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.
