IIIT Hyderabad researchers unveil working prototype of novel shape shifting drone that adapts to cargo size

With this method of attachment to cargo, the mass is always centered and results in optimal battery performance. It also ranks high on the stability front due to the unique positioning of the propellers.

A researcher at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad has come up with a working prototype of a flexible drone that changes its shape to fit the size of the package to be lifted. Suraj Bonagiri, a researcher from the Robotics Research Centre in his research on the mechanism behind a reconfigurable quadcopter, highlighted limitations of existing delivery drones and proposed a novel design.

"Current design of such drones focuses only on the weight of parcels to be lifted ignoring their size. Packages however come in various sizes and are an important parameter to be factored in," said the researcher.

As per the researcher, since drones are typically designed to carry specific payloads, forcibly fitting and lifting inappropriate payloads will lead to instability, loss inefficiency, and even compromise on safety.

Unlike other rigid drones, the patent-pending design which has been named 'Elasticopter' is a dynamic one. Thanks to a flexible chassis and a novel mechanism that expands or collapses, it can grip and match the shape of the parcel to be lifted.

With this method of attachment to cargo, the mass is always centered and results in optimal battery performance. It also ranks high on the stability front due to the unique positioning of the propellers.

Explaining how typically airflow from propellers hits the payload causing turbulence mid-air, Suraj pointed out that in this design, there is zero prop wash interference with the payload no matter its size.

Under the guidance of Professors Spandan Roy and Madhava Krishna, Suraj set out to validate the superiority of his design via a series of simulations comparing current drones with the Elasticopter.

"We found that in existing drones, even if they can lift and deliver packages of varying shapes, the battery life and flight time is short-lived because it's not done in an optimal manner. And this is especially evident when there are large-scale delivery operations," he says.

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