Top 10 drone innovations that caught our attention in 2022

Top 10 drone innovations that caught our attention in 2022

The past year has been a big one for drones, both in terms of new models and new capabilities. Here's a list of our picks for the latter, including clever uses of drones and interesting developments in the technology.

Honorable mentions include

UC Berkeley's High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab) developed a drone that folds while in flight to pass through narrow spaces, https://newatlas.com/drones/midair-reconfigurable-quadcopter/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

QinetiQ has now demonstrated a system for controlling drones via laser beams instead of radio signals, https://newatlas.com/drones/laser-control-drone-qinetiq/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

@Pitch Aero's Astria "cyclorotor" drone that stays level in wind gusts, https://newatlas.com/drones/pitch-aero-astria-cyclorotor-drone/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

A team at Switzerland's EPFL research institute created a rescue drone with edible wings https://newatlas.com/drones/edible-wings-rescue-drone/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body.

The top ten:

Designed by Lithuanian hacker Aleksey Zaitsevsky, the quadcopter Drone Interceptor pops its own props to deploy a drone-catching net https://newatlas.com/drones/drone-interceptor-releases-propellers/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

A2Z Drone Delivery RDS2 tech lets drones carry – and drop-deliver – all sorts of parcels https://newatlas.com/drones/rds2-drone-delivery-system/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

HUUVER https://huuver.eu/ combines Air and Ground mobility aspects in one vehicle, as it features both propellers and tank-like treads. Developed by an international team Poland's Cervi Robotics/Dronehub. Other partners include LUT University (Finland), Rectangle (Poland), Gina Software (Czech Republic), Bladescape (Austria), Brimatech Services (Austria), and NTT Data Spain.

The flying submersible, Sea-Air Integrated Drone system was created via a partnership between Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI, aerial drone manufacturer Prodrone, and underwater robotics firm Qysea.

P-Flap (Perching Flapping-Wing Robot), a prototype autonomous ornithopter with a wingspan of 1.5 m (59 in) tipping the scales at just 700 grams (25 oz), designed by Raphael Zufferey, a postdoctoral fellow at Switzerland's EPFL research institute flies like a bird and lands on a branch.

Crash-defying quadcopter lands on rooftops pitched at up to 60 degrees https://newatlas.com/drones/crash-defying-quadcopter-roofs-pitched-60-degrees/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM), the technology is being developed by researchers from Imperial College London and Switzerland's Empa institute. It actually incorporates two types of quadcopter drones, which fly autonomously and communicate with one another. https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/drohnen-nature-paper

Undefined Technologies https://www.undefinedtechnologies.com/post/silent-ion-propulsion-drone-proves-its-commercial-viability claims 4.5-min flight for its "silent" ion-propulsion drone https://newatlas.com/drones/undefined-ion-propulsion-drone/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body

The Remora, a flying submersible waterproof quadcopter, on top of which is a 3D-printed silicone disc inspired by a similar appendage on the flattened head of the remora fish. The remora uses that disc to adhere itself to larger animals developed via a collaboration between scientists from Beihang University in China, Imperial College London, and Switzerland's Empa research institute https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abm6695