With Britain’s persistently wet weather, holding an umbrella over your head can often lead to painful arm cramps.
But one inventor and YouTuber may have a solution: a flying umbrella that follows the user in the rain.
The homemade contraption includes an adapted store-bought yellow umbrella and 3D-printed components with propellers on the end.
Unfortunately, the user still has to control the umbrella with a two-handed remote to ensure it stays above the head, leaving little room to carry groceries.
However, the inventor now plans to make a better version that can autonomously track and follow the person below.
‘I Build Stuff”s clever new gadget includes a store-bought yellow umbrella and 3D printed components.
The new invention is the work of an engineer behind the YouTube channel ‘I Build Stuff’.
“Umbrellas haven’t really changed in the last 4,000 years…the fundamental design is exactly the same,” he says in the video.
“But it’s 2024; I shouldn’t even need to hold my umbrella.”
“So today I’m going to make the first flying umbrella. I mean, what could go wrong?”
As the young engineer points out, other attempts have been made in the past to make a flying umbrella.
But they have gone wrong largely because the propellers were in the wrong place: attached to the handle or on top of the deck, leaving no room for air to flow.
Therefore, for his flying umbrella, he positioned the propellers so that they protruded from the sides of the canopy.
It is made up of a four-arm X-shaped central frame made of carbon fiber, strong and lightweight.
Each of the arms has a propeller and motor on the end, making the contraption look like a cross between an umbrella and a drone.
It is made up of a four-arm X-shaped central frame made of carbon fiber, strong and lightweight.
Each of the arms has a propeller and motor on the end, making the contraption look like a cross between an umbrella and a drone.
Various elements of the device were designed on the Onshape software platform before being 3D printed and delivered to your home.
Building the device took “months” and included a major setback due to poorly soldered wires, but it was finally ready for a test.
At first he was successful in taking out his flying umbrella, but on the second attempt the slightest gust of wind caused him to falter, as the video shows.
“The first flight went surprisingly well, but from there things started to go downhill,” the YouTuber said.
“During the second flight, the umbrella started to move away and I barely caught it in time before it crashed into the fence.”
In another test the next day, the flying umbrella began to “shake very violently” before hitting the ground, and it wasn’t even during rainy weather.
During one of the tests, the device fell to the ground, and it was not even in rainy weather.
Although you have to control the umbrella to keep it above your head as you move, imagine an autonomous machine that can intelligently follow you.
A fix has since made the device “even more stable than before,” but whether it actually flies in heavy rain has yet to be seriously demonstrated.
“This actually protects me from the rain… it wasn’t raining that hard, but I think this can withstand much harsher conditions, although probably not stronger winds,” he says.
Although you have to control the umbrella to keep it above your head as you move, the innovator now plans to build another “autonomous” iteration that can intelligently follow you.
“In the future I could put a camera on the bottom and write a program that records my position and moves my umbrella accordingly,” he adds.
MailOnline has contacted I Build Stuff regarding how much it spent on the project.