US Patent 11591076 Inflatable drone with shape memory alloy wires

In one embodiment, a drone is provided with several inflatable tubes that each connect a propeller component to a body of the drone. In order to increase the handling of the drone, a patch is placed on the top surface of each inflatable tube that includes some number of shape memory alloy wires. The shape memory alloy wires shrink and become rigid when an electric current is applied to them. The optimal locations on each tube to place the patches, and the shape of the patches, is determined using a topology optimization. Later, the wires in the patches can be selectively activated or deactivated by an operating entity to provide an additional means to control the drone. Additionally, the drone is equipped with several landing arms which may include a shape memory alloy torsion coil spring to help the arm deployment during landing.