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Insect-inspired fiberglass drone can survive almost any crash

A crash resistant drone has been developed by researchers who say they were inspired by the properties of insect wings.

3rd April 2017

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Switzerland

Sports/​Outdoor, Civil Engineering

Experiments showed that the frame of the drone withstood roughly 50 collisions with no permanent damage. © EPFL Researchers at the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) and the Floreano Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a new, crash resilient quadcopter, designed to withstand collisions.

The drone is made of a central case and a thin fibreglass external frame with four arms held together by four magnetic joints. As this fibreglass frame is only 0.3mm thick, it is soft and flexible, making it able to withstand collisions without permanent deformation.

The four magnetic joints connect the frame to the central case and rigidly hold the frame in place during flight.

Read the full article on our Inside Composites website

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