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Folding Quad Rotor for Avalanche Rescue

Posted by Firefly on October 6, 2010 at 9:08am

I found this quad while browsing through the James Dyson Awards. There is a link above the pictures to translate to English.

I couldn't find much on the company but they seem to be planning for this to be part of a full UAV system that marks the location of Avalanche victims.

I like the simplicity of the design. This may inspire my next quad...

Tags: folding, avalanche, desaster, quad, rescue
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Comments

  • John Ryan October 10, 2010 at 10:05am
    It's bright red and white color combination is unique. But the quadrocopter 450 ARF folds up the same way. It's not as tidy as the Avalanche Quad but to be able to "fold it up" isn't a unique design feature.

    http://www.rc-modellbau-shop.com/modelle/hubschrauber-quadrocopter.jpg

    I really wish Universities would teach their students to come up with their own product designs, and that those designs be specific to address problems that haven't already been identified by half the planet.

    At the very least, if products are intended to be commercialized then the developer should determine whats already on the market. If there is no USP (like the ArduQuad's USP is that its open source and designed for ease of assembly by DIY enthusiasts) then potential buyers will only ever see it as one option of many in a very crowded market.

    If it were just a learning or research project then a USP isn't such a big deal. But judging by the wording at the awards site "extension to the private market", it sounds like they might have a commercial agenda in which case they should have created a design that hadn't already been done before, and create that design with the specific goal of addressing a segment of the market that is either newly identified, or isn't already being over sold.
  • John Owen October 7, 2010 at 12:47pm
    Thank you for the translation! I was wondering about the sensors due to the fact I have been looking into small gps tracking nodes that could be deployed from a quad in a reasonable manner.

    I love the folding design. Its very unique.
  • John Ryan October 7, 2010 at 1:44am
    As cool as it looks and sounds, if it took 5 engineering and 4 industrial design students to come up with that then I've really got to take my hat off to the ArduQuad team!
  • Dan Sibisan October 6, 2010 at 5:34pm
    The most likely scenarios is.
    The high altitude skiers these days carry a "pulse beacon" that can be captured with a small scanner by the Rescue party, so the quadcopter well only need to scan for the signal and get on top of it and lunch the smoke grenade.
    I have to say this is a very impressive whey to put a quadcopter to use.
    It could pinpoint up to 4 bacons and mark them .
    Very Very useful stuff , if they manage to make it work .
  • MarcS October 6, 2010 at 11:53am
    Hi,

    I can probably help a little with the translation...
    It is basically a design award, the text mainly describes the idea of locating people under avalanches (but does not say how). It was a cooperation of mechanical engineering and design students.
    The beacons are described as smoke grenades to mark positions.
  • Firefly October 6, 2010 at 9:58am
    I looked at it again, and I think they are the beacons that would be dropped to mark an avalanche victim. They seem to be held under (in?) the arms of the quad.
  • John Owen October 6, 2010 at 9:55am
    I like the design. Wish I could read the information but alas the english translation only translates the section headers. Any idea what the pic of the little red tripod looking sensors are?
  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen October 6, 2010 at 9:38am
    some how props look really unbalanced for rest of the frame. but yes frame has nice simple design.
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