From the Lifeline Drones website:
Lifeline Drones is a cost effective and scalable series of custom designed networked 3-D printed drones.
With a payload of 3 kilograms, the drones can carry lab samples and medications to areas that are normally hard to reach in the event of a medical emergency, natural disaster, or in areas where there is limited road access.
They'll be presenting at this year's Open Hardware Summit at MIT on September 6th.
Comments
my concept for a blimp mother-ship would be a great support and multiplier platform for this!
I think there is a lot to take away from this.
OK so maybe lab samples are a pretty esoteric use, but getting first aid or antibiotic supplies or even some drinkable water to a hard to reach plane accident or lost bush walker could save some lives and possibly body parts.
You could even dump one of these out of a plane and precision fly it to the exact spot it was needed (mountainside maybe).
A few genuine examples of this type of use will go a long way towards providing some of the positive press we so badly need.
I also like the simplistic and modular propeller protector frame, definitely something to be looked at more closely.
Although I think MITs politics and Humanitarianism have been irrevocably tarnished by recent events, this summit and this concept are a good thing.
A Burrito Bomber. That seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't even exist. Although, I do understand it is a proof of concept, with the hopes of drawing some publicity due to its unusual nature.
There's a pretty good RCGroups discussion that sums up a lot of the design decisions that lead to multiple blades:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=917956
I tried 3 bladed props, they were quite a bit less efficient than 2 bladers. Only good where space is a problem, the Spitfire eventually had 5 blade props because the engine was so powerful but prop/ground clearance a problem.
One of the cool things about this design are the motor pods. Using a hemisphere to encapsulate the motor and prop while allowing for different motor configurations is forward thinking. Allowing for the decoupling of each motor/speed controller from the IMU functionality make a lot of sense. Looking forward to seeing the project evolve.
@HeliStorm: I worked in the mobile phone industry for some time and one of the top-secret projects I got to take a look at was the development of software to "manage" the purchase of components according to this property. So they have a huge database of which component goes into what phone and the associated warranty that should apply. The idea of the software was to make an educated guess of phone returns and how much that would cost the company for things brought back within warranty.
Gerard, I agree completely.
I actually walked into the appliance store 2 weeks ago and told them I'd like to buy a new washing machine, and I'd pay lots of money for one with a 10 year warranty. They didn't have any with that feature. So instead I say "Well, if they all have the same 1 year warranty, and none of them really has a better chance at making it to 10 years than any others, then I'll just take the cheapest one." And that's why we are where we are.
Gerard...off topic, but I can see that with cellphones. Planned obsolescence. My cellphone contract just ended in June, and my phone has started wonking out terribly. I swear they built a counter into the software which, after two years, triggered the, "slowly and annoyingly self destruct sequence."
That's because companies invest in research programmes on price, quality and MTBF statistics to determine at large scale how many devices break down within a certain period. This knowledge is applied to determine the warranty period itself, but also which components to purchase to stay within the safe range with a certain probability. That's how cellphones are developed anyway. I'm not saying that all such equipment does break down, I'm just saying that the majority will stop working after the warranty period.
You can therefore say that the warranty period is an excellent indicator of how long you should expect a device to continue to function.
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