It's a key challenge facing emergency response teams after an earthquake or other natural disaster. How to get important supplies to the people who need it on the ground when transport infrastructure like roads, rail, and airports has been damaged and can't be used? It's a problem that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, is wrestling with. And one idea it's exploring is a biodegradeable, cardboard drone that can carry a few kilos of supplies and deliver them to within 15 metres of the people who need them on the ground. Dr. Roy (Troy) Olsson of DARPA is working on Project ICARUS (Inbound, Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Systems).
