Strange Festo Drone Expels Bottles Right Into Your Hand

Some days you'll be working hard, and you'll get pretty thirsty. But have you ever been thirsty enough that you've thought to yourself "I wish there was a giant bubble that would expel a bottle of water right in front of me." Sure, that possibility might never have occurred to you, but prepare to have it haunt your dreams in the days to come, because it's a real thing.

We've covered some of Festo's cute insect-like drones in the past. Their butterflies and ants may be fun to watch, but they don't have a lot of practical uses. However, their latest drone deviates from both of those characteristics. The new FreeMotionHandling sphere will work to deliver refreshing drinks, and other objects, but cute is not a word I would use to describe this...thing.

The helium-filled balloon is powered by a series of eight on-board propellers. By utilizing GPS guidance and a pair of cameras, it can float over to a bottle of water, and use its FlexShapeGripper to grab onto a bottle of water, and take it up inside of itself. Then, it can float over to someone, and expel the bottle right into their hand. Take a look at it in action below.

This is one of those concepts that has almost no practical use in the real world. After all, it's far too bulky to be useful inside, and it's probably too light to not get blown away outside. However, despite how bizarre it looks, it does prove that the technologies can be used to deliver small objects from one place to the other, with delicate accuracy.

VIA: Engadget