People can be rather unimaginative sometimes. All we think we can use a drone for are delivery and imaging-related operations. Nobody actually look at a quadcopter or multicopter and go like, “you know what? I think it should be able to pick up things.” Well, nobody except for Japanese drone maker, ProDrone, who’s PD6B-AW-ARM actually had robotic arms that lets it swoop down from sky and pick up objects up to 22 lbs, and now this: Drone For Handy.
Drone For Handy was conceived by Federico Ciccarese of Youbionic. Youbionic is on a mission to bring human race into the post-human age. Don’t worry. “Post-human age” is not as eerie as it sounds. There is nothing dystopia about Youbionic’s mission. The company merely design high-level robotics, such as bionic hands which it cleverly (and creepily) incorporated into Boston Dynamics’s creepy dog, turning it into a canine centaur, and also this: a drone called Drone For Handy.
For some reason Drone For Handy looks even more creepier than the PD6B-AW-ARM. I guess having digits and all does make look particularly disturbing. Anywho… Youbionic will sell you the STL files needed to 3D-print the custom parts required to build your own flying bionic hands. That’s all it sell as far as Drone For Handy goes. The Handy-ready quadcopter frame files are free though.
Sounds like a bargain, but here’s the caveat: you will need to require other components like electronics, batteries, and whatnot, and also you need to know programming. And I am guessing, to get it up and ready to do what you desire is not going to be a walk in the park.
But what exactly Federico envisioned Drone For Handy to do? Well, the man expect Drone For Handy “to deal with dangerous missions in areas exposed to excessive risks for humans” to mundane task like picking up the your phone or keys you accidentally left behind when leave office or home. I know. The latter does sound really weird, but hey, if you a drone can do that, why not?
Looking at the drone and the position of the hands, I am beginning to wonder if it be could programmed it to do a round of head massage? I would cage the rotors first, you know, for safety reasons. You can check out the hands in action in the video HERE.
Images: Youbionic.
Source: New Atlas.
