July 12, 2013 By
Imagine a quadcopter hovering above a payload – a can of beans, perhaps. The ‘copter descends onto the payload, activates an electromagnet, and flies away with a hobo’s dinner. Right now, this is a bit of an impossibility. A normal electromagnet that powerful would consume an amazing amount of power, something quads don’t usually have in abundance. With the OpenGrab project, the dream of a remote-controlled skycrane is within reach, thanks to some very clever applications of magnetics.
The tech behind the OpenGrab is an electro-permanent magnet, basically an electromagnet you can turn on and off, but doesn’t require any power to stay on. OpenGrab was heavily influenced by a PhD thesis aimed at using these devices for self-assembling buildings.
This project had a very successful Kickstarter campaign and has seen some great progress in the project. While beer doesn’t come in steel cans anymore, we can imagine a whole lot of really cool applications for this tech from infuriating electronic puzzles to some very cool remote sensing applications.
Filed under: hardware
Comments
Errr...won't this cause problems with the compass??
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
Haven't received mine yet either. Austin, TX
So the basis is a permanent magnet housed with an controlled opposite-field electro magnet to force a release.
The release is probably a short term event and thus would not require constant current, just enough to uncouple the flux with the payload.
When used, the magnetometer data should be ignored. ;)
-=Doug
I'm on the list serv for it and more and more people are receiving theirs now. I'm out of town but hope to find mine waiting for me when I get back.
@Josh,
Good question.:-)
Regards,
TCIII
Has anyone received theirs yet and had a chance to try it out?
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