Check out this rotating omnidirectional drone from ETH Zürich

As we all know is advancing rapidly. One of the best-known examples is perhaps from with the introduction of the Skydio R1 drone two years go and more recently the Skydio 2 drone. These unmanned aircraft fly almost completely autonomously and avoid obstacles like no other drone can do. Today, however, the engineers from the ETH Zürich show us a tilting, rotating and omnidirectional drone. You'll have to see it to believe how this drone can move through the air.

The omnidirectional drone from ETH Zürich

The omnidirectional drone from ETH Zürich has six arms with two sets of propellers at the end of each arm. These propellers obviously rotate, but not just in the way you'd expect them to. No, these props or rotor assemblies also rotate themselves at the end of each arm, allowing the drone to move in any direction through space.

Watch the video below if you'd file to see what this looks like in real life.

Of course, this is a research prototype drone for now. But it is not hard to see how technology like this can be very useful for doing inspection work in dangerous situations. A smaller version of an omnidirectional drone could be very useful for mineshaft inspections or other interior inspections where it might be unsafe for humans to enter.

In the description of the video, they say:

“Omnidirectional micro aerial vehicles are a growing field of research, with demonstrated advantages for aerial interaction and uninhibited observation. While systems with complete pose omnidirectionality and high hover efficiency have been developed independently, a robust system that combines the two has not been demonstrated to date. This paper presents the design and optimal control of a novel omnidirectional vehicle that can exert a wrench in any orientation while maintaining efficient flight configurations. The system design is motivated by the result of a morphology design optimization. A six degrees of freedom optimal controller is derived, with an actuator allocation approach that implements task prioritization, and is robust to singularities. Flight experiments demonstrate and verify the system's capabilities.”

What do you think of an omnidirectional drone like the one shown in this video? Where do you see unmanned aircraft with capabilities like these add value? Let us know in the comments below.

Check Out This Rotating Omnidirectional Drone From Eth Zürich 1

Follow DroneXL.co on your Google News feed.

Get your Part 107 Certificate

Pass the test and take to the skies with the Pilot Institute. We have helped thousands of people become airplane and commercial drone pilots. Our courses are designed by industry experts to help you pass FAA tests and achieve your dreams.

pilot institute dronexl

FTC: DroneXL.co uses affiliate links that generate income.* We do not sell, share, rent out, or spam your email, ever. Our email goes out on weekdays around 5:30 p.m.

Haye Kesteloo
Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Founder of DroneXL.co, where he covers all drone-related news, DJI rumors and writes drone reviews, and EVXL.co, for all news related to electric vehicles. He is also a co-host of the PiXL Drone Show on YouTube and other podcast platforms. Haye can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo.

Articles: 2378

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap
%d bloggers like this: