Responding to golden hour emergencies with rescue drones!

The School of Design and Human Engineering (DHE) at UNIST has announced that its rescue drone design concept, ‘911$ Rescue Drone’ has been honored at the international design competition, iF Design Awards 2020.

The 911$ Rescue Drone, proposed by Professor Yunwoo Jeong’s design team, comprised of Ga-eul Han, Jinhee Cha, Choeun Park, Jungmu Lee, and Wooin Jang, has included its name in the list of this year’s iF Design Award in the professional concept category.

The 911$ Rescue Drone is a flying stretcher, designed for a range of emergency situations. This rescue drone is equipped with an emergency stretcher bed, along with the compact size ‘8 Propellers’ and the wired battery packs. The special design and function of the rescue drone offers to extract and carry patients efficiently with much less manpower, compared to existing emergency stretchers.

Indeed, the compact size propellers allow you to enter and exit very narrow, wooded, and rugged areas. Besides, this rescue drone has a follow-me feature, capable of guiding it along the wire connected to the battery pack that the rescuer carries with him. Replaceable batteries are placed outside to reduce the weight of the stretcher and increase flight time.

Since the wire mounted on the stretcher bed gives the rescuer a clear direction in response to golden hour emergencies, there is no need for him to control the drone separately. It is also capable of keeping the the patient horizontal, using a gyroscope, mounted on the emergency stretcher bed. In addition, this rescue drone is also equipped with a follow-me feature that fly along the lines

The 911$ Rescue Drone is not limited to mere design concept and will soon be realized as an actual product. Professor Jeong and his design team, together with the Drone Dom Co., Ltd. are currently in the process of mass producing the rescue drone while considering its structure and operation system.

“Despite its innovative apperance, this rescue drone does not require any advanced technology, such as remote controls or obstacle recognition technology, and thus is expected to be produced and distributed at a reasonable price,” says Professor Jeong. “Since it can be widely used to save people in the third world and underdeveloped countries, it is more meaningful.”

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