How Many Drones Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

As it turns out, the answer is two. A better question might be “how many lightbulbs can a pilot smash while performing a simple task with a drone?” (The answer is about nine) – But that’s not so catchy. Yep, this is another weird and wonderful story from the drone world, in which two friends set out on an ambitious mission to change a lightbulb with a drone.

Marek Baczynski and his pal Sven may have just been having a little fun, but their lightbulb-changing drone exploits are a pretty good illustration of where we are with the technology at the moment. Sure, there’s a nagging fear that they may end up taking all of our jobs and doing them faster and more efficiently than we ever could, but there is still a long way to go until we reach that point. Electricians: your jobs are safe. For now. Take a look at the videos below, as these two home-movie makers tried to change a lightbulb with a drone.

Marek and Sven spent the day (we’ve all been there) attempting to remove a bulb and screw in a new one, first of all with a modified Eachine E30W, and then more successfully with a Syma X5C. The result was pretty much as you’d expect: there were a few crashes, several smashed bulbs and plenty of broken glass. But to be honest, changing a lightbulb with a drone, especially one of the cheaper, less sensitive consumer models, was never going to be easy. The flying on this is actually pretty impressive.

Some of the less successful attempts can be seen in the video below:

So not quite an example of the rise of the machines just yet. Maybe the above videos will start a trend of drone pilots attempting household chores. We can’t wait.