How To Deliver A Beer With A Drone (a Mavic Air 2 in particular!)

[Thmoore]

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone.

And I am even more pleased to share this breakthrough with the aviation world. I Googled this problem hard. Lots of people provided terrific insight into individual parts of this problem, but no one, as far as I can tell, put all the pieces together.

Here you go:

How To Deliver A Beer With A Drone

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone. And I am even m...

thmoore.blogspot.com

 

[dawgpilot]

Impressive write-up! If I ever feel the need to deliver beers via drone, I'll be consulting your guide!

 

[Otisangb]

Let me know when you can deliver a 12 pack. One beer is just a tease and not worth drinking. On a serious note, cool project. I like reading about projects like this. Gives people ideas for other applications. Good job.

 

[ADS]

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone.

And I am even more pleased to share this breakthrough with the aviation world. I Googled this problem hard. Lots of people provided terrific insight into individual parts of this problem, but no one, as far as I can tell, put all the pieces together.

Here you go:

How To Deliver A Beer With A Drone

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone. And I am even m...

thmoore.blogspot.com

Assuming you learned the cause for the loss of a beer, would that make you sadder budweiser? Sorry.....

 

[Thmoore]

Assuming you learned the cause for the loss of a beer, would that make you sadder budweiser? Sorry.....

Holy hell, you should be!

If I wanted to suffer through terrible humor like that, I'd hang out with my father.

 

[boblui]

Interesting project !

The chute did not get inflated quickly because it was rolled up. It should have been folded in a zig-zag manner. Google "packing paragliding reserve chute" on Youtube to get an idea on how we paraglider pilots pack our reserve chutes.

There should be a mechanism to pull the chute open instead of relying on the chute to open by itself. E.g. a string with one end tied to the craft and the other end attached to the apex of the chute via a piece of small velco which will break apart once the chute is stretched. That's how full-size parachutes are opened :

 

[Thmoore]

Interesting project !

The chute did not get inflated quickly because it was rolled up. It should have been folded in a zig-zag manner. Google "packing paragliding reserve chute" on Youtube to get an idea on how we paraglider pilots pack our reserve chutes.

There should be a mechanism to pull the chute open instead of relying on the chute to open by itself. E.g. a string with one end tied to the craft and the other end attached to the apex of the chute via a piece of small velco which will break apart once the chute is stretched.

Oh, that’s great, thank you! I’ll continue the research.

 

[JimWest]

My only concern is--all this trouble for a Budweiser??? We have lots of good craft beers available in cans here in Michigan!

 

[Winfam]

Nice research Thmoore. I have been experimenting with delivering a safety- line across rivers with our water rescue team, and have found that my Marvic 2 Zoom will lift 1kg which is 20 metres of line. My biggest problem is not to let the growing trailing loop touch the water as it will very quickly drag down the drone to a watery grave! With this in mind I have been looking at release systems so I can ditch the line in an emergency. So the M2 family can also deliver bears and maybe bottles?

 

[JimWest]

So the M2 family can also deliver bears and maybe bottles?

Delivering bears would probably require several M2's working together, even for small bear cubs.
But on the safety line, how about taking across only a very light line with your drone, and then using that to pull the safety line across the water?

 

[Winfam]

Thanks JimWest, it has been tried with lighter lines and will take more line but the water will still pull a light line down. Also the lighter the line make it difficult for heavier lines to be pulled accross by us for the same reason, moving water is a strong force.

 

[Thmoore]

My only concern is--all this trouble for a Budweiser??? We have lots of good craft beers available in cans here in Michigan!

I yield.

 

[Thmoore]

Delivering bears would probably require several M2's working together, even for small bear cubs.
But on the safety line, how about taking across only a very light line with your drone, and then using that to pull the safety line across the water?

Or maybe the opposite – lifting the heavy cord, and dragging a lighter cord behind it, which you'd then use to pull the heavy cord back to shore?

Or using two drones to lift two spans of heavy cord? hmmm...

Or: using two drones to keep the heavy cord above the water altogether, so you don't have to worry about water resistance, and then drop one end on shore, and the other end on your target? It would likely be a pretty deep "U" of cord between them, so you'd need, say, 150 meters of cord to go out 100 meters.

Re: Bears: I agree. Maybe the Mavic 3 will have bear-hoisting capabilities.

 

[Thmoore]

Nice research Thmoore. I have been experimenting with delivering a safety- line across rivers with our water rescue team, and have found that my Marvic 2 Zoom will lift 1kg which is 20 metres of line. My biggest problem is not to let the growing trailing loop touch the water as it will very quickly drag down the drone to a watery grave! With this in mind I have been looking at release systems so I can ditch the line in an emergency. So the M2 family can also deliver bears and maybe bottles?

Thank you! My extremely cheap release system can't handle much more weight than I'm giving it, I fear. Maybe ones designed for mightier drones would handle more?

 

[LeRoytheBoy]

Very innovative, but sometimes it's quicker to walk to the fridge and get a beer.
The shute is very late in opening.
How fizzed up was the beer.???

 

[Otisangb]

Delivering bears would probably require several M2's working together, even for small bear cubs.
But on the safety line, how about taking across only a very light line with your drone, and then using that to pull the safety line across the water?

That's how ships unrep. (Underway replenishment). Done it many times. One ship pulls up to the other. They shoot across a light line with an m16 charge and ball attached to the light line. The other ship pulls it it in with the heavy line attached. After that fuel hoses,people basket etc. can be sent to the other ship.

 

[RWR1]

What a great read. Still smiling. Thank you Tom.

 

[Rayray]

From beers to bears, ran the gamut, whatever that is.
I taught my wolfdog to fetch me a beer. Had to use bottles since he kept making the cans holy. Maybe on purpose.
That also came to an end when he started burying the darn things.

 

[Bill Kennedy]

My missus fetches mine - with potato crisps and a ham sandwich - and she never needs recharging ?

 

[LA 2020]

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone.

And I am even more pleased to share this breakthrough with the aviation world. I Googled this problem hard. Lots of people provided terrific insight into individual parts of this problem, but no one, as far as I can tell, put all the pieces together.

Here you go:

How To Deliver A Beer With A Drone

After a fair amount of experimentation, I am very pleased to have successfully figured out how to deliver a beer via drone. And I am even m...

thmoore.blogspot.com

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I'm sure your drinking buddies appreciate this