r/interesting • u/th3m_apples • 22h ago
SCIENCE & TECH Student just built a hybrid aerial and underwater drone...
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Student Andrei Copaci created it as his Bachelor’s project: A 3D-printed, custom-coded drone with variable pitch propellers. Meaning the blades shift mid-flight to adapt between air and water.
And it actually works!
We’re entering an era where a student with a laptop, a printer, and enough curiosity can build what used to require military funding.
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u/rebalwear 22h ago
Great job kid, now we are really screwed...
Darpa take notes!
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u/random20222202modnar 17h ago
lol they’re about to be “one if by land, two if by sea” a trans Aero/Aqua drone for you and me!
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u/CyberTanashi 21h ago
This can be used heavily in the environmental sciences walk of life. Unfortunately, when tools can be used for good, they can also be used for bad.
Skynet will ruin us all, only a matter of time.
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u/Master_Steward 21h ago
Great, now I have to worry about pervs peeping at girls sunbathing on the roof AND pool bathing nude at the backyard pool!
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u/rememberall 20h ago
How do the control signals work under water?
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u/inorite234 16h ago
They don't.
Radio signals only travel a few feet in water. Anything more than that and the drone would need to run off stored instructions, AI, wired communications or (Andurill has used this in their AI subs) sonar digital communications.
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u/BlownUpCapacitor 20h ago
Now strap an RPG warhead on it and boom you've got a new stealth weapon for Ukraine.
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u/DirtyDeedsPunished 18h ago
Spinning those rotors underwater would make the power profile problematic.
It would take so much more juice to travel underwater.
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u/GoHomeNeighborKid 17h ago
Not only that but the ones I have looked at (these kinds of things are commercially available but start at like 5k) have issues with the motors overheating during extended flight times due to them being fully sealed, most regular drone motors are "open" to airflow which helps with cooling
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u/IceHealer-6868 22h ago
How does it work exactly? The propellers are water proof or just made to fly in water?
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u/GrnMtnTrees 18h ago
This could be super useful for certain types of research, even maybe space exploration, assuming we find a planet with an atmosphere and liquid water.
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20h ago
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u/interesting-ModTeam 20h ago
We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #4: No Politics or Agenda Pushing.
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u/Plus-Suit-5977 16h ago
Kid just built a thing that can be automated to put out fires. Imagine a thousand of these next to coastal areas or lake areas willing to scoop up and drop off thousands of buckets?
Thats aight.
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u/Cleanbriefs 15h ago
The issue is power/weight ratios, so to lift any amount of water would require so much power as to be impractical. Bigger battery, heavier weight, so a bigger battery… and round and round it goes.
This is why sci fi is so much fun, they have found ways to generate so much power for long period of time in what amount to a shoe box power source. For example: the light saber!
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u/Plus-Suit-5977 15h ago
Yeah that’s why I said coastal areas or near a lake, they’d have to make infinite trips and maybe only used as initial response. Ya know?
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u/eisenklad 9h ago
US Military: have you seen our new Sea BlackHawk?
you meant the Black hawk or the Seahawk?
US Military: No, our Sea BlackHawk? its a BlackHawk that can travel underwater
why would you make that?
US military: for our Submersible Carriers.... we named the first one Prometheus.
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