South Korea Showcases Drones That Function As 'Fly Shopping Race'

Palletrone", a combination of words pallet (cargo platform) and drones. (photo: screenshot)

JAKARTA - South Korean researchers have recently developed a transport drone flying in a double flexible rotor that can correct itself to stay stable in the air. This drone can be used as a "fly shopping cart" to transport goods through uneven terrains such as stairs.

The prototype was developed by a team from Seoul's National University of Science and Technology, which places the cargo platform on top of a multi-rotor drone and is controlled by someone using a lightweight to steer the plane flying.

Team members demonstrated that this flying platform is equipped with a shopping trolley-like handle, while moving objects up and down the stairs, as well as loading boxes above it while floating in the air and maintaining balance using a center-of-mass estimation algorithm.

"To move goods on an uneven terrain or ladder, when wheeled trolleys can't, these drones respond to human control with human-robot physical interaction techniques that anticipate human intentions for smooth flights," said Professor Lee Seung-jae, a mechanical system design engineer.

However, the main focus of Lee's team is not developing shopping trolleys that can be used on stairs, but on drone applications with reliable horizontal stability without tilting or rolling. This prototype is called "Palleltrone", a combination of words pallets (cargo platforms) and drones.

Lee's team has tested a platform capable of carrying objects up to 3 kg, although they recognize the commercial application for transporting cargo at that small weight is still limited. However, this drone mechanism, which allows for directional changes without tilting, has application potential for sensitive or fragile payload delivery.

Furthermore, Lee's team saw the potential of this technology for unmanned flying taxis that could carry humans, as well as for recharging drones in the air by replacing batteries so there was no need to return to base.

The study was published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, a journal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers based in New York.