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.
I seems to me the real saving here is that powdered plastic is a lot denser than hollow aerodynamic plastic shapes and so won't take up anywhere near as much storage space.
Rather than trying to store 1000 small drones on board, you just have a big tank with enough powdered plastic to make 1000 small drones and the various non-printable bits (electronics, batteries and motors), which are smaller and easier to store anyway
Then you just keep 10-20 drones ready and print more off as you use up the stock of ready made drones.
The cooler thing would be if you have enough high speed printing capacity that you could manufacture and assemble a 1000 drone swarm in a very short period of time and overwhelm an adversaries defenses without requiring a ship big enough to carry a 1000 completed drones. And then another one, and another one. You would need a tanker full of plastic and a freighter full of batteries, electronics and propellers.
It's not clear what they mean by "custom" though. The motors, batteries, and electronics are stock items. I don't see what custom features they can add; the "prototype" looks like only the plastic arms were printed.
Seems silly. (Score:2)
Re:Seems silly. (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:5, Insightful)
I seems to me the real saving here is that powdered plastic is a lot denser than hollow aerodynamic plastic shapes and so won't take up anywhere near as much storage space.
Rather than trying to store 1000 small drones on board, you just have a big tank with enough powdered plastic to make 1000 small drones and the various non-printable bits (electronics, batteries and motors), which are smaller and easier to store anyway
Then you just keep 10-20 drones ready and print more off as you use up the stock of ready made drones.
Re: (Score:2)
The cooler thing would be if you have enough high speed printing capacity that you could manufacture and assemble a 1000 drone swarm in a very short period of time and overwhelm an adversaries defenses without requiring a ship big enough to carry a 1000 completed drones. And then another one, and another one. You would need a tanker full of plastic and a freighter full of batteries, electronics and propellers.
âoeKill decisionâ baby.
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Bigger propellers, longer wings/stabilizers just to name a few off the top of my head.
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Can't the damn things, I dunno... delivery themselves?
There's a manned solar airplane doing a trip around the world right now, why can't "tiny' drones also use solar panels?
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You realize that an aircraft carrier could outrun the solar airplane, right?
And that military sometimes need some things quicker than 5-7 days?
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Re: (Score:2)