University Of Maryland Demonstrates Mini Monocopter
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 22 of October , 2009 at 12:49 am
Last month, we posted about Lockheed Martin’s SAMARAI UAV, a monocopter designed to test control principles for a much smaller unmanned reconnaissance drone. The University of Maryland has just demonstrated the results of several years worth of research on monocopters, and they’ve got a fully controllable vehicle that uses a single wing no larger than a seed pod, and packs a camera to boot:
As you can see, the UMD monocopter can take off from the ground, hover, fly controllably, and land without killing itself. The key was a lot of research into the flight characteristics of the seed pods themselves, which enables the monocopter to autorotate just like the real thing. Obviously, the camera isn’t really useful for surveillance at this stage, but that’s solvable. Researchers suggest that the craft could be airdropped, autorotate for a while, and then be controlled remotely for “defense, fire monitoring and search-and-rescue purposes.”
The implication of the Lockheed Martin project (based on this image, anyway) is that their final product will be both the size and form factor of a samara, while the UMD monocopter relies on an external motor and battery pack for propulsion, stability, and control. While it would be totally awesome (and very stealthy) to have a little surveillance robot that looks like a seed pod, for most purposes, having a functionally similar design is just as good, and (most importantly) UMD has an aircraft that works… And it only costs $500, which odds are is going to be a damn sight cheaper than anything that Lockheed Martin produces.
[ UMD Press Release ] and [ Project Website ] VIA [ Boing Boing ]
Comments (1)
Category: Biorobotics, Research
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Comment by bla
Made Sunday, 25 of October , 2009 at 6:30 am
Really cool. And this is what you get if all tech nerds involved can submit their favorite piece of music to the vid. So, I had to put the sound down to be able to finish it. Nevertheless, very cool.