This Crash-Proof Drone Can FlyThrough Forests and DisasterWreckage

July 1, 2014 // 10:05 AM EST

Written by PJ SMITH

How do you make a drone that can navigate through a forest? By putting it in a cage, then

letting it bump into whatever it wants.

Some UAVs may soon land on powerlines (http://motherboard.vice.com/read/Biomimetic-

drones-perch-on-power-lines-like-birds-to-recharge), deliver cars

(http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-armys-drone-helicopters-will-airmail-driverless-cars-

ENTHE CHANNELS

to-the-battlefield), and save lives (http://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-iranian-drone-is-a-

better-lifeguard-than-david-hasselhoff), but flying through the unpredictable wreckage of a

disaster area has been, until now, too dangerous for your average hexacopter.

An article in the Journal of Field Robotics

(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rob.21495/abstract) describes the first tests of

theGimBall, a drone that appears pretty indestructable, even during flight. The drone is

designed toliterallycollide with objects and continue moving. To make this possible, the

teamtrades obstacle-detecting sensors for a spherical rigid frame that can roll on and

around obstacles while in flight, protect against debris, and propel it along the ground. It

looks like this:

IMAGE: JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS

The drone was also tested in a series of pre-programmed autonomous flights in a fairly thick

forest. The algorithmordered GimBall to fly upto an altitude of a meter, then to head north

until the "end of [the] experimental area." As you can see in the video above, its a terrifyingly

efficient bushwacker, even with its roll-cage being made with polygons that are too wide to

protect against thin branches.

The engineers originally debuted the tech last year, but have a few plans for GimBall V2: They

plan to tighten up the rollcage's openings, adding thin force sensors to the cage itself, and

further optimize the mathematical collision program to enable GimBall to efficiently drive on

the ground or ride along an uneven surface. All of these are changes are inching towards a

drone that can stay in the air, no matter what.

It's a design that's already making its way into commercial drones, on a rudimentary level, at

least. Parrot's new mini drone features a roll cage (http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-

best-drones-money-can-buy)the drone can travel on the ground and bump off walls with

no problem. It's not nearly as sophisticated, however, as the GimBall, so let's take a look at its

inner workings.

The team, led byAdrien Briod and Przemyslaw Kornatowski, of Switzerland's Ecole

Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne,had todesign aframe withgeometry that couldkeep

the drone stable, airborne, and controllable when ricocheting or powering through

something.

Briod's team uses an internal frame that's made from a type of free-rotating camera-stand,

called a Gimbal Systemhence the name. On the inside of the drone'sGimbalSystem's

there's a propeller, stabilization system, and camera, and on the outside, there's a roll cage.

The whole thing works because, when it hits something,the outside frame rotates and

absorbs shock, while only minimally affecting the orientation of its propeller. When a collision

happens, the propeller only rocks enough to slightly impact its flightpath. Follow 62.4Kfollowers YouTube 469K

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TOPICS: drones (/tag/drones), drone research (/tag/drone+research), machines(/tag/machines), crash-proof drone (/tag/crash-proof+drone), Gimball (/tag/Gimball)

IMAGE:JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS

As you can see, the GimBall is fine with bouncing off stuff and continuing about its day. One

of the main concerns with drones these days is their propensity to crashthere's lots of

value in one that manages not to do that.

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Flyability 8monthsagoThegoodPhDtimesarenowoverandwearebringingGimballtothemarketthroughournewstartupFlyability!Visitusatwww.flyability.comorfollowus@fly_ability

2

P3Nn 8monthsagoThat'sallwelluntilitgetshookedonsomethingorfallsintosomewater..

Stillprettycoolthough.

Higher_Ground 8monthsagoNice,Irememberseeingsomethingsimilarthatwasmarketedtowardstheindoorscrowdsoitcouldbumpoffwallsandceilingswithoutbreakingthepropellerblades.

BritBeatzzz 8monthsagothisisbrilliant.Iwantone.

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