Engineering students build innovative 3D-printed drone that can switch between water and air

NY Post ^ | 8/01/25 | Ariel Zilber

[Libloather]

Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads now have some competition.

[aposiopetic]

Wow. The video is a must-see. Thanks for posting this.

[Carry_Okie]

They cheated me out of seeing how the pitch controls worked.

[Revel]

Hopefully the video will show up on a reputable video site. Even Edge won’t play whatever might be at the NY post.

[fso301]

How do they communicate with it underwater? Do they have some sort of RF-to-acoustic repeater?

[marktwain]

https://www.livescience.com/technology/robotics/students-build-new-hybrid-drone-watch-it-fly-in-the-air-and-then-seamlessly-dive-underwater

[ByteMercenary]

Under water maneuverability works just like movement in the air. One or more props change speed slightly so the force exerted on the arm(s) increase/decrease and the whole unit rolls/pitches. The big difference it that underwater the blades are rotating much slower because of the density difference between water and sir.

[riverrunner]

I see military use for sure

[Lizavetta]

Four Danish engineering students ... the innovative machine was built by applied industrial electronics students Andrei Copaci, Pawel Kowalczyk, Krzysztof Sierocki and Mikolaj Dzwigalo at Aalborg University.

Danish? They sound like eastern Europeans.

[mabarker1]

This is Awesome !!!

[gundog]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HbiYT4YYX6o&pp=ygUuVm95YWdlIHRvIHRoZSBib3R0b20gb2YgdGhlIHNlYSwgc2h1dHRsZSBjcmFmdA%3D%3D

[ptsal]

bkmk

[mad_as_he$$]

No bige! Admiral Nelson had one in the 60’s.

[Sirius Lee]

I see military use for sure

I see government anti-citizen use for sure, but then I have issues with trust.

[wally_bert]

GI JOE had the SHARC in the 80s.

[Political Junkie Too]

I wonder how deep it can go before succumbing to the pressure of the water?

-PJ

[JohnnyP]

Clock-Boy again?

[MrKatykelly]

Dittos, my biggest question. You can see how they do pitch control at the very beginning, and it benefits from electric motors flat torque curve. So how are they communicating? And does it know it’s in water or is the operator telling it? When the operator can no longer see it under water he has to use a screen to guide it so it’s back to the communication question.

[Carry_Okie]

Under water maneuverability works just like movement in the air. One or more props change speed slightly so the force exerted on the arm(s) increase/decrease and the whole unit rolls/pitches. The big difference it that underwater the blades are rotating much slower because of the density difference between water and sir.

That much was obvious, although how it knows it has broken the surface isn't, but I'm guessing that is related to measuring back EMF. I wanted to see how the actuators that changed prop pitch work, particularly the motors and gearing driving the two vertical arms that push/pulled the collar around the prop shafts shown at the very end of the video.

[odawg]

I have always wondered why the East Europeans and others don’t like vowels, unless z is a vowel in that language.