Gimball, spherical helicopter, Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and startup Flyability, Lausanne, Switzerland

Gimball likes to make contact. In fact, this small ultralight flying spheroid resembles an insect as it goes around bumping into things. The goal of EPFL researchers was to develop a machine that could operate in extremely chaotic environments without the need for fragile sensors.

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The Gimball drone is surrounded by a spherical cage that separates its propellers from objects and people, allowing it to utilize insect-like flight methods such as bumping into things to adjust its trajectory. This makes it both safe and super easy to pilot. Doc North drops into Lasanne, Switzerland to talk to its creators in the lab where it was developed.

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We get a demo of Gimball, an RC multi-rotor that is designed to withstand collisions. The quad itself is housed in a protective sphere, moving freely inside of it using a gimbal system. The idea is that it can fly and bump around in environments too difficult to reach by humans for remote inspection operations.

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Atelier D. Schlaepfer and Flyability present a short movie featuring the magical encounter between two flying robots. They used the world’s first drones capable of interacting with their environment and developed lighting and choreographies to deliver a unique piece at the intersection of high-technology and art.

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Flyability partnered with the mountain rescue team of the Zermatt Glacier in the Swiss Alps to explore crevasses situated at an altitude of 3'500 meters ASL.

This successful experience has shed light upon the promising results of using this game-changing device for mountain Search & Rescue missions, in addition to the current focus of the company in Industrial Inspection of inaccessible and confined environments.

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