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Emergency service drones might just save your life in the future

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - on 30 Oct 2014, 7:11pm

Emergency service drone prototype created, might save your life in the future

 Not all clear for liftoff yet: There are some issues regarding the legality and control but if it all works out, expect to see the drones in service as soon as 5 years from now.

Drones aren't anything new. In fact, there's rarely a news piece nowadays regarding the military that doesn't involve a drone in some capacity. Hobbyists are also toying with drones and big corporations like Amazon might even put them to commercial use in the future. But have you ever heard of a drone that might save your life?

If Belgian engineering graduate Alec Momont has his way, that could be reality soon enough. Momont is the inventor of what he dubs an 'ambulance drone'. Driven by 6 propellers and able to achieve speeds of up to 100km/h, the drone is estimated to be able to reach anywhere in its coverage area in less than a minute.

Equipped with a defibrillator, the idea is that emergency services dispatches the drone once they get a call. With an effective range of 12 kilometers, the drone is perfect for a small country like Singapore. It tracks emergency calls via GPS and then homes in on it. Once at the scene, the drone can help whoever called in to use the defibrillator on the victim. Guidance and help is all done with the assistance of the drone's operator so there's always qualified help on the scene, just not in person yet.

Momont is planning to evolve his drone further by adding in more lifesaving gear like oxygen tanks or insulin injectors in the future.

Sadly, there are still some issues to be worked out before the drone can enter service. The steering mechanism still needs tweaking and there are legal problems (privacy issues probably) as well. Then there's the matter of cost. The drones are expected to cost around 15,000 Euros each, making them a potentially pricey investment if they don't work as planned. 

Still, we hope that this service (or something similar) sees the light of day and is adopted here. As the number of vehicles on Singapore's roads are increasing, it's not unrealistic to expect the SCDF response time to rise, even with first responders on motorcycles. When the passing of each second can mean life or death, the ambulance drone could save an untold number of lives with its rapid response.

Source: Yahoo News

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