picture a quadcopter hovering above a payload – a can of beans, perhaps. The ‘copter descends onto the payload, activates an electromagnet, as well as flies away with a hobo’s dinner. ideal now, this is a bit of an impossibility. A typical electromagnet that powerful would take in an fantastic amount of power, something quads don’t normally have in abundance. With the OpenGrab project, the dream of a remote-controlled skycrane is within reach, thanks to some extremely creative applications of magnetics.
The tech behind the OpenGrab is an electro-permanent magnet, generally an electromagnet you can turn on as well as off, however doesn’t need any type of power to stay on. OpenGrab was heavily influenced by a PhD thesis aimed at utilizing these gadgets for self-assembling buildings.
This job had a extremely successful Kickstarter campaign and has seen some fantastic development in the project. While beer doesn’t are available in steel cans anymore, we can picture a whole great deal of truly awesome applications for this tech from infuriating electronic puzzles to some extremely awesome remote sensing applications.