--- description: I, for one, welcome our new armed-drone overlords. title: Watch This Crazy Drone With Arms Fly and Turn a Wheel in Mid-Air image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch This Crazy Drone With Arms Fly and Turn a Wheel in Mid-Air by [Ryan Sager](/author/ryan-sager/) ## Ryan Sager Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 19, 2014 8:22 PM CUT by [Ryan Sager](/author/ryan-sager/) ## Ryan Sager Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 19, 2014 8:22 PM CUT Sure, drones can [take videos of Martha Stewart’s farm](http://time.com/3053003/martha-stewart-drone/ "undefined") and maybe even save the [environment](http://science.time.com/2013/12/03/shopping-by-drone-could-be-good-for-the-environment/ "undefined"). But… can they unscrew a bottle cap? Play Twister? Spin a dreidel? Do anything that involves having arms? Well, now we have a drone with arms—that can fly and turn a valve wheel mid-air. Above is the video, and here’s the paper’s title and abstract (**flip to 1:00 in the video to see the really cool stuff**): --- > “” --- I, for one, welcome our new armed-drone overlords. (via [IEEE Spectrum](http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/video-friday-iros-2014 "undefined")) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3404624/watch-this-crazy-drone-with-arms-fly-and-turn-a-wheel-mid-air/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3404624/watch-this-crazy-drone-with-arms-fly-and-turn-a-wheel-mid-air/"},"headline":"Watch This Crazy Drone With Arms Fly and Turn a Wheel in Mid-Air","datePublished":"2014-09-19T20:22:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:18:52.393Z","description":"I, for one, welcome our new armed-drone overlords","url":"https://time.com/3404624/watch-this-crazy-drone-with-arms-fly-and-turn-a-wheel-mid-air/","keywords":["Innovation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Sager","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-sager/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3404624/watch-this-crazy-drone-with-arms-fly-and-turn-a-wheel-mid-air/","name":"Watch This Crazy Drone With Arms Fly and Turn a Wheel in Mid-Air"}}]}] ```