Wilcox BOSS Xe

The Naviator

Funded by a $618,000 Office of Naval Research grant, this quad copter is the invention of a team from Rutgers University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  The Naviator works in both air and underwater.  

According to team lead Professor Javier Diez, they’ve got two issues to work on.  First off, like many subsurface systems, comms is an issue.  The Naviator currently requires a float antenna so they are looking at systems such as sound impulses.  Additionally, they are working to accommodate payloads like cameras and sonar.  

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5 Responses to “The Naviator”

  1. Asinine Name says:

    Now that is genuinely awesome.

  2. IheartPTbelts says:

    Probably need to register that thing with the FAA and NOAA. Yeah, I want one.

  3. Cool Arrow Kicker says:

    So what you’re saying is that ONR spent $618K for someone to develop a waterproof radio shack quad copter? For some odd reason, I was thinking for that price it would have alternate subsurface propulsion similar to a DPV.

    Way to go nerds

  4. John C. says:

    How many hard working people’s taxes paid for this toy?

  5. Cool Arrow Kicker says:

    John,
    This is just one of many of ONR’s wasteful vaporware projects