Watch a ‘flying fish’ drone hover in the air and then swim underwater
Aaron Burden / Unsplash At a conference last week, a group of engineers presented a fascinating new drone capable of flying through the air—and operating underwater. While it’s only a prototype, the researchers had to solve interesting problems in order to create a working aerial-aquatic quadcopter. A large group of researchers from seven universities and laboratories throughout China and Hong Kong contributed to what they’ve dubbed the TJ-FlyingFish. In the paper presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in London, they described how they developed the 3.6-pound quadcopter. According to the research paper, there have been previous multi-rotor aerial-aquatic hybrid prototypes, however, they have mostly relied on “standard aerial hardware constructions with water resistance.” In other words, instead of creating a drone...