That seems a little silly to me. Should I custom make the drone with four propellers, or four? Should I have a camera, or a camera? Should I have the most appropriate battery, or the most appropriate one?
That seems a little silly to me. Should I custom make the drone with four propellers, or four? Should I have a camera, or a camera? Should I have the most appropriate battery, or the most appropriate one?
The cool thing isn't the number of propellers, but that they can change the model and produce a new drone on board. The alternative is to either get it delivered somehow, or return to a port to pick up the new drone.
3D printing will save them lots of time if they choose to change the design. Also, spare parts can be produced on board the ship.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Thursday July 30, 2015 @10:07AM (#50213933)
" The alternative is to either get it delivered somehow, or return to a port to pick up the new drone."
" Also, spare parts can be produced on board the ship."
Somehow I doubt that either of those statements has much bearing on reality.
The expensive avionics and cameras will not be 3D printed, they will be kept in stock just like drones would be. They can either keep printing more drones, or they can just keep extra drones. It might be a nice space-saving move but it's not going to get them out of needing supplies to make more drones. It's not literally a star trek replicator.
Ironically, if they were printing fixed-wing drones, a 3d printer would actually be useful because the drone's characteristics would actually be altered meaningfully by changing what you print out. With one avionics system capable of controlling multiple motors, one type of speed controller, one type of motor, maybe two types of props and a modular battery system, you could print drones, add a very small set of basic unprintable parts, and be able to manufacture drones with a wide range of capabilities.
Seems silly. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
That seems a little silly to me. Should I custom make the drone with four propellers, or four? Should I have a camera, or a camera? Should I have the most appropriate battery, or the most appropriate one?
The cool thing isn't the number of propellers, but that they can change the model and produce a new drone on board. The alternative is to either get it delivered somehow, or return to a port to pick up the new drone.
3D printing will save them lots of time if they choose to change the design. Also, spare parts can be produced on board the ship.
Re:Seems silly. (Score:0)
" The alternative is to either get it delivered somehow, or return to a port to pick up the new drone."
" Also, spare parts can be produced on board the ship."
Somehow I doubt that either of those statements has much bearing on reality.
The expensive avionics and cameras will not be 3D printed, they will be kept in stock just like drones would be. They can either keep printing more drones, or they can just keep extra drones. It might be a nice space-saving move but it's not going to get them out of needing supplies to make more drones. It's not literally a star trek replicator.
Re: (Score:0)
Ironically, if they were printing fixed-wing drones, a 3d printer would actually be useful because the drone's characteristics would actually be altered meaningfully by changing what you print out. With one avionics system capable of controlling multiple motors, one type of speed controller, one type of motor, maybe two types of props and a modular battery system, you could print drones, add a very small set of basic unprintable parts, and be able to manufacture drones with a wide range of capabilities.
For