Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
Issue link: https://insideunmanned.epubxp.com/i/668560
32 unmanned systems inside April/May 2016 AIR SOLUTIONS This approach is complicated by the fact that, at least in A frica , mosquito males "are not very mobile." Manually dis- tributing sterile male mosquitoes could take up to a day just to cover one square kilome- ter, Schroeder said. The females, which bite humans, cover a much broader range, traveling up to a few kilometers to go from inaccessible-to-humans breeding grounds to human settlements, where they spread the malaria parasite. Height Tech modified an oc- tocopter it had already built to create a custom mos- quito distribution de- vice. The drone can carr y 25 contain- ers, each the size of a film canister. Inside each con- tainer are 1,000 male mosquitoes, chilled to 45 de- grees Fahrenheit, a temperature that puts the mosquitoes into temporary hi- bernation. "You can stuff them together without harming each other," Schroeder said. Height Tech demonstrated its system at Drones for Good (just barely missing a chance to advance to the finals) with biodegradable paper confetti standing in place for mosqui- toes. "If the [mosquito] project doesn't make it, we'll call it Partycopter," Schroeder joked. Height Tech is hoping to build a larger de- vice, if it can raise half a million Euros in fund- ing, that would carry 250 mosquito contain- ers—enough to blanket a square kilometer in sterile males in just 45 minutes of f light. Also at Drones for Good, Spanish company Embention showed off its fixed-wing tsetse fly delivery service. Tsetse f lies are the primary carrier of sleeping sickness, which is not as deadly as malaria but painful and can lead to permanent neurological damage. A variant of sleeping sickness that kills cattle is considered a major cause of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Javier Espuch Abad, business developer for Embention, said previous efforts to control tsetse f lies involved piloting a manned air- craft through treacherous terrain and manu- ally deciding when to drop the f lies, which Espuch Abad compared to "launch[ing] box- es through the window." Photos courtesy of Kimberly Fornace TOP: Kimberly Fornace and her team prep a SenseFly eBee drone. BOTTOM: One of the maps created during the project. "WE ARE HOPING TO UNDERSTAND more about…how these clearings affect macaque movement and behavior or where people are likely to come in contact with mosquitoes." Kimberly Fornace, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine