The Distributed Flight Array (DFA) is a combination of vertical take off and landing modules and modular reconfigurable robots. A single robot is completely self contained but cannot control itself in flight. So for flight, several robots dock together. Once enough robots have assembled, the entire thing takes flight for a predetermined amount of time. Then the assembly breaks, only to repeat the cycle again.
According to Raymond Oung, the developer of the distributed flight array,
It is a flying platform consisting of multiple, autonomous, single-propeller vehicles, and these single propeller vehicles – or modules – are able to generate enough thrust to lift themselves into the air, but are completely unstable in flight, kind of like a helicopter without a tail rotor.
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Robots, as you know, are inherently eye-catching to the public – control theory not so much. Concepts in control theory are usually difficult for the general public to appreciate [...], so projects like the Distributed Flight Array provide the opportunity to illustrate control theory research to the general public in a tangible way.
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One of the motivations behind art is the expression of the imagination. By my definition art is made with the intention of stimulating thought and emotion. I’m not sure if the flight array really stimulates emotion, but it certainly stimulates thought. For what it is, it does communicate ideas to a broad audience, such as expressing the underlying math and control algorithms behind it, so in that sense I do believe it is a piece of art.
Checkout the Distributed Flight Array homepage.
