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This Crash-Proof Drone Can Fly

Through Forests and Disaster
Wreckage
Written by PJ SMITH

July 1, 2014 // 10:05 AM EST

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/Biomimeticdrones-perch-on-power-lines-like-birds-to-recharge), deliver cars
(http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-armys-drone-helicopters-will-airmail-driverless-cars-

to-the-battlefield), and save lives (http://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-iranian-drone-is-abetter-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/thebest-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,Like
the propeller
enough
to slightly impact
its flightpath.
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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.
-TOPICS: drones (/tag/drones), drone research (/tag/drone+research), machines
(/tag/machines), crash-proof drone (/tag/crash-proof+drone), Gimball (/tag/Gimball)

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Flyability 8monthsago

ThegoodPhDtimesarenowoverandwearebringingGimballtothemarketthroughournew
startupFlyability!Visitusatwww.flyability.comorfollowus@fly_ability
2

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P3Nn 8monthsago

That'sallwelluntilitgetshookedonsomethingorfallsintosomewater..
Stillprettycoolthough.

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Higher_Ground 8monthsago

Nice,Irememberseeingsomethingsimilarthatwasmarketedtowardstheindoorscrowdsoit
couldbumpoffwallsandceilingswithoutbreakingthepropellerblades.

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BritBeatzzz 8monthsago

thisisbrilliant.Iwantone.

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