Flapper Drones Releases Its Latest Open Source Drone, the Flapper Nimble+

Many areas of technology find inspiration from nature. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most recent examples of this. AI systems learn or are trained by mimicking neural network systems found in humans. There has also been various drone innovations in the recent years which have taken inspiration from nature. The most recent of these is the Flapper Nimble+, a bio-inspired drone which is a small and lightweight device that uses flapping wings to take flight whereas many traditional drones generally use rotors. Thus, the device operates more like an insect or a hummingbird rather than a common drone.

The device comes from Flapper Drones, a Czech-based company with its roots in the Netherlands that originally developed the open source Crazyflie quadcopter. After developing and releasing the Crazyflie, an ecosystem of drone parts soon followed. This includes devices such as flight controllers, positioning circuits, radio modules, and battery systems.

The Flapper is stated to be the world’s first tailless flapping winged robot. The wings are made of a soft material that makes them lightweight as well as soft. This makes the drone safer and overall less prone to damage. The complete drone weighs in at 114 grams and is about 49cm in length. The Flapper Nimble+ drone builds off this ecosystem and currently features many of the same components as the Crazyflie quadcopter.

The flight controller used in the Flapper is the Crazyflie Bolt 1.1, which is powered by an STM32F405 MCU along with an nRF51822 SoC for wireless communications and power management. Additional sensors onboard include a precision pressure sensor, a three-axis gyro, and a three-axis accelerometer. The wireless system can be controlled through a video game-like remote, which enables long range and low latency communication or an Android/iOS app through Bluetooth LE. Additional modules can also be added to the system, such as the Lighthouse optical positioning system, an onboard logging microSD module, RGB LEDs, and an optional external receiver.

The starter kit is currently available from the Bitcraze.io website for a price of $2,000 or directly through the Flapper Drones website. There is a message stating that the product is in an early access stage, meaning the hardware is proven to work, however the software is still experimental. The starter kit contents include the following:

• Nimble+ flapping robot
• 2.4GHz transmitter with OpenTx/EdgeTx
• Two wing sets
• Two 300mAh 2S LiPo batteries
• Landing gear
• A body shell set
• Additional wear and tear parts
• USB 2S LiPo battery charger
• Crazyradio PA
• The flight case with dimensions of 46 x 33 x 15cm

The device has been developed with a focus on universities and research labs looking to explore the field of bio-inspired aerial robotics. The team has also demonstrated the device in action in a few different videos. The video below shows a swarm demo with three devices flying synchronously in a small room during the Highlight Delft festival in the Netherlands. The demo used the Lighthouse positioning system, which allows the robots to fly autonomously within a predefined area.