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)
TT
20

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.



Microsoft Pledges to Protect European Operations, Unveils Data Center Expansion

A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
TT
20

Microsoft Pledges to Protect European Operations, Unveils Data Center Expansion

A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)

Microsoft pledged Wednesday to fight any US government order to halt data center operations in Europe as it sought to soothe concerns among European customers that trans-Atlantic tensions would lead to service disruptions.

The company's president, Brad Smith, said it's not something that officials are talking about in Washington, D.C. but it is a “real concern” for Microsoft's customers across Europe, which include governments.

President Donald Trump has stoked tensions between the US and Europe with his tariff-fueled trade war, and alarmed European leaders with policy changes, including pausing intelligence sharing with Ukraine, that throw into doubt his administration's commitment to the trans-Atlantic relationship, The AP news reported.

Smith, speaking at an event in Brussels, tried to allay concerns as he announced that the company was expanding data center operations across Europe.

“What we want Europeans to know is that they can count on us,” he said in a speech.

“In the unlikely event we are ever ordered by any government anywhere in the world to suspend or cease cloud operations in Europe, we are committing that Microsoft will promptly and vigorously contest such a measure using all legal avenues available, including by pursuing litigation in court,” Smith wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

He noted that Microsoft has experience fighting lawsuits from the previous Trump administration as well as from former President Barack Obama’s administration.

“If we ever find ourselves losing we will put in place business continuity arrangements” that include storing computer code in Switzerland that European partners can access, he said.

Microsoft is making five digital commitments to Europe, including increasing its data center capacity by 40 in 16 countries over the next two years, Smith said. The expansion will cost tens of billions of dollars annually. Smith declined to be more specific about the cost when asked by reporters.

The expansion comes amid calls for Europe to assert tech and data sovereignty by weaning itself off reliance from big US cloud data service providers, including Microsoft, Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Google.

“Given recent geopolitical volatility, we recognize that European governments likely will consider additional options,” and Microsoft is committed to collaborating with European companies, Smith said.