I.O. is a multifunctional unmanned drone used for fast response like wildfires, rescue missions, and mecial emergencies as well as for recon and surveillance missions like wildlife tracking or soil supervision. It can be used in environments that are hazardous or difficult to reach as well as narrow urban environments.

It is designed to fly short distances fast to be a first responder in situations that are difficult to assess. The inbuilt main rotor reduces thrust and needs far less space and energy than a conventional one while the rotors on all wings contribute to speed as well as shorter reaction time to turning.

I.O. is equipped with a wide range of scanning and surveillance devices, searchlights, cameras and a cargo hold for a specially designed container. The container has different compartments for packages and a freezer. It is completely waterproof and can also be dropped mid air if necessary, wich increases the range and travelspeed of the drone.

My initial design for I.O. was mainly focussed on environental issues and how we could tackle them. While on one side for example the drone was a fast and easy way of dropping seedbombs or to track and heard animals away from wildfires and floods. It was also important to me that it would use less energy and ressources than commercial helicopters through solar panels, reduced weight and hull parts made from recycled materials.

First sketches were made for the Volkswagen workshop in 2019 which is where my ideas came from, so I built upon my initial sketches and reworked some design ideas into one perfect version. The name for my project come from the story of the greek godess Io which in her journey traveled far across sea and land and through that, built bridges.

The first version of I.O. was good for the time but after a year and gained knowledge and skills it needed to be reworked and positioned in a better context. So I rebuilt most of the model completely for my animation and in doing so improved and changed some elements.

I built the key elements like rotors, wings and the cockpit and then started blocking out the model. I kitbashed parts from old projects together which were built in a whole different software and added more and more details over time. The real challenge was having tech where it would logically be positioned while also matching the design I envisioned.