A lot of people unwrapped drones from under their trees last Christmas. And a majority of those people also wrecked their drones into numerous objects. It’s a problem for most drones. A slight bump into a wall could send your drone hurdling down hundreds of feet to its own demise. But Swiss startup Flyability has a genius solution to keep drones crash-resistant. Meet Gimball.
Gimball is a unique drone balanced via a gimbal and housed in a cage. Developed over a five-year time span at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, Gimball’s rotating protective frame and flight control algorithms allow it to mimic the flight of an insect by quickly recovering from slight bumps and bounces. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is equipped in the drone’s hardware. This tiny component provides x, y, and z coordinate feedback which, added to the rotating frame, allows Gimball to remain balanced even after running into an object. See GIF below.
With its rotating protective frame, Gimball’s orientation remains undisturbed and it can continuously fly in an upright position. Traditional drone frames don’t feature the same gimbal system, and this leaves them with an altered orientation after bumping into something.
Gimball is offering a “simple solution to a complex problem.” In this case, Gimball is actively seeking out obstacles to find its way rather than using advanced algorithms and technology to sense-and-avoid. On a similar note, sense-and-avoid technology is in great demand for modern drone systems, but the technology needed to give these drones the ability to sense and adapt to their environment is very costly. Gimball manages to pull this off with some relatively simple, affordable hardware.
In addition to object-proof, stable flights, Gimball provides you with a 1080p HD video camera, 10 minutes of flight time, and 500 meters of operating range. Video can be live streamed back to a digital display device catering to those who fancy FPV.
Flyability recently tested out their concept by flying Gimball through a series of colossal icy caves. What may seem like bad piloting is actually an intentional demonstration of how resistant Gimball is to object contact. See video above.
The Swiss startup is already accepting companies into its early adopters program. If you’re interested in trying out Gimball for whatever solution you may have in mind (inspection, surveillance, search and rescue), you can fill out an online form on their site. Flyability is planning on launching Gimball later this year.
Source: Flyability
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