OASIS is a new solution for marine perils using drone technology. It has air and sea mobility, and can operate no matter in day or night. With computer based central control, the drones can fly together in a array-form movement, and conduct thorough search on the sea. We are hoping that OASIS could increase the efficiency, safety and success rate of marine peril rescues.

The reason for me to feel interested in the drones was the air disasters happened in recent years and the difficulty and cost in searching the planes and rescuing the passengers. I thought if I could design drones for this purpose to help, it would be more efficient and will cost less.

The design in basically a large sized multi-rotor drone. It's mainly made of plastic, aluminum and carbon fiber. These materials were chosen for it's light-weight and durable feature. The body consists of mainly three parts: the cabin, which holds all the electrical devices; the pontoons, which allows the drone to float, and the rotors. The drone is also able to transform from a flying mode to a floating (swimming) mode by a simple mechanism.

I used Rhinoceros 5 mostly for the 3D modeling, and used MakerBot Desktop to convert 3D models into 3D printing files. For visual effects, I used Keyshot and Adobe Illustrator. And building of the model is mainly conducted in our workshop with lots of kinds of heavy machines.

The whole process of making is quite plain and simple (but not easy). First me and my team mate got the idea of building a drone, and then we worked on how our drone should look by sketching. Then we constructed the 3D shape in the software. After every detail is confirmed, we started the making of wooden model, and we made plastic shells by using vacuum forming. Then followed a huge amount of 3D printing. And when every spare part is ready, we fixed it onto our aluminum frame, and tested all the joints and we are almost done.

We exhibited our project in the 'YODEX 2016' held in Taipei World Trade Center, and most of the people loved what we did. They thought it was super cool, and loved the fact that it's a high movable and functional model. We also received a lot of suggestions on how to make it actually fly and operate missions as it was just a full scale concept model and also some advises on how to prevent it from being destroyed by harsh sea conditions.

It's not yet fully operative, we are still working on the flying mechanism and control system, hoping to get it in the air soon.

Ray Liu

Hello, I am Ray, an industrial designer with rich imagination to innovate, adequate skills to work with and constant passion to face challenges in realizing my ideals. I keep aesthetics, functionality and connotation as my key elements and always enjoy the experience of building delicate and highly functional models

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