Pocket-Sized Drone Unfolds and Self-Deploys Almost Instantly

Engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed small drones that fold into the shape of a trapezoid when not in use, making them easier to package and transport. Inspired by origami, the design allows for the drone to unfurl and self-deploy within half a second. When activated, the force of the spinning rotors pop out the articulated arms, which are held in place by small magnets. The arms are made from fiberglass and polyester and, once the rotors are fully extended, the upper section shifts horizontally and locks into place. The design team is working on a version that would fold back up on its own, along with additional improvements to allow for increased carrying weight and strength.

Transcript

00:00:06 the novelty of this robot is that um it can fold and unfold the arms very quickly in about half a second and fly off and this is very important because flying robots need to have a certain size for the propellers in order to carry some payload now if you have an unfoldable robot you can simply fold it put it in your pocket or carry many of these more robots in your backpack and

00:00:27 then go and use them wherever you need very easily this quad RoR is equipped with four foldable arms uh manufactured according to an origami uh technique deployment is driven by the fors which are generated by the propellers so when the propellers start to turn the arm and folds and then magnets enable the engage of the horizontal fold and the arms are now

00:00:54 fully deployed and the quadrotor is ready for flight foldability is a very important question in in my lab a research question because it applies to all drones the principles that we have seen in this small robot need to be generalized to any type of drone with wings or with protective cages