That is seriously impressive, making the world a better place.
Although those things must have some power to them, to be useful. Unlike commercial drones that have a battery life measure din minutes. I mean, even a single unit of blood weighs a fair bit, and they have to carry multiple units over miles, right?
and I can't even imagine the complexity of the code involved...
They do, yes. Max payload 1.8kg (3 units of blood), service radius 80km (they land back where they started, so they fly a maximum of twice that distance). I'm handwaving this next part: they fly roughly 100km/h, and there are some holds and setting up for delivery and for final approach, so the max flight time probably won't be over two hours. The battery system is definitely the heaviest part of the assembly!
And oh man am I ever learning about the complexity of the code involved. :)
Whoa.. that is impressive! I think amazon were talking about their drone delivery system having a service radius of maybe half that, IIRC... and *that& seemed impressive at the time.
OTOH, that was two years ago, and battery tech has advanced some even in that time.
I wonder if integrated polymer solar cells could extend that, although it wouldn't be much they'd add some power.. OTOH, the parasitic weight might cancel that out.. *shrugs*
As for the code... oy vey! The level of A.I needed is kinda mind boggling... I mean, flying is one thing but I presume they have to dodge stuff like birds and power lines etc, not to mention find the drop zone.
Are they like amazon's set up with a Q.R code like pattern to tell it where to land? Or are they GPS based? or something else [I have no idea what!]
One thing that helps is these have wings - quadcopters are clever and maneuverable, but not efficient. (There have been some demos of mixed-mode "transformer" drones, but look up the V-22 Osprey for stories of how ludicrously/dangerously complex *that* approach can be...)
It definitely does. I don’t know how well I would do, at this point in my life, on projects with less visible meaning. I’ve gotten used to having a reason “that’s bigger than me” to go get things done.
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This is my new job. (Firmware for the autonomous drones that drop-ship units of blood and the like.) Wheeee!
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Although those things must have some power to them, to be useful. Unlike commercial drones that have a battery life measure din minutes. I mean, even a single unit of blood weighs a fair bit, and they have to carry multiple units over miles, right?
and I can't even imagine the complexity of the code involved...
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And oh man am I ever learning about the complexity of the code involved. :)
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OTOH, that was two years ago, and battery tech has advanced some even in that time.
I wonder if integrated polymer solar cells could extend that, although it wouldn't be much they'd add some power.. OTOH, the parasitic weight might cancel that out.. *shrugs*
As for the code... oy vey! The level of A.I needed is kinda mind boggling... I mean, flying is one thing but I presume they have to dodge stuff like birds and power lines etc, not to mention find the drop zone.
Are they like amazon's set up with a Q.R code like pattern to tell it where to land? Or are they GPS based? or something else [I have no idea what!]
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We definitely work to minimize drag. Every little bit counts.
And we are now official in Ghana, as of this morning their time. https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/24/zipline-drone-medicine-vaccine-delivery-ghana/ (I haven’t yet seen the financial times article on which this one is based.)
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And that would give one a feeling of contributing to something worthwhile, indeed.
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