Students have developed a hybrid drone that can effortlessly switch between flying in the air and swimming in water.
A working prototype of the drone was created as part of a bachelor's thesis at Aalborg University in Denmark, and the students recently released a video demonstrating its functionality.
The footage shows the drone taking off near a large body of water and then rapidly diving underwater. It moves smoothly underwater for a few seconds before suddenly jumping to the surface and taking off again. The video shows several repetitions of the stunt from different angles.
You may like
-
Fearless Baby-Faced Robot Becomes World's First Humanoid to Fly
-
Watch as robots swarm, flow like water, and solidify like a solid.
-
Check out this cute elephant robot playing bowling. It's the first 3D printed robot of its kind.
Andrzej Kopaci, Pawel Kowalczyk, Krzysztof Serocki and Mikolaj Dzwigalo, who study applied industrial electronics, achieved this impressive transition from air to water using variable-pitch propellers that can rotate at different angles, adapting to the two different environments.
“The creation of the aerial underwater drone is a significant achievement in robotics, demonstrating that a single vehicle can operate efficiently in both air and water using variable-pitch propellers,” the students wrote in a joint letter to Live Science.
This is not the first hybrid drone that can operate in both air and water. In 2015, researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey presented a prototype of a similar device, and in 2023, Chinese scientists showed a drone that can go from air to water.
A LinkedIn post by Petar Durdevic, an associate professor who leads the Maritime Drones and Robotics research group at Aalborg University, says the students designed, built and tested their drone over two semesters at the university.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
