Caltech’s Cannon-Launched SQUID Drone Doubles in Size, Goes Autonomous! #Droneday

SQUID stands for Streamlined Quick Unfolding Investigation Drone, via IEEE Spectrum

At IROS last year, Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab presented a prototype for a ballistically launched quadrotor—once folded up into a sort of football shape with fins, the drone is stuffed into a tube and then fired straight up with a blast of compressed CO2, at which point it unfolds itself, stabilizes, and then flies off. It’s been about half a year, and the prototype has been scaled up in both size and capability, now with a half-dozen rotors and full onboard autonomy that can (barely) squeeze into a 6-inch tube.

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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.


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