I have been keeping an intermittent eye on a company in Germany called Festo AG for the last few years, mostly because they have a tendency to do really cool things for kind of obscure reasons. Perhaps they are just a bunch of really cool people! Anyway, I thought to check on them again today, and it struck me maybe there are people here who have never heard of or seen the amazing flying/swimming "things" these people come up with from time to time.

 

They have an entire menagerie of air and water critters and other things at this point, and I recommend seeking out some of their other videos since I can only post 2. Its pretty amazing. (Check out the air Penguin and the Exohand, the Aerocuda and the AquaRay....... it goes on)

 

Take a look!!

 

 

Wow, love them! Combined with a Nerf gun, LIKE THIS, what else would ya need in life?

These are amazingly cool. I renember watching a documentary about them and they are amazingly cool. Personally I think that the one with the jellyfish which is also one YouTube is the best.

 

They remind me of these:

 

http://www.red5.co.uk/air-swimmers.aspx

 

Obviously not as advanced but still they look amazingly fun.

Wow, love them! Combined with a Nerf gun, LIKE THIS, what else would ya need in life?

 

Poor things would never stand the recoil; you might have better luck with toxic mechanical bird poop.........

 

 

Interestingly, the penguins are autonomous and can sense each other to avoid collisions. Otherwise they just do their own thing and wander around avoiding obstacles and looking cool.

 

God knows what the second thing is supposed to be. Rorschach test?

 

 

I am familiar with Festo from my days working in Manufacturing Engineering with Cummins. They make great high quality components so no surprise their R&D guys are playing around with this sort of stuff.

I am familiar with Festo from my days working in Manufacturing Engineering with Cummins. They make great high quality components so no surprise their R&D guys are playing around with this sort of stuff.

 

They have videos where they justify it by saying they are learning from nature and etc, but there are other companies out there, and they are not making Air Penquins..... :lol:

 

I think this is what engineers do for fun.

I think this is what engineers do for fun.

 

Definitely but you can imagine how much they learn by using their components in these applications, as well as the marketing they get from it. Similar to Honda developing that ridiculous robot. Japanese people love Robots, so Honda's R&D marketing works for that market.

 

I think Festo's stuff is cooler.

Definitely but you can imagine how much they learn by using their components in these applications, as well as the marketing they get from it. Similar to Honda developing that ridiculous robot. Japanese people love Robots, so Honda's R&D marketing works for that market.

 

I think Festo's stuff is cooler.

Absolutely. Having fun is how little kids learn how the world works and learn new stuff. For these engineers, operating in a far more sophisticated world, they will also find out new things about their field. You could call it blue-sky research if 'having fun' isn't a fancy enough term for what they're up to.