DRAGON drone morphs mid‑flight
What happened
Moju Zhao’s DRAGON drone demo in Tokyo showed a morphing mid‑flight airframe designed to squeeze through tight spaces, demonstrating novel mechanical agility for urban or indoor operations. The demo points to new focus areas in adaptive flight dynamics and compact actuation. (x.com)
Why it matters
DRAGON expands to "Dual‑Rotor embedded multilink robot with the Ability of multi‑degree‑of‑freedom aerial transformatiON," a multi‑link project led from the University of Tokyo's JSK/DRAGON Lab under Moju Zhao. (newatlas.com) The platform's architecture uses dual ducted‑fans per link mounted on gimbals with approximately two degrees of freedom per link, enabling thrust‑vectoring distributed across the body rather than fixed‑body propellers. (newatlas.com) Peer‑reviewed publications from the group detail "vectorable thrust control" and demonstrate whole‑body aerial manipulation and grasping capabilities in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and related conferences in 2017–2018. (spectrum.ieee.org) The DRAGON Lab and University of Tokyo have published short demo videos and technical clips on their official YouTube channels that document prototype flights and articulated control experiments. (youtube.com) The DRAGON concept was later extended into SPIDAR, a follow‑on multi‑legged, rotor‑distributed robot that New Atlas covered as a publicly described evolution of the original design in May 2025. (newatlas.com) Recent research entries and conference papers from Zhao's group include 2023–2024 work on rotor‑distributed manipulators, perching strategies, and motion planning for confined environments, showing an ongoing research trajectory in transformable and over‑actuated aerial systems. (researchmap.jp)
Key numbers
- (newatlas.com) Peer‑reviewed publications from the group detail "vectorable thrust control" and demonstrate whole‑body aerial manipulation and grasping capabilities in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and related conferences in 2017–2018.
- (youtube.com) The DRAGON concept was later extended into SPIDAR, a follow‑on multi‑legged, rotor‑distributed robot that New Atlas covered as a publicly described evolution of the original design in May 2025.
What happens next
- DRAGON expands to "Dual‑Rotor embedded multilink robot with the Ability of multi‑degree‑of‑freedom aerial transformatiON," a multi‑link project led from the University of Tokyo's JSK/DRAGON Lab under Moju Zhao.
- (youtube.com) The DRAGON concept was later extended into SPIDAR, a follow‑on multi‑legged, rotor‑distributed robot that New Atlas covered as a publicly described evolution of the original design in May 2025.
Quick answers
What happened in DRAGON drone morphs mid‑flight?
Moju Zhao’s DRAGON drone demo in Tokyo showed a morphing mid‑flight airframe designed to squeeze through tight spaces, demonstrating novel mechanical agility for urban or indoor operations. The demo points to new focus areas in adaptive flight dynamics and compact actuation. (x.com)
Why does DRAGON drone morphs mid‑flight matter?
DRAGON expands to "Dual‑Rotor embedded multilink robot with the Ability of multi‑degree‑of‑freedom aerial transformatiON," a multi‑link project led from the University of Tokyo's JSK/DRAGON Lab under Moju Zhao. (newatlas.com) The platform's architecture uses dual ducted‑fans per link mounted on gimbals with approximately two degrees of freedom per link, enabling thrust‑vectoring distributed across the body rather than fixed‑body propellers. (newatlas.com) Peer‑reviewed publications from the group detail "vectorable thrust control" and demonstrate whole‑body aerial manipulation and grasping capabilities in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and related conferences in 2017–2018. (spectrum.ieee.org) The DRAGON Lab and University of Tokyo have published short demo videos and technical clips on their official YouTube channels that document prototype flights and articulated control experiments. (youtube.com) The DRAGON concept was later extended into SPIDAR, a follow‑on multi‑legged, rotor‑distributed robot that New Atlas covered as a publicly described evolution of the original design in May 2025. (newatlas.com) Recent research entries and conference papers from Zhao's group include 2023–2024 work on rotor‑distributed manipulators, perching strategies, and motion planning for confined environments, showing an ongoing research trajectory in transformable and over‑actuated aerial systems. (researchmap.jp)
