Google – AFP, 8 Aug 2013
Flying
robot now drops beer by parachute at South African outdoor rock
festival
(AFP/File, Patrik Stollarz)
|
JOHANNESBURG
— Revellers at a South African outdoor rock festival no longer need to queue to
slake their thirst -- a flying robot will drop them beer by parachute.
After
clients place an order using a smartphone app, a drone zooms 15 metres (50
feet) above the heads of the festival-goers to make the delivery.
Carel
Hoffmann, director of the Oppikoppi festival held on a dusty farm in the
country's northern Limpopo province, said the app registers the position of
users using the GPS satellite chips on their phones.
"The
delivery guys have a calibrated delivery drone. They send it to the GPS
position and drops it with a parachute," he explained.
The drone
was built in South Africa and nicknamed "Manna" after the Old
Testament-story of bread that fell from the sky to feed the Israelites
travelling through the desert following their exodus from Egypt.
"It's
an almost Biblical thing that beer is dropping from the sky," said
Hoffmann.
The beer,
free at this stage, is dropped in plastic cups and the drone is performing well.
"Every
time it drops a parachute a crowd of 5,000 cheers," he said.
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