The year 2018 is a great year for robotics and dragon lovers. A team of scientists at the University of Tokyo has created a floating aircraft named Dragon. The robot was presented at ICRA 2018 in Australia. The Dragon is created by syncing four thrusters with each other to create a serpentine. According to the IEE Spectrum, the name Dragon is an acronym for Dual-rotor embedded multilink Robot having the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom-aerial transformatioN.
The aircraft can surpass modern drones by solving few problems of the present time drones. The dragon can fly straight through congested spaces. It is capable to transform into shapes which can carry cargo. The flying time of the aircraft is only three minutes.
Researchers said that they are trying to build the robot in 12 modules. This will enable the aircraft to use its two ends similar to a gripper and pick up the objects. The robot is able to rearrange itself from a snake to a spiral and can also create the “L” shape. The researchers have conceptualized this robot as a kind of over-actuated flying arm which cannot only form different shapes but can also use those shapes to interact with the world around it.
Watch it in action:
