In San Francisco, Otherlab has created biodegradable, mycelium-based “gliders” capable of delivering more than two pounds of supplies. The company is targeting the delivery of humanitarian aid such as vaccines to remote regions.
“We designed these to be used in areas where existing infrastructure was insufficient to get critical items—blood, medical supplies and so on—to where they needed to be,” Mikell Taylor, Otherlab’s team lead for the project, tells Mashable.
The gliders are accurate within 33 feet. The design also overcomes limitations of other autonomous supply vehicles, which are expensive and would need to be recovered after deployment. Otherlab envisions cargo planes delivering hundreds of gliders at a time.
The project was funded through Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s INCARUS–Inbound, Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Systems–program.