Folding Drone Unfurls in Fraction of a Second

2015-08-10

Engineering teams around the world are putting significant time, effort and research dollars into the idea of using aerial drones in disaster relief scenarios. It makes a lot of sense: Drones are able to fly into dangerous or inaccessible locations and — outfitted with cameras and communications gear — can provide reconnaissance imagery of a disaster site or even make initial contact with survivors.

One of the impediments to deploying drones, however, is that they tend to be unwieldy in terms of transport and launch. A new project underway in Europe hopes to solve this issue by way of a pocket-sized, fold-up drone that’s easy to transport and can self-deploy in seconds.

Developed by a team of researchers at the Swiss university EPFL, the drones fold into the shape of a trapezoid when not in use, wrapping horizontally around the body of the device and making them easier to package and transport. When activated, the force of the spinning rotors pop out the articulated arms, which are held in place by small magnets.

Inspired by origami, the design allows for the drone to unfurl and self-deploy within a third of a second. The arms are made from lightweight fiberglass and polyester and, once the rotors are fully extended, the upper section shifts horizontally and locks into place.

Cyborg Roaches Could Find Disaster Survivors

To maintain stability, two of the quadcopters rotors must turn clockwise, with the other two turning counter-clockwise. A sensor detects when the rotors are fully extended, then reverses the spinning direction within 50 milliseconds. The process is also designed to be reversible, although the prototype version still needs to be folded back into place by hand.

The design team is already working on a version that would fold back up on its own, along with additional improvements to allow for increased carrying weight and strength.

2021-01-18

Russia is withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the country is beginning the procedure for withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies.

2020-12-26

Exclusive video of application of the ZALA Lancet UAV at the training ground.

ZALA Lancet is the first Russian-made unmanned airstrike system.

2020-12-23

Drone application in the oil and gas sector

Russia ranks 3rd in the World in the list of countries for oil production. The length of main pipelines in Russia is more than 250 000 km. Many pipelines often run in hard-to-reach areas of our country, which makes it difficult to monitor the condition of pipelines and increases the risk of illegal activities and violations. It is in such cases drones become an integral part of the oil and gas industry.

2020-09-24

Results оf The International Helicopter Industry Exhibition HeliRussia 2020

HeliRussia is the only exhibition in Russia where world achievements of the entire range of products and services of the helicopter industry are presented. In 2020, the exhibition was held from September 15 to 17 at the Crocus Expo exhibition center, Moscow.

2020-09-14

American retailer Walmart has launched the delivery of food and necessities using Flytrex drones.

On September 9, American retailer Walmart performed a pilot launch of food delivery using unmanned aircraft in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

2020-09-12

SenseFly drones help monitor Lake Winnipeg ice hazards in Switzerland.

The project, which is part of the Canadian Space Agency's Earth observation applications development program (EODAP), was aimed at identifying and monitoring lake ice levels, as well as detecting cracks and pressure ridges to raise awareness among local communities and first responders about the risks of moving lake ice.

2020-09-03

Development of unmanned aircraft on Military-Technical Forum "ARMY-2020"

On August 29, Military-Technical Forum "Army-2020" ended, although only a few months ago this event was under the big question due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the Forum was held and the results were impressive. Mostly participants and visitors of the forum were impressed by the display of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles.

2020-04-30

The Pros and Cons of Drone Delivery

The idea of commercial delivery drones is more relevant now than ever as social distancing guidelines have made contactless delivery an essential part of company operations. ‘

The first drone delivery was a tasty one: Dominos delivered two pizzas to a residence in New Zealand in 2016. Since then, companies have been racing towards liftoff.

2020-04-06

Medical Drone Delivery Success in Ireland

In September, it was reported on the world’s first BVLOS medical delivery in Ireland.

Researchers at NUI Galway partnered with German drone startup Wingcopter to transport prescription medication and blood samples for diabetes patients.

This week, the research team released more details about the project in an ENDO 2020 abstract to be published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

2020-04-06

Turkey set to become a major player on drone market

The success of Turkey’s indigenously produced Anka-S drone, and the development of the Anka-2 model, could position Turkey as a major player on the drone market, said an analyst writing in The National Interest.

Turkey began operating and experimenting with drones in the 1990s, starting its own development program. “Anka” was the name under which a line of domestic medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) was developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Turkey also bought IAI Herons from Israel and started using them in 2010, said analyst Charlie Gao on Saturday.