World's first controllable MAV monocopter, Robotic Samara (maple seed)

[jonny5alive555]

where is buy button

[fordpw]

awesome chap. Really like your design, one smart kid. I noticed this youtube video after DARPA copied the design over a year later and yours is much quieter.

[mrfourtysevenman]

what the hell is that flying siezure?

[leevonk]

monocopters were invented in 1913, and many functional versions have been made before the one you see here (search wikipedia for monocopter)

[airlinerdude12]

go figure. They get grant money to do this and spend millions of dollars.

True modelers could do it for pennies on the dollar!

I still love it though, very ingenious design.

I tried to make this with cheapie eqip. but it didn't work very well

That thin carbon fiber gives you minimal drag i bet.

dx7

carbon fiber

expensive baby

[outbackjack1974]

You can see how it controls @ 1:55 servo controls the moment of the pitch of the single blade. Watch it tilt.

[airlinerdude12]

@outbackjack1974

i bet it has a sort of compass like gyro that keeps it's orientation fixed so it knows when to move in a desired direction

[RienVesseur]

A helicopter would be better under certain circumstances, but it would drop out of the sky like a brick when anything goes wrong. This gadget elegantly glides down like a maple seed when the engine is turned off.

[AvengerIl]

@RienVesseur helicopters can 'glide' too. check out 'autorotate'

[jamesmaseobrown]

Amazing ! ! !

[GabberGandalf85]

nice work^^

[soldoutrules]

cool, but isn't a helicopter better?

[ethernettv]

Single pass panoramic situational awareness. Genius. Pure Genius. Love the thinking processes that sparked the CONCEPTION of such a device. Brilliant. Insert additional superlatives here.

[Zorn101]

Its a Ufo. Kill it

[nikulp68]

whats the range of that?

[Artgorgeous]

Nice Job

[aarobc]

how the heck would you control that?

[RoboTekno]

@aarobc I'm guessing bursts of thrust at different times while it's spinning

[fr3d420]

thats a million times more stable than the 20$ crap helicopter that I got from the mall.

[f3rn4ndrum5]

this is so cool... There is a tree at my mom's house that turn exactly like that, I always wondered how can a design work like it... good joB!

[palmisano]

Nice! I saw your presentation about a year ago at UMD, but didn't see anything working. How controllable is it? I occasionally go to UMD for robot related stuff . . . keep me updated if you do any future demos.

[SarahSTisdale]

I'm trying to figure out how the directional control works. What's the frame of reference for "left", "right", "forward", and "back" since the whole thing is spinning like crazy?

[ObiTrev]

Your thinking too hard. Left, Right, Forward, and Back is all relative to it's rotational orientation. If during spin the hypothetical bow of the craft if facing North, then telling it to go forward will make it go North.

However if the hypothetical aft of the craft is facing North, then telling it to go forward will simply tell it "Go in reverse", thus making it go North. The control surface, or wing, can be elevated in relation to it's rotation, thus providing both lift and direction.

[hflat1]

That is exactly what the commenter is confused about. How does the monocopter have any frame of reference to apply directional input to?

[madcowswe]

@SarahSTisdale Earths magnetic field ;D

[MBNaveed]

Congratulations on your many millions (which are sure to follow soon enough) =P

[supimbob33]

Crazy. I had this idea a few years back I tried to make one out of a remote controller car but i didn't get enough lift..... just went up about 3 inches and came back down.....

[Nero51]

SUE!

[10mintwo]

a very clever engineering hack. plus, the student is super cute! :-)

[coachbox]

How the problem of inevitable dizziness at the pilot will be solved? ))

[TheKturner05]

remote controlled?

[PacoBell]

Not gonna be a problem unless your pilot is also micro-sized ;)

[MBNaveed]

the B Wing is a good place to start remedying that...if they ever build it up to that scale.