Adrian Barahona

Engineer Students Carlos Coronel and Diego Miramontes hold their model drone.

Engineering team tests drones to deliver medical supplies.

During Natural Disasters it is hard to deliver medicine on foot. A solution Engineers have come up with is delivering medicine with drones. Drones are agile enough to transport medicine during or after natural disasters. The Morton East engineering team is testing drones for a project to develop a drone that has the ability to transport medical supplies during emergencies and to people that are unable to be reached by rescuers.

“Right now, the one were using is made out of foam and plastic, little bit of metal,” engineer student Carlos Coronel said.

Weather conditions and other variables would also affect the drones development.

How long does it take to develop a drone?
“We didn’t really develop a drone we were trouble shooting drones for rent. There were drones that weren’t capable of picking items up and then after trouble shooting more and more, we found drones that could. Once we found the drone that could lift a bottle, we brainstormed how the drone could release a pill bottle. Once we found a drone that could pick up a bottle we used paper clips for our first prototype. Then we switched to using magnets to pickup the bottles,” engineer student Carlos Coronel said.

The time of delivery would vary depending on how the drone is developed.

“It depends on how far the patient is. Let’s say it’s a mile away, it could take an hour or up to two hours depending on the wind, trees, birds, and other factors,”  engineer student Carlos Coronel said.

The estimated delivery is affected by the accessibility.

“The drone is meant to deliver to people who are physically incapable of moving long distances,” engineer student Carlos Coronel said.

Something that would help with this would be locations.

“Drones would be located in local pharmacies where workers could put pill bottles inside and then the drones would be programmed to take off, deliver and then return back,” engineer student Carlos Coronel said.

“One of the concerns or potential hazards we have discussed is if you see a drone in your backyard in cicero what do you think most people are gonna do, so when they shoot it down what are they suddenly gonna get? So, there’s gonna have to be some sort of consideration for safety privacy and certain drugs are probably not going to be able to be air lifted like some of the more heavy-duty narcotics if they are intercepted.”-Diego Miramontes and engineering teacher Mr.Brian Paychek collectively said.

With this already in development it won’t be long before deliveries begin.

“It’s probably like within 5 years if not less cause the technology is improving really fast,” engineer student Diego Miramontes said.

With the drones being developed it would be very beneficial in emergencies.

“Because you know, due to its traffic, where you can’t really deliver it, you can’t drive,” engineer student Carlos Coronel said.