THe Embedded Systems Research Laboratory at Oakland University has developed a drone that can fly, float and dive under water and swim around.

While floating the Loon Copter can tilt downward 90 degrees by filling its buoyancy chambers with water on one side of the drone, similar to a submarine. This allows its rotors to function effectively underwater. Quadcopters that double as subaquatic robots are nothing new but there has never been one that is completely untethered. This leaves it free to swim around and explore. Even without a tether both the Loon and other aerial/aquatic drones have limits on how deep they can go due to pressure.

The down side of having no cable is the Loon can not live stream video or send back photos in real time. The loon can only record onto local storage to be played back later. Seem’s like a promising new bit of tech, we look forward to the final revision so the public can have some fun with it!

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