Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and CalTech have developed a quadcopter drone that can be fired from a cannon as a method of safe deployment in crowded and wind-driven environments.
Known as SQUID (Streamlined Quick Unfolding Investigation Drone), the drone is a football-shaped quadcopter that is launched from a tube, deploys its rotors, and stabilizes itself before flying to its objective. The design offers minimal risk during takeoff (avoiding obstacles, debris, people, etc.), and becomes airborne faster than conventional drones.
