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Underwater Drone

This robot is filming the ocean under a Florida-sized glacier in Antarctica

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Thwaites Glacier is a massive glacier about the size of Florida in the West Antarctic. It’s been nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier because it’s disintegrating at an alarming rate and is expected to drive up sea levels by more than half a metre if it disappears completely. That’s not expected to happen in our lifetimes, and parts of the glacier are melting at a slower rate than computer models had predicted.

It’s one of the fastest-changing ice-ocean systems in Antarctica, and scientists have been studying what’s going on using an underwater robot called Icefin. Icefin is a cylindrical underwater drone with an array of sensors, including cameras, to document what’s happening beneath the ice shelf. Although melting below the ice where it meets the ocean is slower than expected, melting in cracks and crevasses is happening more quickly.

These custom FPV drones let you film both in the air and under the water – sort of – and it looks amazing

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Underwater drones or at least drones that can land and take off from water have become quite a thing over the last couple of years. Most true underwater drones can only operate underwater and don’t fly. Most airborne drones that can land on the water can’t exactly swim underneath it. FPV pilot Blaster, however, has figured out how he can film both in the air and underwater the same flight.

Two drones were used in this video. DroneXL says that the Dex Models Dex Hydro H was the one used for the underwater shots and the Deep Designs Deep6 is what we see flying into the waterfall. But the film’s creator, Blastr, says that these are custom quads that “are difficult to build and took lots of trial and error to get right”. Some behind-the-scenes b-roll later in the video gives clues as to how it was done.

This is the world’s first “Sea-Air Integrated Drone” that works both in the air and underwater

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For as long as aerial drones have been a thing, we’ve seen people try to use them around water. Typically, it’s either landing on water or taking off from water with “floating landing gear“. We’ve even seen drones that can both fly and sort of swim (more bobbing up and down, really) underwater, as well as drones that don’t fly but are dedicated to underwater use.

Well, now, a new drone developed as a collaboration between Japanese telecommunications company KDDI, commercial drone manufacturer PRODRONE and underwater robotics company QYSEA which takes the best of both worlds and marries them together. It’s called the “Sea-Air Integrated Drone” that can both fly in the air and unleash an underwater drone payload once it’s landed on a body of water.

This underwater drone can live stream video at up to 574 feet below the surface

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When we think of drones, we usually think of ones that can fly, but there are quite a few out there that don’t quite fit this description. One such drone is the T1 Pro from underwater robotics company, Geninnoi. Equipped with a 12-megapixel 1/2.3″ Sony CMOS sensor, this underwater drone can dive to a depth of up to 574 feet.

Although it features a fairly capable camera, it’s not really designed for photography and video. Its main purpose seems to be scientific and data gathering, with the ability to attach a sonar scanner, water quality detector, laser scaler and various other devices. It’s also not inexpensive, coming in just shy of $3,000.

CHASING DORY is a small, inexpensive underwater drone that shoots 1080p video

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With much of the world now starting to get over the whole drone thing, thanks to a combination of constantly changing and ever-restrictive drone laws and simple boredom, it looks like some folks are starting to shift their attention from the skies to the water.

CHASING, the company behind the Gladius Mini underwater drone now has a new, smaller, more affordable one coming. DORY includes many of the features of its more expensive alternatives. It has a 1/2.9″ sensor with an f/1.6 lens offering a 100° field of view, +/- 45° tilt, and shoots 1080p video. DORY is currently being funded through Kickstarter, and with 15 days to go is already more than 400% backed.

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