Matter Net : a Net for Matter

The Gulf war and the Afghan conflicts have made us familiar with 'drones', small hunter-killer Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are deployed by the military. Military UAVs began as reconnaissance platforms that could penetrate enemy territory easily. Unlike a manned aircraft, the miniscule pilotless UAVs could evade radar and other defences. Today technologies as diverse as aeronautics, artificial intelligence and robotics have combined to create autonomous UAVs or AAVs, whose capabilities are astounding, to say the least.

Now the drones or the AAVs are again in the news. In an interesting twist, the primarily military hunter-killer is turning into a good samaritan. Challenged to find solutions to help the world's poor, a team of visionaries at the Singularity University came up with a network of autonomous quad-copters that could 'connect' far-flung communities and deliver things likes medicines and medical samples for laboratory analysis. The Matter Net, as the network of AAVs has been christened, will serve isolated communities in developing nations that are not connected by roads.

AAV with medicines arrive at a remote
village (Courtesy: motherboard.com)

The name 'Matter Net' might sound right out of Star Trek. But don't think it is some kind of a sci-fi 'tele-transportation' system. We are all familiar with the globe-spanning Internet that transports 'packets' of data around. Here the packets are those of goods, and the 'net' is an intelligent network of autonomous flying robots that implement a real-world goods delivery system. The first stage is designed to carry small loads of one to two kilograms using a quad-copter that the team built using off-the-shelf parts in just three weeks. Stage two is planned to have fully autonomous AAVs with capacities of about 200 kg. The plan also envisages fully automated solar recharging stations for the copters installed at intervals on the ground. The third stage has ambitious plans of transporting people and goods, with AAVs that can carry 1,000 kg.

With visonaries like space enthusiast Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, the Artificial Intelligence guru, and Andreas Raptopoulos, a designer of fantastic flying machines, supporting the project, it is not easy to call this a 'pipedream'. Still there are a lot of questions that call for a deeper look at the concept. What will happen if the small AAVs are destroyed/damaged by storms? Who will answer for the life that could be lost as a result (assuming that the AAV was carrying life-saving medicines)? What will happen if they are 'hijacked' by unscrupulous elements? Will the MatterNet be a corporate monopoly? Will it be really cheaper and easier for the developing nations to maintain a fleet of hi-tech flying robots than developing roads and transportation?

The questions are many and nobody has definitive answers, at least for now. But the concept is indeed tantalizing and surely within our reach as has been demonstrated by the dream-team at Singularity University.

Explore more at:

http://matternet.us/
http://singularityu.org/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120209-i-say-to-you-today-i-hover-dream/1
http://sites.psu.edu/amh5892edsgn100/2012/12/05/matternet-a-fascinating-but-flawed-proposal/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle