Foldable drone wins design award

Davide Falanga, Kevin Kleber, Stefano Mintchev, Dario Floreano, Davide Scaramuzza and the University of Zurich (UZH) have been awarded the winning prize of the Create the Future Design Contest in the  Aerospace & Defense category for their foldable drone design. The quadrotor was the result of a joint development between the UZH and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). The drone can retract its propeller arms during flight, which means it is able to enter buildings through a crack in a wall or a partially open window. The research team was inspired by birds that fold their wings in mid-air.

The new quadrotor has four propellers that rotate independently, mounted on mobile arms, with servo-motors enabling the mobile arms to fold around the main frame. The aim with this new drone is to support rescue mission in the aftermath of natural catastrophes. “The final goal is to give the drone a high-level instruction such as ‘enter that building, inspect every room and come back’ and let it figure out by itself how to do it”, explained UZH researcher Davide Falanga at the end of 2018, when the UZH presented the foldable drone. The researchers showcased their development in a video as well.