Engineers turned a drone into a flying cargo “cart”

The Palletrone drone allows you to physically control it like a shopping cart, facilitating the transportation of goods in difficult working conditions.

Korean engineers developed a new type the Palletrone drone, which allows you to control it by physical influence, like an ordinary shopping cart, ensuring the efficient movement of goods in difficult conditions.

The Palletrone drone, created by researchers at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, combines a platform for transporting cargo with a quadcopter system. The main feature of this drone is that it does not require complex programs or remote controls to move it — the operator controls it via a handle attached to the platform. Human effort — pushing, pulling or lifting — are transformed into the corresponding movement of the drone in three spatial dimensions.

The main advantage of the Palletrone is its ability to overcome internal obstacles such as stairs, uneven floors or narrow passages. With four servo-driven propellers, the drone maintains stability in the air by adjusting its orientation without tilting, making it reliable for transporting cargo. The outer mesh housing protects the propellers from collisions with objects, ensuring safe transportation even in tight spaces.

Palletrone is controlled using two main algorithms: “disturbance tracking” and “admittance control”. The first compensates for random external disturbances, such as wind or other factors that may affect the drone's movement. The second algorithm is responsible for the smoothness of control, taking into account the force applied by the operator and adjusting the trajectory of the drone accordingly. An important feature is “virtual inertia”, which allows the drone to react intuitively: the more effort the operator makes, the faster and further the drone moves.

Tests have shown that the Palletrone can move stably along an arbitrary route, holding a load weighing almost 3 kg, without losing roll and pitch stability. This control approach is especially important for warehouses or buildings with obstacles where other means of transportation, such as wheeled carts, may not be suitable.

This is not the first time engineers have implemented physical control of drones. For example, in 2015, Swiss developers introduced the Fotokite Phi quadcopter, which was controlled via a leash, allowing ordinary users to easily control the drone without the need for a pilot. However, Palletrone is the first solution that is focused on cargo operations.

Palletrone can be a revolutionary tool for industrial logistics, where it is necessary to move goods over short distances in difficult conditions. Due to the ease of control and intuitiveness, the drone has every chance of becoming an integral part of warehouses, production facilities and other environments with limited space.