GimBall: The Anti-Collision Flying Robot

Instead of avoiding failure and obstacles, why not embrace and learn from them? This truth in life lead the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems to create GimBall, a flying robot that can collide and interact with objects seamlessly.

The design was inspired by insects, which often collide with obstacles and continue flying afterwards. The robot contains an inner and an outer frame. The inner frame has a coaxial motor, two control surfaces, the battery, an IMU and control electronics for flight stabilization. The outer frame design was based on a gimbal system, with a spherical protective frame preventing obstacles from touching the inner frame, maintaining a constant center of mass,  and when collided it rotates to correct motion and orientation. 

By allowing physical contact with its surroundings, the robot is programmed to change direction and learn from its environment. With this technique, GimBall can use simple sensors to fly completely autonomously and reach difficult locations.

We also recommend watching: "BionicOpter: The Dragonfly-Inspired Drone Piloted From Your Phone" and "Harvard and MIT: Soft-bodied Robots that Imitate Nature".

The gimbal system compared to traditional orientation techniques

 GimBall: Anti-Collision Flying Robot

The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) was founded in 2005 by Prof. Dario Floreano. The lab currently covers three interconnected research areas: biomimetic robots, artificial intelligence, and theoretical and experimental studies of biological systems. It also offers several courses at master and doctoral level in robotics and artificial intelligence and hosts an average of 15 undergraduate/master students and 15 PhD students in an intellectually stimulating and interdisciplinary environment.