[HN Gopher] Hybrid Aerial Underwater Drone - Bachelor Project [v...
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Hybrid Aerial Underwater Drone - Bachelor Project [video]
https://www.energy.aau.dk/aau-drone-can-both-fly-and-dive-un...
Author : nhma
Score : 27 points
Date : 2025-12-22 08:37 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| bestouff wrote:
| The manhunt from a drone becomes more of a nightmare.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| Variable pitch! Waterproof! This thing is awesome. Surely there
| is different tuning when it's in water vs when it's not, right?
| How do you detect the transition? Motor currents? This is a
| really neat project!
| thatoneengineer wrote:
| Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/2128/
|
| Or for the more cynical, replace "search and rescue" with
| "military covert ops".
| Stevvo wrote:
| SciFi becomes reality.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| It's interesting how simple this looks, off the shelf parts, and
| 3D printed components. I'm almost surprised this doesn't already
| exist after looking at it.
| alexpotato wrote:
| If this what can be done with off the shelf parts and 3D
| printing, imagine what DARPA and the like have been doing for
| the past 20 years.
|
| Makes the UFO/UAP stories about "it transitioned from the water
| to the air and back to the water!!" seem way more plausible.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| > imagine what DARPA and the like have been doing for the
| past 20 years.
|
| People always say this, but anyone I know who's ever worked
| in one of these companies that contracts for the DoD or DARPA
| always complains about how behind the market government tech
| is. Obviously private industry isn't producing competitors to
| the F35, but for less complicated kit the government doesn't
| seem to be doing anything super sophisticated. In fact a
| bunch of people I knew who went to Iraq bought supplemental
| gear on the private market.
| engineer_22 wrote:
| > In fact a bunch of people I knew who went to Iraq bought
| supplemental gear on the private market.
|
| Like, photography gear?
| lm28469 wrote:
| > I'm almost surprised this doesn't already exist after looking
| at it.
|
| What's the use case? We have very good dedicated aerial drones
| and very good dedicated submarine drones. If something is
| technically possible but no one makes it usually it means it's
| not that interesting
| engineer_22 wrote:
| If your mothership is low-observable/submersible you could
| park it in a harbor and when time is right unleash a swarm of
| hybrid aerial underwater drones with mission payload.
|
| This design uses 1 swashplate server plus 1 brushless drive
| motor for each prop for a total of 8 motors. Designs in
| Ukraine are now using 1 brushless drive motor to
| synchronously drive all 4 props and 1 swashplate servo each
| prop, reducing total number of motors to 5, which might be a
| natural path of optimization for this type of hybrid aerial
| underwater?
| wumms wrote:
| I suppose that pool is the ~max RF range under water? Is prop
| pitch mandatory for underwater use?
| stoev wrote:
| Any ideas how the signal is transmitted once the drone is
| underwater? Typical RC transmitters run 2.4 GHz. Some systems use
| 700 MHz. The former wouldn't penetrate at all, the latter might
| penetrate to a shallow depth, but I think that what's shown in
| the video is deep enough that the signal would get attenuated.
| There doesn't seem to be a tether and the drone doesn't seem to
| have any computer vision capabilities to fly itself whilst under
| water. I wonder how they solved this.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Very impressive. I assume that underwater propulsion uses a lot
| more energy per meter moved?
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Maybe you will be able to us these to defend Greenland?
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(page generated 2025-12-22 23:00 UTC)