"SPARKED" Nominated to the NYC Drones Film Festival

The short film, "externe Seite SPARKED: A Live Interaction Between Humans and Quadcopters" has been nominated to the externe Seite New York City Drone Film Festival. Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and VERITY Studios partnered to develop a short film featuring 10 quadcopters in a flying dance performance. The collaboration resulted in a unique, interactive choreography where humans and drones move in sync. Precise computer control allows for a large performance and movement vocabulary of the quadcopters and opens the door to many more applications in the future.

Behind the Scenes Research

More than just a short film, "SPARKED" demonstrates the work of academic researchers from the lab of Raffaello D'Andrea, Professor at ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control where students focus on developing and testing algorithms to explore emerging technology and dynamically control large numbers of flying machines. In an interview just after the film's premiere on September 22nd, 2014, Raffaello D'Andrea was quoted saying, "We have found that building complete systems that allow people to experience what control systems are all about is highly educational and incredibly motivating for our students. At the same time, complete systems like our Flying Machine Arena are excellent for testing theoretic concepts and often raise new and broader theoretic challenges than the immediate application."

Quadcopters Take on a Starring Role

Developing flying technologies that safely interact with people and the environment is one of the research challenges, D'Andrea's team faces. Cirque du Soleil and VERITY Studios teamed up to formulate a choreography that makes the quadcopters the "stars" of the film, demonstrating how flying machines and humans can interact in a way that both entertains and delights us. 

See You at the Festival

The New York City Drone Fesitval (#NYCDFF) will take place at the Directors Guild of America Theater from March 4th - March 6th 2016 and will feature interactive panel discussions and special guest speakers in addition to screening nominated films and the annual awards ceremony. Members of the SPARKED Team will also attend. Visit the festival externe Seite website for more information and ticketing.