Design and Control of a Passively Morphing Quadcopter

Design and Control of a Passively Morphing Quadcopter -- High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab), UC Berkeley - hiperlab.berkeley.edu
A post-peer-review version of the related article is available at:
hiperlab.berkel...
We present a novel quadcopter design that uses passive rotary joints to enable rapid aerial morphing without the use of additional actuators. The normally rigid connections between the arms of the quadcopter and the central body are replaced by sprung hinges that allow for the arms of the quadcopter to fold downward when low thrusts are produced by the propellers, resulting in a reduction of the largest dimension of the vehicle by approximately 50%. The ability of the vehicle to reduce its size during flight allows, e.g., for the traversal of gaps through which a non-morphing quadcopter could not pass. The vehicle is designed such that existing quadcopter controllers and trajectory generation algorithms can be used, provided that some additional constraints on the control inputs are met.
Researchers:
Nathan Bucki
Mark W. Mueller
Video:
Nathan Bucki
Acknowledgement:
Christian Castaneda
Martin Xu
Funding:
NSF GRFP (Grant No. DGE 1752814)
Powley Fund
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley

[@borg1874]

I too am impressed. As a hobbyist I see great potential.

[@Mike-bg3cf]

Please tell me. Potential for what? What is a use case for this?

[@borg1874]

@@Mike-bg3cf I can see free style quad fliers flying through tight gaps. I'm not looking for any type of practical application just as a hobbyist sport perspective, for fun.

[@davenik1999]

Drone racing is about to get even more rad!

[@howitzerm777]

Now i figured out how to do those hard gaps

[@kirankhan5680]

Outstanding idea but as per my knowledge, this needs more research and finding to use them in real conditions. wish you best of luck

[@MinhVu-fo6hd]

Does this design inherently require more thrust (to counteract the spring forces) in the unfolded configuration?

[@dhanusharjun6039]

Hi I'm Dhanush from India and I'm interested in this project could you guide me for this

[@JorgeGamaliel]

Awesome!!

[@fiftystatebanana]

Very nice

[@lululu111]

impressive

[@WoofuaDeGavqe]

Nice

[@MindRiderFPV]

I can see takeoff and landing problems. Especially landing without breaking a propeller blade. Unless you have folding blades. But it would still be stuck to the ground after landing.

[@dontbestupid6664]

It’s a prototype. They are trying to solve the problems at hand before they move on to the next one. And if they still have any ingenuity left after coming up with such a design, which I don’t doubt they do, I’m sure they will solve that problem elegantly too.

[@Metamere]

It would be simple to solve that with a solenoid actuated lockout mechanism for the arms. More weight and complexity, but it wouldn't be impossible or anything. Just not necessary for their proof of concept.

[@dablet]

very impressive.
please work on making the drone completely silent for the next project

[@VonRippin]

Impossible. Air turbulence will always produce some sound. You would have to move to another method of propulsion like magnetism and remove propellers altogether

[@dontbestupid6664]

I can see the military putting a bomb on this thing. The drone version of shooting a missile down a chimney

[@Mike-bg3cf]

Why not just use the missile.

[@Mike-bg3cf]

Can anyone tell me a real world use case for this that doesn't have a more suitable solution already?

[@LibertyDankmeme]

killbots -ua-cam.com/video/l6octUJHZ9Y/v-deo.html

[@DunkLjud]

Skynet...