This Flying Umbrella Follows You Around to Protect You

What if an umbrella could be brought into the present by changing one essential element about it and making it easier and much more convenient to use? What if the umbrella was ushered into this new era of technological innovation and be made to follow us around, hovering in place over our heads to offer protection against the elements?

What if, indeed?

One engineer (and quite skilled filmmaker) who goes by I Built Stuff on social media and video-sharing platforms set out to find the answer to that question, and the result is impressive. The way he sees it, since we're in the year 2024, we shouldn't be holding the umbrella like humanity did centuries ago. It's time we brought some tech into its design and rendered it airborne, following us around to shield us in the rain and sunshine.

As the engineer himself notes at the beginning of the video embedded below, the idea of creating a flying umbrella using a drone (drone-brella?, um-drone?) isn't new and has already seen various iterations over the years.

Basically, ever since drones went mainstream, there's always one content creator or another who tries to fit an umbrella over it. Of these inventions, not a single one worked satisfactorily because, while "in theory, the project should be pretty simple," in reality, the placement of the propellers can kill it in the bud.

To prevent that from happening to his own project, this engineer went for outside-of-the-box thinking. Once he removed the handle of the umbrella, he chose to build an angled internal frame that extended beyond the umbrella and allowed him to mount the propellers outside. As for the umbrella, he chose a travel mini-model off Amazon that retails for just $10.

It goes without saying that the great innovation behind this flying umbrella is not the umbrella itself but the drone that flies it. In this case, it was built from scratch. The tubes for the frame are carbon fiber to reduce weight, while the parts that stick out, on which he mounted the motors and propellers, are 3D printed.

The wiring is hidden in the tubes, with the central control hub in the center of the umbrella, and thus protected from the elements as well. The engineer added a GPS to ensure that the umbrella holds position even in strong winds, but he admits towards the end that it will definitely not do as well as a regular handheld one in extreme weather.

The first prototype of the flying umbrella was destroyed even before the engineer got to take it out for testing. When he tried to turn it on, it exploded because of bad soldering. Due to the changes made, the second prototype was even lighter and safer. The flying umbrella was officially ready for testing in early December of last year.

The first flight test was an incredible success, both with the drone and with the umbrella mounted over the drone. The follow-up two, not so much: the drone kept trying to fly away, to the point where its creator became afraid his hard work of many months would be lost. For the final flight test, the engineer made more adjustments and was able to declare his invention a successful one.

There are some caveats to the flying umbrella, though, starting from the fact that it can protect the owner in a drizzle but probably not in a heavier downpour. It could be swept away by a gust of wind, and just as importantly, it requires operating via controller, which makes the idea of holding it with your hand seem more convenient by comparison.

The fact that you're not allowed to fly a drone around the city wherever you want is perhaps the biggest obstacle in the future development of such a tech-packed umbrella. But this project isn't about bringing one to mass production but rather about showing that one could (and maybe should) be built.

To that end, this engineer promises to work on his creation more, to make it follow the owner autonomously. He says he's thinking of installing a camera under the umbrella, which would allow it to lock on the owner to follow them, thus doing away with the need for a controller.

A flying umbrella remains as much a dream today as the promise of a new era of human flight by means of flying motorcycles, cars, or other devices that could potentially shape the future of personal mobility. But if we're to dream, this flying umbrella is a pretty neat dream to begin with.