Mapping the inside of cramped, difficult-to-reach areas can be helpful to people such as plant operators, but drones flown in such places could easily crash. The LiDAR- and cage-equipped Elios 3 quadcopter was designed with that challenge in mind.

We first heard about the technology behind the Elios line of drones back in 2013, when a prototype was unveiled by engineers from Switzerland’s EPFL research institute. Commercialized by spinoff company Flyability, Elios quadcopters have since been put to a number of interesting uses, including the exploration of ice caves in Greenland.

Like its predecessors, the Elios 3 incorporates a carbon-fiber-strut cage around its body, which protects the drone in the event that it crashes into something. For that matter, the cage also protects the things – potentially including people – which the drone may crash into.

The big new feature on this version is an Ouster OS0-32 LiDAR sensor. Combined with onboard SLAM-based FlyAware mapping software,…

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Source: newatlas.com