As part of our future concepts, we are constantly on the lookout for new or not-yet-widespread motion and drive concepts. With SmartInversion, our developers have succeeded in creating an ultralight flying object that moves by folding itself inside out. The endless, rhythmically pulsating folding movement is called inversion and gives the model its name.
The shape of the flying object is derived from the invertible cube by Paul Schatz . He broke down a cube into two star-shaped elements at the corners and a cuboid belt in the middle. The belt is a six-jointed ring that breaks out of the two corner bodies, can be continually inverted and thus takes on different shapes.
The flying cuboid belt consists of six identical prisms filled with helium. Each prism is made up of six carbon fibre rods, which form the tensioning frame for the outer membrane. A total of 2130 litres of helium provide the necessary buoyancy for the flying object, which weighs just 2334 grams. Three servo motors coordinated by an on-board unit serve as the drive. Depending on the phase, two of the motors run forward, while the third coasts along, moving in the opposite direction.