飛行機器, 幾個月前才發明的。 它只有一個會動的零件,就是螺旋槳。 沒有襟翼,沒有絞鍊,沒有副翼, 沒有其他的驅動器和控制面板, 就只有一個簡單的螺旋槳。 即使在結構上非常簡單, 它小小的電腦裡卻裝了很多東西, 讓它可以穩定飛行 並移動到任何想去的位置。 儘管如此,它還沒有 像立式起落機那種複雜的演算法, 也就是說如果要讓它飛起來, 我得用很精確的方式把它丟出去。 但考量到我成功丟出它的機率非常低, 因為這麼有多人在盯著我, 所以我打算還是讓你們 看看昨晚錄的影片就好。
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If the monospinner is an exercise in frugality, this machine here, the omnicopter, with its eight propellers, is an exercise in excess. What can you do with all this surplus? The thing to notice is that it is highly symmetric. As a result, it is ambivalent to orientation. This gives it an extraordinary capability. It can move anywhere it wants in space irrespective of where it is facing and even of how it is rotating. It has its own complexities, mainly having to do with the interacting flows from its eight propellers. Some of this can be modeled, while the rest can be learned on the fly. Let's take a look.
如果單軸機是一種簡潔的應用, 那這台有8個螺旋槳的「全向直升機」 就是一種「超額」的應用。 這些額外的配備可以做什麼? 值得注意的是,它的結構高度對稱, 因此它沒有一定的方向性。 這讓它擁有不同凡響的能力, 可以移動到空間中的任何位置, 不用考慮它面對哪個方向, 甚至不用管它如何旋轉。 它有其複雜性, 主要和它的8個螺旋槳 之間的互動有關。 這些互動有一部分可透過程式達成, 其他的則可從飛行中自行學習。 我們來看看吧。
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If flying machines are going to enter part of our daily lives, they will need to become extremely safe and reliable. This machine over here is actually two separate two-propeller flying machines. This one wants to spin clockwise. This other one wants to spin counterclockwise. When you put them together, they behave like one high-performance quadrocopter. If anything goes wrong, however -- a motor fails, a propeller fails, electronics, even a battery pack -- the machine can still fly, albeit in a degraded fashion. We're going to demonstrate this to you now by disabling one of its halves.
如果飛行機器要成為 我們日常生活的一部份, 它們就得變得非常安全可靠。 那邊那台機器 實際上由兩個分開的雙軸飛行器構成。 其中一個試圖順時針旋轉, 另一個則試圖逆時針旋轉。 當你將它們結合, 就會變成一個高效能的四軸飛行器。 然而,如果有東西出錯, 像是馬達故障、螺旋槳故障, 電子零件,甚至電池組件故障, 它還是可以用效能較低的方式飛行。 我們來示範一下 關掉它其中一個飛行器會怎樣。
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This last demonstration is an exploration of synthetic swarms. The large number of autonomous, coordinated entities offers a new palette for aesthetic expression. We've taken commercially available micro quadcopters, each weighing less than a slice of bread, by the way, and outfitted them with our localization technology and custom algorithms. Because each unit knows where it is in space and is self-controlled, there is really no limit to their number.
最後要展示的 是人造螢火蟲群的研究成果。 為數眾多自動化且互相配合的機群 為美的展現帶來一種全新型態。 我們利用商品化的微型四軸飛行器, 順道一提,每個都比一片麵包還輕, 我們為它們裝上自己的定位科技 和客製化的演算法。 因為每個飛行器都知道自己的位置, 又都可以自我控制, 所以它們的數量完全沒有限制。
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Hopefully, these demonstrations will motivate you to dream up new revolutionary roles for flying machines. That ultrasafe one over there for example has aspirations to become a flying lampshade on Broadway.
希望這些展示讓各位能夠想像 飛行機器能在未來扮演的革命性角色, 例如我們那個超安全的飛行器, 它想必很渴望成為百老匯的飛行燈罩。
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The reality is that it is difficult to predict the impact of nascent technology. And for folks like us, the real reward is the journey and the act of creation. It's a continual reminder of how wonderful and magical the universe we live in is, that it allows creative, clever creatures to sculpt it in such spectacular ways. The fact that this technology has such huge commercial and economic potential is just icing on the cake.
事實上,要預測新興科技 帶來的影響是很困難的。 而對我們這樣的人來說, 創造新事物的旅程和行動, 才是真正的回報。 它不斷提醒我們, 我們生活的這個宇宙 有多精彩和神奇。 它讓有創造力、聰明的生物 將其雕塑成如此壯闊的面貌。 而這個科技 所擁有的龐大經濟和商業潛力, 不過是錦上添花罷了。
Thank you.
謝謝各位。
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