IEEE Spectrum recently published this article where they connected with Jun En Low and Professor Shaohui Foong to learn more about THOR:
At ICRA this year, researchers from the Singapore University of Technology & Design introduced a new kind of flying robot called THOR: Transformable HOvering Rotorcraft. THOR manages to achieve very high structural efficiency by using all of its aerodynamic surfaces in both vertical and horizontal flight modes, transforming from a flying wing into a sort of whole-body spinning bicopter thing that you really need to see to believe.
At first glance, THOR has a lot in common with monocopters, which are single airfoils with one motor on the end that generate lift by spinning. THOR doubles up on that idea to give itself two modes of flight: hovering mode and cruising mode. In hovering mode (which the researchers call H-MOD), THOR spins in place with its airfoils rotated 180 degrees from each other, like the rotors on a helicopter. In cruise mode (C-MOD), the airfoils are both aligned in the same direction, and you get a flying wing.
Read more and see more from AIR Lab on YouTube
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.