3D Robotics congratulates John Blaske, an aerospace engineering student at San Diego State University, who spent a spring internship at 3DR successfully designing and building a waterproof, submersible quadcopter—an amphibious drone he calls the Aqua Quad.
John started his career with the Marine Corps’ surveying detachment, where he gained valuable GIS experience. Following an honorable discharge in 2013, John, an abiding RC and flight enthusiast, enrolled in SDSU’s Aerospace Engineering program and soon developed an interest in drone technology.
“My first real encounter with fully autonomous drones was through 3DR,” John said. “Joe and Grant took me out to test fly the Aero. I was impressed with the precision of its autonomy and the versatility of Mission Planner, and immediately got hooked.”
The Aqua Quad started with the long-term goal of making a drone that could be submersible and controllable underwater, but could then surface, take off, and fly around. That’s a tall order, and John had little more than a month to work with, so he started with designing a waterproof quad. 3DR gave him an Iris to modify, and by SDSU’s Engineering Design Day—one month’s time—John had proved the waterproof concept and delighted the Dean of the Aerospace Department.
3DR hopes to further develop our internship program to empower more talented and passionate students like John, offering them a forum to apply learned concepts beyond the classroom. “There’s going to be a huge need for engineers like myself once the market takes off,” John said. “I’m already a step ahead with what I’ve done here at 3DR.”
Please join us in congratulating John on his hard work and success!
Comments
@Oliver and Quadzimodo - Another option for control / communication would be an antenna on a retractible reel with a float on the end of the antenna. Aquad could dive while the antenna floats on the surface. There might be a need for horizontal propulsion while underwater. As someone else pointed out this could be accomplished with VTOL type set up.
Oliver - I really like your concept for addressing two of the biggest issues with this type of dual use craft with one simple solution. Might be worth checking to see if a patent exists for such a concept. I really think it has a great deal of merit, and is possibly the simplest and most cost effective way of providing a single driveline which is both aerodynamically and hydrodynamically efficient.
As you say, fun to think about.
@Acorn: Hmm, I think I'd go with positive buoyancy (so as not to be sunk by default) and little deep-pitch boat props on the bottoms of the motors, and one-way bearings (also called freewheeling bearings) on the air prop shafts on the tops of the motors (like the one-way bearings on r/c heli mainshafts that allow autorotation). Then be set up to reverse motor rotation on entering/leaving the water. So underwater, the boat props would be active in going downward, sideways or hovering, while the air props would not spin. They would still create drag of course but maybe that wouldn't matter much in this sort of application. Fun to think about...
@Oliver Thanks! And a very cool imagery mashup! :-) However, as the article reads, “The Aqua Quad started with the long-term goal of making a drone that could be submersible and controllable underwater, but could then surface, take off, and fly around. That’s a tall order, and John had little more than a month to work with, so he started with designing a waterproof quad.... by SDSU’s Engineering Design Day—one month’s time—John had proved the waterproof concept.”
But the real point is that we’re thrilled about John’s work! He’s a promising engineer!
@Roger: I think there is some confusion here and in the original post. My reading is that the long range objective is to create a submersible quad, and that the first (obvious) step was to create a waterproof one, and that this first step is what John accomplished in the short time of a month. From the mention of "proof of concept" I'm imagining something like the quad maybe being held underwater with the motors running and released to pop up to the surface and fly. At least that's what I would try as an initial (and quite impressive) "proof of concept." Anyway, I think maybe some people read this as a claim that the quad was zooming around underwater like Captain Nemo's Nautilus and then burst into flight like an ICBM from a Boomer. A little more detail would put things back in order, I think.
This post was meant to notify the community of a young man’s successful, and very cool, experiment. If you read the article, it’s clear that John had a single month to deliver his proof of concept, which was a waterproofed, submersible UAV -- and he did it. Let’s celebrate his ambition and hard work, and speculate on future implications and applications.
I regrettably have no access to videos or other media. Perhaps John can provide something illustrative?
Rude,presumptive naysayers..hm,ok,if you say so I cant but agree.
I am sorry.
..I just do not like bombastic headlines and also English is not my native so sometimes I do not know how it sounds...
Everything is possible,all I am sayin it will be loooong way....
Also you could notice some usefully links witch can help to the project
Also we would like to see some proof of above claims,short video,anything but one picture of wrapped Iris...
again I am sorry if iwe hurt somebody feelings...
over and out.
enjoy
All of your extremely rude, ranting, comments that allege this to be impossible are simply challenges that go into development. Challenges that can be overcome, some of which already have been overcome by many people. Not impossibilities. Perhaps you recall a few years ago, controlled powered flight was "impossible" according to people with your rude presumptive attitude. Fortunately some really smart guys on a sand dune in North Carolina USA persevered and proved the rude, presumptive, naysayers wrong.
Or maybe you think about this 1.5 million $ toy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x87aAypK7i4
or another one even more expensive
http://seabreacher.com/
or this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_submarine
what do you mean it is possible???
https://www.google.hr/search?q=submersible+airplane&tbm=isch&am...
If you have solution I suggest you call DARPA they will be happy to give you job!
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