Mark Rober
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 10 months, 2023–2024
21:32 · 47M views · Mar 18, 2023
Mark Rober visits Zipline and looks at its autonomous delivery drones, including medical and blood deliveries in Rwanda. He demonstrates how the drones' propeller design and cable-lowered delivery pod make them quiet and precise.
HN commenters cite it as the clearest look at Zipline's real-world drone operations, especially for medical delivery and the solved noise problem.
17 comments from Hacker News
Mark Rober covered the “Zipline” drones which are near silent, unlike almost any other drone you hear. There’s a demo in the video. Done by varying the propeller design so that the noise is spread out over many frequencies instead of concentrated in the buzzy band. I also remember Apple talking about doing the same in their MacBook pro fans at one point. Varying the blade pitch from blade to blade to do the same. this video
You can see more of Zipline drones in action in this video [0]. In particular the blood and medical supply delivery operation in Rowanda (at about 2:10) is very impressive. Not just a tech demo, this is modern drones in daily operation. [0] this video
this video Saw saw this video the other day. Check out the drone around 13:55 regarding noise and rotor design. The whole video is worth a watch though. The company is zipline which is mentioned in a comment above.
Their medical delivery stuff is so impressive this video , I'm a bit disappointed they weren't able to find another more valuable market than "we'll stick food in a box and get it to you faster".
A video from Mark Rober about Zipline, to get an idea. I was very impressed when I first heard of them. this video