One of the major design challenges when it comes to building an efficient quadcopter is weight. The idea here is that the more you can trim down the weight of the frame, motors, and circuitry, the longer the batteries will last. Or, in [dalbyman]’s case, the more beer it can carry.
[Dalbyman]’s housemate built the actual quadcopter, but then [dalbyman] got a little inebriated and decided that, while the quadcopter was exciting on its own, it would be even better with this modification. The actual device is a modified Pringles can with two servo motors on the bottom with arms that hold the beer. A parachute is attached to the beverage can and the assembly is loaded in. With a simple press of a button, the servos turn the arms and the beer falls out of the tube. Hopefully the parachute deploys and gently (and accurately) floats the beer to the thirsty person on the ground!
This project is a simple step that goes a long way towards a beer delivery system even Amazon could be proud of, and also shows off the capabilities of quadcopters in general. Perhaps the next step could be to automate the beer delivery system!
This concept was commercially implemented last year at a local 3-day music event in South Africa. You would order with your smart-phone, cost would be deducted from your credit card, then a drone would home in on your smart-phone’s GPS location and drop a frosty with a parachute.
Pretty high-tech for a ruddy 3rd-world country if you ask me!
Lifting beer with helicopters is a time-honoured tradition. When I was working at Yale developing aerial grasping and manipulation robots back in 2010, I make it a condition of my employment that the first object we picked up was beer: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/30/robotic-yale-aerial-manipulator-grabs-a-can-of-guinness/
That is why hobbyking did some beerlift competitions. Allthough many competitors did the test with water. Most probably because they drank the beer afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E62YVIZq1Zc
Parachute isn’t very accurate.
I prefer a more direct approach :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCZrvsmqnE
Yea parachutes are inaccurate but don’t put the beer on top, don’t need drunks cutting their fingers off.
Yeah, not to mention it also needs an increase of computational power for an inverted pendulum algo just to steady the thing. Yay!! More weight!
Definitely want this! I love drones, I might have to do a little bit of DIY to achieve some results similiar to this. I’ll be back! Feel free to look for updates on my website: http://bestdronesandquadcopters.org/