Jun 15, 2016Using Drones for Hydration
Keeping athletes hydrated is a top priority, especially those training outdoors during the summer months. Students at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, Calif., recently addressed this issue through a design challenge.
According to an article from NBC San Diego, the Design and Innovation Program at La Jolla Country Day School took on a team hydration challenge, with the help of CamelBak. Although ideas ranged from a water bottle cannon to a shirt filled with water, the innovators ended up settling on a drone.
“We really went through a very exhaustive process,” senior Tomas Miralles told NBC San Diego. “There were a lot of silly ideas. The best way we came up with was to attach a water bottle to the drone and have a hose coming down and let the athlete drink from it directly.”
The “Hydrone” allows for as many as five hoses, which would let multiple players use it at once. The drone’s design also includes propeller guards and a safety-release system for the hoses—if an athlete pulls too hard, the hose will detach to keep the drone from crashing.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Christine Mitchell, Athletic Trainer at La Jolla Country Day School told NBC San Diego. “I think it’s a fun idea. I think kids are in love with drones right now. I think that it could work really well but it has some kinks to work out. A player has to be able to call it correctly. If a player is interrupting practice to get water because the drones are kind of loud, then that could be a negative aspect of it. But, how cool would a team feel if they were getting their water delivered to them by a drone? It’s got a definite cool factor.”
Although the Hydrone isn’t ready for use by teams quite yet, the students who worked on it have filed for a patent and plan to build from there. Ideally, they are hoping to have it adopted for football and soccer games.
