While drones are typically—and quite reasonably—associated with the horrors of modern warfare, California-based startup Matternet, Inc. hopes that a network of peaceful unmanned aerial vehicles could provide vital assistance to communities in need. Their remotely operated electric quadcopters are intended to deliver supplies to people in areas lacking in basic infrastructure, such as remote towns and villages as well as to those in post-disaster zones.

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Post tags: Disaster Assistance, Disaster Relief, drone, electric aircraft, electric vehicle, flying robots, Matternet, nasa, Paola Santana, Poverty, robots, rural infrastructure, singularity university, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Scientists from the UK Universities of Sheffield and Sussex have been collaborating on an ambitious project to produce the first accurate computer models of a honey bee brain. The project is designed to help us advance our understanding of Artificial Intelligence, and how animals think. The UK team will build models of the systems in the brain that govern a honey bee’s vision and sense of smell – and then they will use the information to create the first flying robot able to sense and act as autonomously as a bee.

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Post tags: artificial intelligence, bees, drones, flying robots, honey bee brain, honey bees, robots, university of sheffield, university of sussex, virtual systems

Today, robots have taken on a whole new role that reaches far outside the realm of science fiction. Scientists and engineers have been hard at work developing some of the most innovative robotic machines, capable of doing everything from guiding the blind to evaluating disaster situations from hundreds of feet in the air. Jump ahead for 6 of our favorite designs, each of which have been created to better our future!

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Post tags: disaster relief robots, eco robots, flying robots, green robots, human aid robots, human betterment robots, robot design, robotic seeing eye dogs, robotics, robotics engineering, robots, robots for emergency relief

A swarm of robots working flawlessly in tandem have successfully built a beautiful undulating tower in a warehouse outside of Paris. The world’s first building built by flying robots was designed by architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler of Gramazio & Kohler, and it was assembled in a matter of days by levitating robots engineered and built by ETH Zurich. The installation, entitled Flight Assembled Architecture, was built in an art space called FRAC – check out a video of the process after the jump!

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Post tags: art installation, flying robot tower, flying robots, frac, green art, green construction, green technology, Paris, robot art, robot building, robot construction, robot construction workers, robot swarm

Soaring like robotic birds, these energy generating flying devices were conceived by Carlos Campos Yamila Zynda Aiub Architects for the skies of Dubai. Called Wings, the curious “creatures” use solar cells to store energy, which they then use to illuminate the land below them at night in a flutter of constellation-like formations.

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Post tags: 2010 Land Art Generator Initiative Design Competition, Carlos Campos Yamila Zynda Aiub Architects robot, choreographies in the sky, dubai, eco design, flying robots, green design, robotic bird, Solar Power, solar powered robots, sustainable design, wing