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.
Thanks for the link Gerard and Graham for explaining. I was thinking as well that if it was equally or more efficient than two blades, we would have seen more three bladed props around! :-)
You can deliver a pizza or burrito into secluded areas with a plane ... http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/21/tech/innovation/drone-burrito-bomber/...
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.
Guys, what about the three-blade rotor blades? Have not seen these before! That's very interesting as it potentially allows for smaller diameter props (so smaller total 'footprint' / diameter) while not compromising lift capacity ?
@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.
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