Scientists design insect-inspired drone to survive crashes

A crash resistant drone has been developed by researchers who say they were inspired by the properties of insect wings. The external frame of the drone is flexible and bends without breaking, but it locks around an internal case with magnets - making it rigid during flight. Experiments showed that the frame of the drone withstood roughly 50 collisions with no permanent damage. The drone, designed by researchers at the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) and the Floreano Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), is a soft quadcopter that doesn't break during collisions. Its design was modeled after the dual stiffness properties of insects wings.