Diving drone can switch between flying and swimming

A drone that may fly like a regular quadcopter but additionally function underwater could possibly be developed as a software for engineers and search and rescue groups

By Matthew Sparkes

A quadcopter that may fly like an aerial drone but additionally splash down into water and function like a submersible could possibly be used for search and rescue missions or engineering inspections.

Ben Chen on the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues created a prototype machine which they name Mirs-X, weighing 1.63 kilograms and measuring 38 centimetres vast. It can hover for six minutes within the air, or dive underwater for round 40 minutes. It is waterproof at depths of as much as 3 metres and strikes at as much as 2 metres per second within the water.

The propellers spin …