The Mechanical Bird

Isn't it weird that as a species, although we lack the ability to fly ourselves, we engineered many complex machines capable of transcending these limitations. This simple thought is what attaches my soul to these mechanical birds. From helicopters to airplanes, I find it fascinating how humans can ignore their weak biology and learn to build machines that mimic what nature has been doing for millennials. While we might not be as efficient as nature, we definitely are stubborn enough to keep trying.

My words might seem abstract, but to help you understand, let me illustrate my point with this fascinating story from the Greek Mythology. One of the earliest known legends about flying is the Greek legend of Daedalus and his son Icarus, who fastened feathers 🪶 together with thread and wax to mimic the wings of a bird 🦅. The legend ends with the tragic demise of Icarus as he flies too close to the burning sun. Although, we have been dreaming about flight for as long as we existed. We never managed to actually do until the last century. Let that slowly sink in.

Taking part in this "forbidden" pursuit to conquer the sky makes my heart pump a little bit faster and my desire burn a little bit harder.

After years of dreaming, years of trying, and years of failing. The day came where Artemis X made its first gracious flight. I made an exciting video to commemorate that moment. Through that experience, I learned an invaluable lesson; Success is Failure in Disguise. I published the following writing immediately after that. It perfectly illustrates that lesson.

"I want to share a special story 💛 one that I hope will encourage you to follow your dreams.
It takes a lot of passion to start something beautiful and an unfathomable amount of dedication to see it through. It is undoubtedly a huge burden on the soul to believe in an idea with no proof. It tires the mind and pushes one to give up, abandon, and surrender.
I spent the last year teaching myself to make decisions and to stick with them until the end. It is persistence! It is to keep pushing even when no progress is made! It is to believe that; there is no light at the end of the tunnel because you create the light and the tunnel! Only when you have such a control, you can see the beautiful results you dreamt of.
Artemis X is far from being the end. It is proof that I am ready to challenge myself beyond imagination. It is proof to myself first and to the world second; I learned the lesson.
Finally, I named this drone Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the Hunt. Because it is the symbol of me hunting my dreams ❤️ Now go hunt yours! 💛"

To this day, those mere words still give me goosebumps. While it is a chaotic burning desire, It certainly was aimed and following a clear vision of what this should accomplish. For that, we need to dive deeper into the Mechanical Heart of Artemis.

I am not going to get in the nitty-gritty details of what I used to make this version of Artemis X. As that might (and probably will) change in the next iterations. But there are some core ideas that are the pumping heart of this project; Modularity, Versatility and Collective Intelligence.

This simply means that parts can be interchanged between the Artemis drones. And yes, I know what I said. Not just Artemis X but the whole Artemis family of drones! While this seems like a straightforward thing to do, in the world of complex mechanical birds it becomes a huge undertaking as every gram and screw counts.

Thanks to modularity, a new door opens to a whole world of infinite possibilities. Instead of building 10 drones to solve 10 different problems, build 1 versatile drone that can be specifically modified for every type of problem. This is crucial to the Artemis family, as it aims to be a problem-solving platform rather than a specific solution.

Intelligence is a very sensitive topic. I don't aim to create crazy, self-aware machines. Although, it won't be too hard to do 😂 My aim is simply to give them mission planning and coordination abilities. It is a basic level of intelligence on an individual level, but in a group it adds up to marvelous results, just like bees 🐝! This is by far the biggest challenge of this project. But hard doesn't mean impossible.

While mythology is infused from the name to the core of this project. Artemis X is very much real! And development on its sister Artemis T began right after. Artemis T brings even more exciting and novel ideas to the drone scene. It is going to be an interesting adventure, and definitely one worth following 🤭