Auto-transforming UAV: Do you like X or O?

As seen at the beginning, the most relaxed form of this drone is X-shaped.

Each arm is independently controlled by a servo motor. As long as there is enough space, the limbs don't need to make any compromises.

But after all, space is limited, and there are many human beings who create obstacles artificially. Therefore, rich deformation skills are essential: the so-called thinning is actually the H-shaped transformation of the drone, also known as the "straight line".

To avoid obstacles along the horizontal direction, we must rely on this form. As if to go through the clouds.

So, how to deal with the vertical limitation? However, the X-shape is too honest and frank to get the fuselage as close as possible to the observation target.

T-shape transformation and partial folding are ideal choices.

Spread the front two arms horizontally to the side, so as not to affect the camera's elegant observation of objects. It seems that he is still very enthusiastic.

To sum up, there are four common forms of UAV: X-shape, H-shape, O-shape and T-shape. The team said that the deformation decision of the drone depends entirely on the sensors and computers carried by the fuselage, without any external motion capture and computing equipment.

(Moreover, except O-shaped flight will lose 63% of endurance, H-shaped flight and T-shaped flight will only lose about 20% of endurance. From the video point of view, the shape obtained by the drone during flight is still mainly X-shaped, and the deformation is only short-term. )

Researchers hope that with such flexible deformation skills, drones can participate in rescue missions in the future.