My favorite challenge: Future generation personal transportation system
The solution I select to address this is an air taxi (a
“flying car”).
Few Use cases:
- Due to traffic congestions on roads and lack of specifically reserved pathways for critical services like ambulances, many lives are being lost due to due to the late arrival of an ambulance to the spot of incident or to the hospital
- The daily commute from city to suburbs is a very time-consuming ordeal
- These can be used for recreational purposes too
Storyboard:
In this, an air ambulance can reach the point of incident &
get the patient back to the hospital in a fast and reliable way. This can be
the difference between a life lost and a life saved.
Lookalike Prototype:
The prototype made is that of an air ambulance described in
the above storyboard.
For the mass commercialization of air taxies, two main critical
technological barriers.
- Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL): This technology will aid the air taxies to be operated in congested areas too making them independent of airstrips.
- Autonomous Flying Technology: To expand the market for air taxies to the broader population beyond the licensed pilots and eliminate safety issues caused due to human error.
There are many other barriers like rules & regulations,
air traffic control, noise, fuel range, etc., but the above two barriers are
the critical ones.
Designing a low-cost experiment
What will be done:
I will experiment on Autonomous flying technology. Aerial photography is a new craze. People are using drones to take Arial pictures, manually controlling them from the ground. Many movie production houses use drones to film action sequences and chase sequences too. I would want to test the existing autonomous technology by using them.
What hypothesis to test:
I would want to test/evaluate the efficacy of the latest version of autonomous technology available in terms of,
I will experiment on Autonomous flying technology. Aerial photography is a new craze. People are using drones to take Arial pictures, manually controlling them from the ground. Many movie production houses use drones to film action sequences and chase sequences too. I would want to test the existing autonomous technology by using them.
What hypothesis to test:
I would want to test/evaluate the efficacy of the latest version of autonomous technology available in terms of,
- Following the prescribed navigation path &
- Dodge obstacles
This is what is expected of a well-functioning air taxi too.
Cost of the experiment:
Instead of testing or developing this technology on a live air taxi prototype whose build cost is significantly very high, it will be far cheaper to test this on a camera drone. A basic drone camera costs around Rs 2000 in India. So, building a custom camera drone for this experimentation is a judicious option.
Measure success:
The real outcome of this experiment will the learnings we get from it. Understanding the know-how of what works and what doesn’t work in developing autonomous flying technology are the learnings. The learnings will make this experiment a success. The learnings will pave the way for the advancement of autonomous technology. Identifying actionable points from the expreiment for improvement/developement of the technology will be the measure of success of this experiment. Say for example an issue could be the sensor is able to detect the objects and dodge when it is travelling below a certain speed. Above that speed it is colliding. So processing of the sensor needs to be improved is one action point. The best part of this experimental model is, it can be used to develop the autonomous technology iteratively.
Cost of the experiment:
Instead of testing or developing this technology on a live air taxi prototype whose build cost is significantly very high, it will be far cheaper to test this on a camera drone. A basic drone camera costs around Rs 2000 in India. So, building a custom camera drone for this experimentation is a judicious option.
Measure success:
The real outcome of this experiment will the learnings we get from it. Understanding the know-how of what works and what doesn’t work in developing autonomous flying technology are the learnings. The learnings will make this experiment a success. The learnings will pave the way for the advancement of autonomous technology. Identifying actionable points from the expreiment for improvement/developement of the technology will be the measure of success of this experiment. Say for example an issue could be the sensor is able to detect the objects and dodge when it is travelling below a certain speed. Above that speed it is colliding. So processing of the sensor needs to be improved is one action point. The best part of this experimental model is, it can be used to develop the autonomous technology iteratively.
Novel idea, hospitals and administrations have been struggling to find alternative ways of taking emergency patients to hospitals. Green corridors, radio mirchi announcements, etc have been tried to sensitize fellow passengers on the concerned roads. Getting an air taxi do this job would certainly solve the problem. However, the intricacies of getting the physically ill patients in a vertical lift-off scenario, especially through a crowded city space is a challenge in itself. Helipads will have to be designated for this in several places in the city and access to these places could be done through ambulances. Furthermore, hospitals would also need helipads.
ReplyDeleteBefore and after storyboard effectively conveys the message. Great efforts in constructing the Looks alike prototype. It resembles the idea at hand. Your low cost experimentation touches the root cause of using a simple quadrotor to accurately follow a path, dodging obstacles in its path.
It's an excellent solution in an urban setting if certain infrastructure to support it is developed and patient's transfer is sorted out. Kudos to your imagination!
Thank you for sharing this post Nishant. It was an interesting read and your ideas do suggest a way to address one of the growing concerns of today.
ReplyDeleteTraffic is definitely going to increase and increasing number of people will not be able to get emergency services in time and an air-ambulance definitely is an innovative idea towards solving this issue.
I really liked the looks-like model you had made. It nails down the product you are envisioning. The story board also captures the concept well.
Regarding the one-day experiment, frankly I would have overthought it and tried to think along the lines of a bigger size vehicle navigating the way through the air. The one-day experiment you had devised using drone not only simplified the hypothesis at hand and at the same time, addressed the most critical issues that could arise - following defined navigation path and avoiding obstacles. If the experiment is successful, it could lead to saving a lot of lives in the future if it can be developed. Good luck!