Engineers from Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (now spinoff company Flyability) have developed a truly durable drone by placing it inside of a floating sphere-shaped cage that moves with the drone.
(Image via YouTube)
The drone’s cage moves with it so the vehicle’s propellers remain undisturbed. The counter rotating propellers cancel the device’s torque and the drone steers by vectoring thrust from the propellers coupled with movable vanes.
The Gimball doesn’t stop when it crashes, instead it uses obstacles to find its way around (as opposed to going out of its way to avoid them).
The the Gimball can be flown indoors since it’s easy and safe to use around humans.
See for yourself via the demonstration clip below:
The Gimball can fly into objects and roll on surfaces while still remaining stable; since it’s stuck inside of a cage, humans can even touch it during flight.
Gimball’s super-durable features allow it to capture up-close images of otherwise unapproachable objects to detect defects. Also, it requires almost no prior training or experience in piloting since mistakes that previously meant crashing a drone now only result in the robot bouncing against obstacles.
Gimball features.
These features allow the robot to gather close-up images to detect defects, and require almost no prior training or experience in piloting since mistakes that previously meant crashing a drone now only result in the robot bouncing against obstacles so it’s perfect for rescue missions. This kind of collision-proof drone also brings society one step closer to delivery service drones in populated areas.
Furthermore, this this kind of collision-proof drone also brings society one step closer to delivery service drones in populated areas.
The Gimball just won a UAE Drones for Good Award at an international competition aimed to reward the use of drones that have a positive impact on society.
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