Hyperloop One engineer shows drone hovering through magnetic fields

An engineer from the Hyperloop One company, Casey Handmer, has shown a drone that can levitate using magnetic fields. The drone, which weighs more than 55 kilograms, is able to hover a few centimeters above the ground.

The so-called Electromagnetic Levitation Quadcopter has four flat cylinders that function as the legs of the drone. Each cylinder contains twelve magnets. The cylinders can rotate around their own axis at high speed, which also causes the magnets to rotate. In the copper plate on which the drone stands, electric currents are generated in accordance with Faraday’s law of induction. These currents create a magnetic field opposite to the magnetic field of the magnets. This ensures the levitation of the drone.

The magnetic fields generated in the copper are, as it were, the mirror image of the drone’s magnetic fields. This effect occurs so quickly that the electrical current generated in the copper follows the rotating magnets of the drone.

The Electromagnetic Levitation Quadcopter is intended to demonstrate the principle of electromagnetic levitation in drones. This principle is also used in floating Maglev trains and in the hyperloop system, which allows high speeds to be achieved in near-vacuum tubes.