How medical drones and other drones are replacing humans

(ORDO NEWS) — The house that the drone built. And this is already a reality. Drones are actively used in construction.

Autonomous quadrocopters also work on the roads – they record violations. The appropriate signs have already begun to appear on the roadsides.

And where else do drones work, and not people?

Drones looking for traces of nuclear fuel

On March 11, 2011, a massive magnitude 9 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan. Huge waves hit the land. About twenty thousand people died that day.

This natural disaster caused another catastrophe, the equal of which mankind has not known since 1986. Water flooded the basements of the largest nuclear power plant in Japan – Fukushima-1 – and it exploded.

For more than ten years, nuclear fuel poisoned all living things within a radius of hundreds of kilometers. More than 160,000 people had to be relocated from the contaminated zone.

And all these years, experts could not get close to the flooded reactors of the station in order to understand the extent of the destruction and decide how to neutralize the radioactive threat.

“In principle, it would be problematic for a person to get there.

And given the background radiation and the corresponding level of danger, this is a one-way ticket,” commented Maxim Semenov, commercial director of the drone manufacturing company.

It was only in 2022 that they managed to get into the basements of Fukushima. And it was not a kamikaze specialist who did this, but… a drone.

The remote-controlled underwater vehicle was able to determine where the radioactive fuel is located and take several pictures.

“More than a dozen robots were sent to the epicenter, but they all failed for various reasons: someone’s cameras failed, someone got stuck.

Basically, everyone could not withstand the high level of radiation.

This is the first robot that could detect traces of nuclear fuel.

We hope that based on this data, we will be able to extract this fuel in the future,” Keiji Kojima, president and CEO of the drone manufacturer, shared the information.

“Hurricane” drones: collecting information about the weather

UAVs can not only help eliminate the consequences of natural disasters, but also warn a person in advance about their approach.

The published footage shows the epicenter of Hurricane Fiona, which hit Bermuda and Canadian Nova Scotia in September 2022. Waves 15 meters high, wind – more than 45 meters per second.

A small sailing reconnaissance drone managed to resist the incredible elements, which filmed it on video. Seven such devices are constantly cruising in the waters of the Atlantic.

“We call them ‘hurricane’ drones. They collect information about the direction of the wind, its changes, intensification.

This will help scientists understand more about the mechanics of hurricanes, and give people more time to prepare for their arrival,” said the founder of the drone company. sailboats Richard Jenkins.

Drones searching for people on the high seas

Another drone, this time developed in Russia, can not only warn people of danger, but also save those who are in trouble.

The cidron or sea drone is capable of finding people on the high seas in almost any weather. The main condition is that a transmitter must be attached to a person, the signal of which is picked up by a drone.

“That is, if this sensor gets into, say, water, then the drone automatically flies there and looks at what is happening there.

And when we realized that there is a person here and he needs help, then also in automatic mode the drone can land nearby with this person.

And already one, two or even three people will lean on him, as if on a mobile self-arriving life buoy,” said Vyacheslav Barbasov, head of the drone manufacturing company.

It is clear that it is expensive and pointless to equip each passenger of a cruise liner with a transmitter to communicate with Sidrone.

But for the crews of fishing or research vessels, who often work in difficult weather conditions, such a rescue drone on board is a must. In addition, the Russian development has other useful features.

“This is monitoring of ice pilotage, this is iceberg marking.

That is, when a small buoy is installed on an iceberg in order to understand where the iceberg is located.

And in which case, if it threatens, say, an oil platform, then the icebreaker could leave or some kind of towing vessel, to pull this iceberg,” Vyacheslav Barbasov said.

Initially, Cidron was designed for 45 minutes of flight, but in 2022 it was equipped with a hybrid engine. This increased the operating time of the apparatus to three and a half hours.

Now he can find a man who has been carried very far into the sea. But this is not all that peaceful drones are capable of. They can heal people.

Drones that can send the victim to the hospital and monitor his condition

This tragedy occurred in the summer of 2022: a helicopter of Georgian border guards rescued paragliders who had fallen in the mountains.

The pilot brought the car too close to the rock and damaged the tail rotor. Four crew members, two rescuers and two medics were killed.

Another Russian drone can help people in trouble in hard-to-reach places, but at the same time not risk the life of rescuers. They named it Aeromedic. So far, only a prototype has been built.

A full-size device will appear later this year. It will be able to carry loads up to 130 kilograms. And to overcome in automatic mode a distance of 600 kilometers.

But the main feature of “Aeromedic” is hidden inside – a capsule with a life support system. The drone not only transports the victim to the hospital, but also does everything to deliver him alive.

“The life support system itself is a robotic patient care system.

It controls the pulse, it controls the pressure, it controls the failure of the body in general and can intervene, as a doctor intervenes today.

He can inject insulin conditionally, he can inject glucose, he can do defibrillation, can perform artificial respiration,” said Sergei Gusev, general director of the Aeromedic UAV development company.

Inspector drones with cameras

It is not just to save a person’s life, but to prevent this life from being in danger in the power of a drone inspector from Switzerland.

The small quadcopter is equipped with a thermal imager, camera and lidar, and is also protected by a strong shockproof mesh.

The fact is that this kid works where it is deadly dangerous for a person to appear – in pipelines and sewers filled with toxic fumes, mine workings with combustible gases, inside heavy, fragile structures.

“We made a drone that is not afraid of moisture, dust, temperature, or even radiation.

After all, the Fukushima story prompted us to create it.

It was then that we realized that a person needs helpers to work in the most dangerous places,” said Adrian Briod, technical director of the company for the production of inspection drones.

Electric drones in hazardous areas

But for this drone, Russian developers will thank all the electricians of the world. A small device, at the command of the operator, is able to easily serve high-voltage power lines.

“And since the power line is high-rise structures, supports 20–30 meters or more high, and at river crossings it is up to 100 meters or more, this is work at height.

But, besides this, this is still work in a zone dangerous from impact electromagnetic field and current-carrying parts.

And, accordingly, the robot makes it possible to practically eliminate mortality and injuries, since the presence of a person at the workplace in the danger zone is excluded,” said Alexei Sokolov, chief engineer of the Kanatokhod drone production company.

Now electricians do not have to climb over the wires to clear them of ice, sand or debris, apply anti-icing coating or hang the necessary indicators and devices.

The drone rises to the flight, sits on the cable and then rolls along it, carrying out all the manipulations. Thanks to the magnetic scanner, the device is able to detect a broken wire core even inside an undamaged winding.

“We combined the possibility of moving along a rope, as if on a cable, a rope walker and the possibility of flying.

This is done for the first time, as we say, we crossed an eagle and a grass snake – we can fly and we can crawl at the same time.

This is the first unique development or solution. Well, the second is electromagnetic compatibility, that is, the ability to work on high-voltage lines without turning them off,” said Alexey Sokolov.

Drones that plan to send into space

A NASA drone is unlikely to cope with work in a zone of high electromagnetic voltage. But he doesn’t need it. The Orpheus submarine was designed to operate at great depths.

According to American engineers, a sea drone is able to explore even the Challenger abyss – the deepest place in the world’s oceans. And for him it will be only training before the true mission.

In the future, Orpheus will go beyond our planet. The first target is the icy ocean of Europa, one of Saturn’s moons. So soon drones will do dangerous work for people not only on Earth, but also in space.

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