South Korea Team Showcases Drone That Serves as ‘Flying Shopping Cart’

 Park Hyun-geun, a graduate student of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), demonstrates the aerial transportation platform "Palletrone" on stairs at the Seoul Tech in Seoul, South Korea, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Park Hyun-geun, a graduate student of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), demonstrates the aerial transportation platform "Palletrone" on stairs at the Seoul Tech in Seoul, South Korea, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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South Korea Team Showcases Drone That Serves as ‘Flying Shopping Cart’

 Park Hyun-geun, a graduate student of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), demonstrates the aerial transportation platform "Palletrone" on stairs at the Seoul Tech in Seoul, South Korea, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Park Hyun-geun, a graduate student of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), demonstrates the aerial transportation platform "Palletrone" on stairs at the Seoul Tech in Seoul, South Korea, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)

South Korean researchers have developed a transport drone flying on multiple flexible rotors that self-correct to stay level in flight and can be used as a "flying shopping cart" to carry goods over uneven terrain such as stairs.

The prototype developed by a Seoul National University of Science and Technology team has a cargo platform mounted on top of a multi-rotor drone and is handled by a person using gentle force to guide the hovering aircraft.

Members of the team demonstrated the hovering platform with a handlebar much like one on a push shopping cart moving objects up and down stairs and loading boxes on top as it hovered mid-air and maintained its balance by using a center of mass estimation algorithm.

To move objects over uneven terrain or stairs when a wheeled cart cannot, the drone responds to human control with what the developers call a physical human-robot interaction technique that anticipates human intentions for smooth flight, said Lee Seung-jae, professor of mechanical system design engineering.

But the broader focus of Lee's team is not on developing a shopping cart to be used over steps, but instead on applications that would use a drone with reliable horizontal stability without pitching and rolling.

"The Palletrone can be more than a flying shopping cart," he said, referring to the name the team gave the prototype by joining the words pallet, which is the platform for cargo on top, and drone.

Lee's team has tested a platform to carry objects up to 3 kg (6.6 lbs), and concedes commercial applications for cargo transportation at such a small weight easily carried by humans is limited.

Still, the mechanism that allows the drone to change directions in flight without banking and to maintain level attitude has applications for delivering sensitive or fragile payloads, Lee said.

But Lee's team is looking further ahead for the technology's potential use for uncrewed "flying taxis" carrying humans and for drones to be "refueled" mid-air, by changing batteries so the aircraft do not need to return to base for a fresh charge.

Multi-rotor drones are inherently limited in speed and range compared to fixed-wing drones but have better control and maneuverability, including the ability to hover in flight.

They have been used to deliver cargo, food and medical supplies, but commercial applications have been limited largely because it is impractical to increase the size of the battery enough to transport a heavier payload over a longer distance.

Seoul Tech's work was published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters this year, the publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers based in New York.



First Artwork by Humanoid Robot Sells for $1.3m

Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig. Ben Stansall / AFP/File
Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig. Ben Stansall / AFP/File
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First Artwork by Humanoid Robot Sells for $1.3m

Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig. Ben Stansall / AFP/File
Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig. Ben Stansall / AFP/File

A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday.
The 2.2 meter (7.5 feet) portrait by "Ai-Da", the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist, smashed pre-sale expectations of $180,000 when it went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby's Digital Art Sale, said AFP.
"Today's record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to go up for auction marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between A.I. technology and the global art market," said the auction house.
The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.
Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer and was devised by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.
"The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society's shifts," said Meller.
“Ai-Da Robot as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy," he added.
Ai-Da generates ideas through conversations with members of the studio, and suggests creating an image of Turing during a discussion about "A.I. for good".
The robot was then asked what style, color, content, tone and texture to use, before using cameras in its eyes to look at a picture of Turing and create the painting.
Meller led the team that created Ai-Da with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.
Meller said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.
The artwork's "muted tones and broken facial planes" seemingly suggested "the struggles Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI", he said.
Ai-Da's works were "ethereal and haunting" and "continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power", he added.