ORGAN TRANSPORTATION
Delivery drones are all the rage, but some researchers are transporting the most critical cargo: human organs for transplantation. Every minute an organ spends outside the human body affects its viability, so speed is key, and often a drone can be faster than an ambulance or even a helicopter. After three years of study, chief UAS pilot for the University of Maryland Ryan Henderson and his team even proved that a drone ride was smooth when compared to that of an ambulance or helicopter. On April 19, 2019, a custom drone took off on its 3-mile mission. Although the drone was programmed to complete the
3-mile flight without pilot input, Henderson had his thumbs on the joysticks the entire time, ready to intervene if something went wrong. Fortunately, the flight was uneventful, and the drone successfully delivered a human kidney for transplant in Baltimore, Maryland.
Exploring giant vertical ice shafts (called “moulins”) to better understand the effects of climate change on melting ice is a challenge. Scientists can only safely rappel down about 130 meters 425 feet), so researchers employed Flyability’s collisiontolerant Elios drone to help. The expedition was sponsored by apparel company Moncler and focused on an area about 80 kilometers east of Kangerlussuaq, where scientists wanted to study the movement of deep underground water.
“Entering a moulin that runs 300 meters deep is very dangerous, especially when the conditions farther down within the shaft are unknown,” says Flyability Product Manager Geoffroy le Pivain, who helped organize the mission. “Thanks to its collisiontolerance and other features we’ve developed to help inspectors fly in challenging indoor environments, the Elios presented a unique solution for explorers to reach the bottom of the moulin.”
The mission was led by Francesco Sauro, Professor of Planetary Geology and Exploration at the University of Bologna. He was supported by a team of world-renowned geologists, glaciologists, speleologists, geographers, biologists, and Arctic explorers.
Fifteen-year-old Harshwardhan Zala has a simple goal: “I want to run a campaign to destroy all the landmines around the world and I want to sign agreements with all governments.” According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, these explosive devices can lie dormant for years and explode when an unsuspecting person steps in its path. When Zala saw a YouTube video of soldiers in Afghanistan getting blown up by landmines, he developed a drone that could remotely detonate them and save lives. His patent-pending, landmine-seeking drone sends out radio waves that cover an eightsquare-meter area while flying two feet above the surface. The waves detect the landmines and communicate their location with a base station.