Andreas Raptopoulos: No roads? There's a drone for that
Andreas Raptopoulos: Nu sunt drumuri? Există drone.
Andreas Raptopoulos and his colleagues are building the flying internet of things, using drones to carry essential goods to otherwise inaccessible areas. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
most advanced technologies
today, about two kilograms,
technologies in a bit more detail.
using all sorts of vehicles
requirements of the vehicles,
the vehicles through the system
the size of Manhattan.
that this is science fiction,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Andreas Raptopoulos - Airborne logistics activistAndreas Raptopoulos and his colleagues are building the flying internet of things, using drones to carry essential goods to otherwise inaccessible areas.
Why you should listen
It's a modern-day truism that, in regions where the phone company never bothered to lay network cable, locals quickly adopted mobile phones -- and then innovated mobile services that go far beyond what so-called developed countries have. Could the same pattern hold true with roads?
Andreas Raptopoulos is hoping to find out with Matternet, a project that uses swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver urgent items -- think emergency and medical supplies -- to places where there are no driveable roads. Imagine a sort of flying bucket brigade or relay race, where autonomous quadricopters pass packages around a flexible network that behaves something like the internet -- but for real goods.
Raptopoulos is a designer, inventor and entrepreneur. Prior to Matternet, he founded FutureAcoustic, a music platform that adjusts to the listener's environment.
Andreas Raptopoulos | Speaker | TED.com