Rise of the Machines: Quadcopter drones build rope bridge

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich have built a rope bridge using drone technology.

The bridge, which can support the weight of one person, was constructed by flying the drones between two scaffolding erections. The quadcopters were equipped with a motorised spool, which allowed the drones to control the tension acting on the rope during its placement.

A plastic tube guided the rope to the release point located between two propellers. Compliant flight behaviour was achieved by estimating the external forces and torques exerted on the drone by the rope during deployment.

The rope used during the project was made out of Dyneema, which is a material with a low weight- to-strength ration, making it ideal for aerial construction.

The drones can be seen in action in a youtube video showing the bridge’s construction.

The Aerial Construction project is a collaboration between the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control and the Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication that began in July 2012. Its objective is to research and develop methods and techniques for robotic aerial construction.

The researchers commented on the study: “Flying machines offer a number of advantages compared to traditional construction machines. Specifically, they can reach any point in space and fly in or around existing objects.

However, they did also note some disadvantages, such as “limited payload and accuracy”.

The project was conducted at the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena; a portable area used exclusively for autonomous flight.

Measuring up to 10 x 10 x 10 metres,the arena contains  a high-precision motion capture system, a wireless communication network, and bespoke software to allow  sophisticated algorithms for estimation and control to be executed.

Drone technology is tipped to be play a huge part in the future of the construction industry including usage in aerial surveying, which allows wide areas of terrain to be scanned in a short space of time.

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