Last week, science news outlet PopSci spotted a Tweet of a Yemini drone that was entirely made of sticks. The video showed the drone gliding through the air.
“I think the biggest benefit of this design is that once key materials are available – a battery, a receiver, several small motors, propellers and wiring – such a drone can be essentially assembled ‘on the fly,’ pun intended,” Samuel Bendett, an analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New American Security, tells PopSci.
The breakdown of the drone’s components include the bare minimum needed for a functional drone. It has motors, writes, controls, and something it can all stick to, wooden logs. The camera was a basic DSLR attached with a duct tape.
“Obviously, some experience building and flying such quadcopters is helpful in making sure the drone can be properly stabilized, but a lot of those requirements and knowledge is freely available online as well,” says Bendett.
“The main point of this video is that the quadcopter frame can be assembled from any products freely available. And the rest of the components can be relatively easily procured or even built/3D printed if necessary.”
Another drone, showcased by IEEE Spectrum this week, showed how easy it is to build a drone from everyday materials. The device was crafted with rice cakes and it could also be eaten in an emergency!
“The reason why this drone exists is to work toward the effective and efficient delivery of food to someone who, for whatever reason, really, really needs food and is not in a position to gain access to it in any other way. The idea is that you could fly this drone directly to them and keep them going for an extra day or two. You obviously won’t get the drone back afterward (because its wings will have been eaten off), but that’s a small price to pay for potentially keeping someone alive via the delivery of vital calories,” wrote the news outlet.