The drone solution to effective distribution in inaccessible areas will be presented at a Ted Talk on 11 June. A Dominican, Paola Santana is one of the co-founders of the start-up to manufacture solar-powered quadcopters with GPS and sensors, which can carry a few kilos up to 10 km. The drone flight missions are to be coordinated with aviation authorities and can fly 24/7/365.
The Matternet was born when Andreas Raptopoulos, Dimitar Pachov and Darlene Damm, all students in the 2011 graduate program at Singularity University, after looking at the causes of poverty concluded that being locked in the cycle or breaking free is strongly influenced by access to basic goods and services in the marketplace. As access requires roads, they chose robotic aircraft as the solution.
The firm has funding from Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz. The first drone has flown autonomous point-to-point trials in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the UK and at NASA’s Moffett Field in the US.
As reported in Singularity Hub website, Santana outlines all the advantages: “You can use drones for filming, for agriculture, for protecting animals from illegal hunting, for transportation.” But she is clear about the need for good regulations establishing what you can and can’t do with drones.
Furthermore, looking ahead, company representatives believe that drone capability will follow the exponential curve – soon carrying more for longer distances. And whereas the firm may first find its feet in rural areas of developing countries, it may eventually be equally useful flying over congested roads in megacities.
Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies