MORPHO FOLDS ITS OWN WINGS IN MID-AIR AND CUTS HOVER POWER BY UP TO 85%.
A drone with 2 wings that don't stay the same shape.
It lifts off vertically, like any quadcopter. Then the wings sweep back, the body tips over, and it's a plane.
Wind picks up. The wings change again.
That's the trick nobody else has. Every other inspection drone has 1 airframe and has to fly the whole mission with it — hover burns battery, forward flight needs a wing, and wind just takes whatever it wants from you.
Morpho picks the shape for the air it's in right now, and in gusts it stops fighting the wind and rides it.
EPFL's number from the tested conditions: up to 85% less power in vertical flight.
On a 25-minute battery, that's the difference between inspecting 1 wind turbine and inspecting the whole row.
Built by Elythor, a spin-off out of EPFL in Lausanne.
1 note before the comments start. This footage isn't new — EPFL put the original on its own YouTube channel back in May 2023, and the account you saw it on is a repost.
The drone didn't change. The feed just found it 3 years late.THIS DRONE CHANGES SHAPE WHILE FLYING AND CUTS HOVER POWER BY UP TO 85%.
2 wings that don't stay the same shape.
It lifts off vertically, like any quadcopter. Then the wings sweep back, the body tips over, and it's a plane.
Wind picks up. The wings change again.
That's the trick nobody else has. Every other inspection drone has 1 airframe and has to fly the whole mission with it - hover burns battery, forward flight needs a wing, and wind just takes whatever it wants from you.
Morpho picks the shape for the air it's in right now, and in gusts it stops fighting the wind and rides it.
EPFL's number from the tested conditions: up to 85% less power in vertical flight.
On a 25-minute battery, that's the difference between inspecting 1 wind turbine and inspecting the whole row.
Built by Elythor, a spin-off out of EPFL in Lausanne.
1 note before the comments start. This footage isn't new - EPFL put the original on its own YouTube channel back in May 2023, and the account you saw it on is a repost.
The drone didn't change. The feed just found it 3 years late.