A Brilliantly Designed Folding Drone That Can Dynamically Change Shape and Size While in Flight

Researchers at the University of Zurich have created a brilliantly designed drone that dynamically folds itself in a variety of ways in order to change shape and size while in flight. This morphing ability offers greater flexibility for any task as hand.

In this work, we propose a novel, simpler, yet effective morphing design for quadrotors consisting of a frame with four independently rotating arms that fold around the mainframe. To guarantee stable flight at all times, we exploit an optimal control strategy that adapts on the fly to the drone morphology.

via Mike Shouts