Teacher invents drone
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday June 14, 2019 13:30
The mastermind behind the new gadget told Mmegi that a combat eagle rescue drone is a highly technological homemade aerial craft that delivers with precision, the demands of the modern day challenges.
Morapedi revealed that the drone won first position at the recent Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) Research and Symposium and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) festival. He said that the compact eagle rescue drone got the first position during its first entry into the competition under the innovation category.
The teacher said that the rescue drone is not the first piece of work he has invented, noting that in 2017 he innovated an automatic dog-feeding machine, which scooped position three at the time.
He said that the automatic dog feeding machine design impressed most people. But he wanted to do something greater which made an impact on human life, hence the drone offering. Bobonong-born innovator said that ever since he became a teacher he has produced engineers, doctors, pilots to mention but a few. He said he found it fit to invent an item that can be a motivation to some of his students.
He said that he also wanted to do something great for Botswana and decided to dedicate his project to the Botswana Defence Force (BDF).
Regarding the drone, he said its prototype was created from environmentally friendly backyard materials. The prototype for the drone is at 70% and will be completed in years in order to create space to make it perfect.
“I want to take things slowly so that the finished product can be tailor-made and accurate so that my prototype can be a model for commercial production,” he said. Furthermore, he said that the prototype drone was designed in a month’s time for the BIUST competition and through it he wanted to usher local innovators. Functionally, the rescue drone is capable of delivering a pack of medical utensils, first aid kit and other necessary equipment to be used by soldiers during combat. It has an injection needle, which demonstrates that it is a machine doctor, which can operate remotely without the risk of putting a human doctor in a combat zone.
The drone goes in a combat area and inspect injured soldiers and then sends the result to the base camp through satellite communication.
Following that the doctors at the base camp analyse the results and then prescribe the medication to be carried by the drone to the injured soldiers. The drone has a robotic arm which can be used to perform duties such as giving an injured soldier medicine, tablets, food, injection and even providing the exact location information to the recovery team. Morapedi added that the robotic arm could also be used to perform life saving duties such as pumping water through the drip tube into the injured soldier’s body.
He said that the same action could also be used to pump blood into an unconsciously injured soldier deep in the forest where the recovery team has difficulty reaching. He said that the rescue drone in partnership with the robotic arm will act on behalf of the doctor and would hold a syringe to also deliver a recovery dose and even pitch a small tent to provide resting area for the injured person.
He further said that the medical drone could also be used to deliver emergency aid in the form of lifeboat jacket to victims during floods in remote areas.
He explained that the delivery of lifeboats jackets is achieved because the drone’s legs have a large surface area to easily float on water.
“It also has independent suspension legs which becomes beneficial so that it can crawl like a lizard to access under tree areas without flying which in return reduces chances of propeller damage by tree branches,” he said.
The Physics teacher shared information that the medical drone is installed with Global Positioning System (GPS) and video camera providing live streaming to the anti-poaching unit remote office hence making it the best assets to the anti-poaching unit. He said that the anti-poaching unit could also use the drone whereby the injection unit is substituted with tranquilisers on poachers.
Morapedi said that there is a potential in creation of drone in Botswana, which could create jobs for the youth and boost the country’s economy.
He suggested that government could also introduce drone-manufacturing industries, racing league, innovation competitions to curb lack of entertainment in the country hence inviting foreign investors to the country. He said that Botswana houses an abundance of innovators but it’s only that most Batswana are impatient and use lack of funding as an excuse towards unearthing their potential. He revealed that he used a share from his salary to make the prototype of combat eagle rescue drone.