Small Portable Ruggedized Humanitarian Response Vehicle
Purpose
Pathfinder inserted or dropped into place and be the first on-site in disaster zones. Small portable ruggedized humanitarian response vehicle encasing land and air combination as one unit with remote control and autonomous capability, including mobile phone type payload providing real-time feeds including video, images and on-board sensors to disaster assistance response teams.
Unit to be re-usable or disposable as its main objective is to preserve life and relay real-time environmental data.
Scope
Can be dropped from up to 100 meters and when on terra firma land speed capability of up to 25 MPH on flat ground with some off-road capability.
Once target location reached and if required, unit can deploy air support drone vehicle. Air support drone has a comms link to the land unit containing mobile phone type device to relay data to disaster assistance response teams. If relay data comms fail the land unit stores data locally for recovery.
Prototype
Use existing open source software and hardware, standard comm protocols and modify high performance electric off-road RC land vehicle and camera drone
[the design is still in my head and the above image shown is my modified ftx carnage RC car (20-30MPH) and camera drone]
Inputs/ideas welcome and anyone volunteering to help me build it! :)
Cheers,
FlightBots.com - The Home of Friendly Drones
Comments
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2017062404/b-unstoppable
Klemens link irlock
found coordinated UAV docking ref: robohub.org
Hey, would be great to get your thoughts!
My high-level ideas to explore re. high impact with the ground>
[1] drone parachute and detached on impact
[adverse weather conditions and parachute mechanism failure]
[2] air support vehicle inside shock absorption case within ruggedized ground vehicle
[Ex. Spring-loaded cover ejected for air vehicle deployment]
[3] one-off use vehicle container e.g. shields both land and air vehicles from impact
[container could include additional equipment; increase drop weight/reduces deployment times]
[4] air and land vehicles ruggedized for impact with removable protective shields on venerable parts e.g. props
[additional parts/points of failure]
[5] air and land vehicles bound together and ruggedized for impact allowing rapid deployment mitigate points of failure
[design and materials]
Design>
Land vehicle rectangular shape with 4x4 drive and cut-out center containing air drone that can be deployed from the land vehicle either way up e.g. if land vehicle upside down the air vehicle can be deployed from either side.
Lock mechanism>
solenoid actuator e.g. ‘off’ state air drone locked to land vehicle and ‘on’ state released
Docking/undocking>
Not sure but keep visualizing a yin yang symbol type of connector acting as both tracking guidance and physical hermaphrodite connect [its been a long week]... :)
Cheers,
How do you propose to lock the air support vehicle to the ground vehicle?
Thanks for the links - v helpful; been thinking about the run-times and methods to prolong exploration mission including dropping fuel cells e.g. seperate untis acting as fuel stations and 'Beastie' having nest finder capabilities to re-charge. Other option include top up methods using solar-cells and hybrid power (combo of liquid and battery).
Other areas to focus [lots] include hardware implemnetation e.g. materials used to construct the vehicle; cost effective, strong, robust and lightweight. Also able to with withstand high impact (drop from 100m) and protect the encased air drone inside the unit (have a few ideas around this one).
Upgrade the car to something like this:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/airbotservices-style-arduroverg...
to gain more offroad capabilities.
And add this tool to land the drone back on the car:
http://irlock.com/
Biggest Problem:
Battery Life