The video features two drones zig-zagging in the forest, bumping into trees and rolling around leafy branches. Each drone is equipped with 6 meters (20 feet) of neon wire, two dozen of RGB LEDs and fluorescent material. The drones’ trajectories are remote-controlled by operators, while the lights execute a pre-programmed sequence and use data from onboard accelerometers to react in sync to contacts and collisions. The drones’ cages are freely rotating, which adds to the magic of the unique choreographies that are possible with this system.

The movie was shot in one summer night, and required several takes in order for the pilots and camera operators to synchronize their motions. The movie reminds us of fireflies at night, or perhaps of birds-of-paradise courtships that involve dance, color and amazing choreographies.

One of the goals of the video was to demonstrate how drones can be used for art and entertainment; the GimBall platform allows drones to safely and smoothly interacti with objects or humans, which really contributes to bringing them alive.

Atelier D. Schlaepfer’s undertakings are at the crossroads of art and design. They take place in variable settings such as public buildings, private homes, and urban or natural settings. Atelier D. Schlaepfer regularly collaborates with architects and construction specialists to offer a scenography of space in the form of lighting, coloring, or a formal concept.

The drones are manufactured by Flyability SA, a swiss company specializing in collision-resistant drones for industrial inspection. Flyability’s patent-pending technology is based on a freely rotating spherical protective cage, which allows drones to remain perfectly stable after contacts. They can thus access hard-to-reach places while being remotely operated. Equipped with a full HD camera, they can efficiently carry out close-up visual inspection of various structures or confined places, such as bridges, factories, boiler rooms, tanks, etc.

The two drones are each equipped with 6 meters (20 feet) of neon wire and 24 RGB LEDs.

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Flyability, a spin off company from LIS, EPFL and NCCR Robotics, has won the $1M inaugural UAE Drones for Good competition with Gimball, the world’s first crash resilient drone.

The award was initiated by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai with the aim of “transforming these exciting technologies into practical solutions for improving people’s lives today”.  Referred to by some as “the World Cup of Drones”, the competition involved the 39 semi finalists showcasing their technology in front of a panel of international judges. Flyability impressed observers with its ability to fly in disaster tight and cluttered disaster zones, outside a pilot’s direct line of sight. Also noted was the Gimball’s unique design, which actively invites collisions rather than trying to avoid them. Its rotating gimbal system and protective wire cage not only keep the drone safe from crashes, but also protect humans working in close proximity to the device. The team was awarded $1M USD in prize money.

Flyability SA is one year old and its founders, Adrien Briod and Patrick Thévoz, are working to bring the Gimball to market. Their first aim is to use it for industrial inspection and to locate victims after natural disasters, but they plan to tackle the security and entertainment markets at some point too.

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Generally, flying robots are programmed to avoid obstacles, which is far from easy in cluttered environments. At the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, we think that flying robots should be able to physically interact with their surroundings. Take insects: they often collide with obstacles and continue flying afterwards. We thus designed GimBall, a flying robot that can collide with objects seamlessly. Thanks to a passively rotating spherical cage, it remains stable even after taking hits from all sides. This approach enables GimBall to fly in the most difficult places without complex sensors.

The concept
The inner frame comprises everything a flying robot needs to stabilize in flight: a coaxial motor, two control surfaces, the battery, an IMU and control electronics. In case of collision, GimBall’s spherical protective frame prevents obstacles from touching the inner frame and can passively rotate thanks to a gimbal system (hence the name). This way, the contact force does not affect the orientation of the inner frame, whose center of mass is also carefully centered. This allows the inner frame to always stay upright, and maintain the robot in stable flight.

The story
We have been designing flying robots capable of interacting with the environment for a while now. Our previous prototype, the AirBurr, was equipped with a protective cage and legs for uprighting.

This platform allowed us to realize that autonomous navigation was much simpler once you can afford collisions: advanced sensors are not required, and the obstacles can even be used to guide the robot. This idea of exploiting collisions was pushed further by integrating contact sensors to the structure itself. This way, the robot can be programmed to change direction once it detects a contact. We demonstrated that the robot could fly completely autonomously just based on tiny touch sensors (no other exteroceptive sensors whatsoever), as featured in the video below.

While the AirBurr worked well in the lab, where the environment is nicely flat and structured, we are now targeting much harder environments with the GimBall. For example, the robot could fly autonomously through a forest with a very simple strategy: fly straight. It made its way through the forest without any obstacle avoidance technique while experiencing multiple collisions.

We think that research on flying robots capable of interacting with the environment will enable new uses for UAVs. Currently, options for flight in cluttered spaces are limited, because obstacle avoidance methods cannot be trusted all the time. A robot that can survive collisions will be useful in cluttered disaster zones to find survivors or to inspect semi-collapsed buildings for example. Thanks to less stringent sensor requirements, these robots are lighter, faster and more robust than conventional platforms. Finally, they are very safe for operation close to people, since they won’t crash if you bump them and the propellers are enclosed in the protective cage.

You can find all relevant publications and more pictures or videos on our project webpage.

Coming to IROS next week? Comme see us at iRex, we’ll be running demos from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 9.

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics.

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See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.