A Dronecoria drone is used in a reforestation test after wildfires in Flix , Spain .
fields . But after years of fielding requests to customize their products , Avular saw an opportunity .
“ We went back to the drawing board and decided to make the platform more flexible for more business and use cases ,” says Albert Maas , Avular ’ s co-founder .
The result ? “ The Essentials ,” a set of customizable hardware and software components released in 2020 that allows customers to make any kind of drone or robot they need . The company ’ s threeinch-square circuitry modules can be clicked together on a drone or robot of any size , and engineers can easily access , program , and control the parts through a USB or wireless connection .
Avular ’ s speedy pivot to launch The Essentials would not have been possible without
HP ’ s 3D printing technologies , which enabled the company to create parts for as little as $ 50 in just a few weeks , a process that normally would cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete . Now clients are using The Essentials to build and customize drones to help plan lighting installations in stadiums , make chemical plant inspections safer , and gauge the health of flowers in greenhouses .
“ 3D printing creates a performance advantage , increasing range and payload capacity and decreasing costs ,” says HP ’ s Woodlock . “ But maybe the most important advantage 3D printing creates is allowing companies to be faster to market than competitors .”
DRONECORIA
Reforesting land , one drone sweep at a time
Forests cover about 31 % of the world ’ s land area , but they are disappearing at an alarming rate , with roughly
420 million hectares of forest destroyed since 1990 . Nearly seven years ago , MIT graduate Lot Amorós founded the startup
Dronecoria to tackle the problem using aerial drones that can plant seeds over large swaths of land .
Amorós and the Dronecoria team built low-cost drones made from laser-cut , five-millimeter-thick plywood capable of distributing up to 500,000 seeds across one hectare ( about the size of a baseball field ) in 10 minutes . Using customized technology to analyze and prepare seeds for sowing , the startup coats the seeds with a mix of nutrients that protect them from extreme weather , wildlife , and dryness based on region . Then , the drones drop and disperse the seeds over assigned areas .
In February 2020 , Dronecoria deployed its technology for
a pilot program to sow 100,000 seeds in Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park in Almería , a province in southeast Spain that has seen its forested areas dwindle due to heavy logging and agriculture . The company estimates a survival rate of 5 % to 10 %, which means 5,000 to 10,000 new trees . Another 100,000 seeds will be sown by hand and the results compared .
As part of its open-source philosophy , which allows anyone with the tools and know-how to download the plans for recreating its technology , Dronecoria is set to publish a worldwide map to help seed providers , drone makers , and landowners replant areas that have been affected by climate change , agriculture , and industrial logging .
“ Our forests are being destroyed at a rate that we cannot afford ,” Amorós says . “ We need scalable solutions that bring technology software and hardware to communities of people to fight this .”
MANNA DRONE DELIVERY
Reaching rural patients with the medications they need
With COVID-19 concerns and social distancing now a regular part of our lives , tasks such as shopping for food or picking up medications present new challenges for many people , particularly the elderly , who are especially susceptible to the coronavirus . That ’ s where
Manna Drone Delivery CEO and founder Bobby Healy believes his three-year-old drone delivery startup can make the most impact .
“ Hearts and minds have changed through COVID to being more open-minded toward bleeding-edge technology ,” says Healy .
Manna Drone Delivery originally focused its laser-cut , commercial-grade drones ,
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