This 'Flying Saucer' Doubles The Flight Time Of Regular Drones

Low endurance is the biggest drawback of drones. However, recently, Swiss researchers developed a type of drones that could help reduce the problem. Not following the regular design with four blades, the drone of Flybotix (EPFL startup) features only two propellers. That doubles the flying time of a regular device.

Controlling this drone is just as easy as piloting a regular UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). However, it's the improved longevity and its small size that make it become the ideal candidate for the job of searching for survivors in collapsed buildings and inspecting highly dangerous areas as well as other tricky missions.

The Flybotix drone features a cowl that's 30 centimeters wide, together with a pair of props, one of which stacked on the other's top. The props rotate in opposite directions. That design choice helps to reduce the drag force considerably while increasing the efficiency in comparison to the traditional four-blade models. However, a problem remains is that this craft has the tendency of being quite unstable and hard to handle.

To solve that problem, the Swiss researchers turned to digital control systems. They made a stabilization mechanism that's powered by algorithms and stable. It will calculate the tilt and rotation's offset of each wing to perform straight flight or various kind of maneuvers. This mechanism simplifies the drone so it would be easy to control like any drone that relies on regular joystick controls.

The drone's applications

Samir Bouabdallah, lead of the research, said that this drone has a foam coating and small size that make it capable of absorbing mild collisions. With those features, this drone is an ideal candidate for investigating dangerous, difficult-to-reach places. He also added that this tech has many applications such as in law enforcement, public safety, or just anywhere that need a miniaturized drone.