The sea is home to wildlife beyond our imagination. But perhaps it won’t be so unknown for long if you’re anything like the enthusiastic builders of the CPS5, a fully functional 3D printed underwater drone.

This is not your average 3D printed drone; on the contrary, the CPS5 includes some truly resourceful technology to keep its electronic cables dry while retaining the integrity of an automated object.

A video of the build on Reddit inspired Redditors, with one stating, “call it whatever you want, you’ve done something completely amazing. Well done.”

Diving 85 meters deep, the drone has the potential to capture some impressive underwater footage using the QGroundControl app and can display a 1080p live video feed from the drone’s onboard camera. The entire build is fully waterproof, with a camera and wires encased inside a tube, then sealed with 3D printed endcaps. The makers turn the tube into a “pressure chamber” by filling the endcaps with epoxy resin and leaving them to dry, so they are watertight before closing the tube. The outside build is a 3D print in the shape of a miniature submarine, complete with 3D printed propellers.

Incredibly, the initial prototype of this submarine was built in 2018 by Filip Buława and Piotr Domanowski as high school students in Poland. After winning a special award at the Society for Science’s 2021 Regeneron ISEF science fair, the duo continued to prototype until they had perfected their formula. The result is CPSdrone, an online course walking paying users through the printing and build process and the lessons the pair learned through years of making the drone.

You can begin the building process with a free lesson sample on the CPSdrone website. A sign-in is required to access, but you get a complete overview, plus the bill of materials (BOM), an explanation of the drone’s structure, and a course essentials list.

Full access to the course, including all 11 Chapters (containing 73 lessons), tips for “how to do it differently”, assembly manuals, BOM, 3D models, and support from the team, can be purchased for $140.

Filip and Piotr showcase videos of the drone zooming around in swimming pools, capturing goofy underwater footage of their friends. They have also tested it in natural bodies of water, where they’ve captured footage of fish.