(May 30, 2015)
Handmade drones are a thing of the past. The new dream is push-button
technology that will print a working unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, right
before your eyes.
But getting there has been challenging.
While it may be easy to print a UAV’s plastic or metal
frame, the embedded electronics and motor that bring the vehicle to life are
the hard part.
“Researchers around the world have struggled to create 3-D
printed electronics in the last decade,” said Eric MacDonald, Ph.D., an
electrical and computer engineer at The University of Texas at El Paso. “But we
here at UTEP have made tremendous gains and have invented several advanced 3-D
printing technologies enabling 3-D electronics.”