In an article recently published on the Science Daily website, American aerospace research engineer Jean-Paul Reddinger presents a solution to increase the load capacity and speed of a quad-vehicle the size of a king-size mattress.

Professor Reddinger guarantees that a new hinge invented by him, installed at the root of the drone’s blade, close to the cube, is capable of lifting payloads with the weight of a human being. Positioned so that the blade inclination changes with the speed of the rotor, the device also provides greater lift and control force.

According to the article, it takes time for very light electric motors to change the speed and thrust of the rotor, which ends up impacting the speed, range and flight stability of the vehicle, but this new coupling makes the thrust more sensitive to changes in rotation per minute (RPM).

Also called quadcopters, quadcopters are part of a “family” of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have two pairs of rotors and propellers in counter-rotation. These aircraft can hover, fly forward and perform vertical takeoffs and landings, similar to helicopters.

Currently, several companies use these aerial vehicles to deliver. However, as the quadcopters become larger (to accommodate more load), the extra inertia of the rotor blade slows them down.

So far, explains Reddinger, the designers’ solution to this issue of vehicle responsiveness has been to place an oscillating plate (to control the blade inclination), or just to place smaller rotors. The problem, says the engineer, is that both solutions weigh more, decreasing the load capacity.

With the new hinge, it ensures that large quadrators can lift loads above 7.5 meters in less than two seconds, which represents twice the speeds currently available.