The Inquisitr » drones

Next up – your own iPhone controlled drone

Steven Hodson — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:05:00 +0000

A day doesn’t go by where we aren’t pummeled with new apps and uses for the iPhone. Some are good, some suck rotten lemons, some are stupid and then there are those that are admittedly just a little on the strange side.

The idea of having an app that could control one of the hellfire missile carrying drones that are the current favorite of the U.S. Military brings some pretty images to mind. It could give a whole new meaning to things like road rage – someone pisses you off on the road and the next thing they know they have a drone, with missiles primed, flying at them controlled by some deranged idiot with an iPhone and a grudge.

While that scenario might be a little outrageous the idea of controlling drones using iPhones is actually a project in progress by MIT Professor Missy Cummings and her crew of 30 iPhone toting students.

Actually, using an iPhone was her undergrads’ idea — because experimenting with it as a basis for a new robot controller meant she’d have to buy them all iPhones of their own. “We had the idea in June,” Cummings told Danger Room. “In six weeks, we went from the idea to a real flight test,” using MIT’s indoor robot range. (See video.) The total cost? $5,000 for a new, commercially available, quad-rotor robot — plus the cost of iPhones for her crew.

The iPhone bot controller is basically just an app, like any other. It relies on only the iPhone’s existing gear, and the phone can still be used for regular calls, web-browsing, texting, etc. HAL’s bot-wrangling app sends GPS coordinates to the robot, which navigates around using its own, built-in “sense-and-avoid” capabilities. Along the way, the bot can stream video or snapshots back to the iPhone.

Source : Wired – Danger Room :: New Use for Your iPhone: Controlling Drones

The professor’s favorite non military use of this idea?

Cummings’ own favorite: “Being able to launch one out of the window and fly it down to the Starbucks, to tell me how many people are in line, so I know when to get coffee.”

Watch what you’re hitting with that flyswatter [Video]

Steven Hodson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:07:40 +0000

Pretty soon you may have to be very careful about trying to kill that flying insect that seems to be watching you. If the U.S. military has their way it could very well be doing just that. The military has been working for sometime on tiny – even micro – sized drones that resemble bugs or birds. As cool as that might sound to some it is even more interesting to view the video and see how they want these flying (or crawling?) bugs to become biomorphic weapons.

"Individual MAVs may perform direct-attack missions," says the video’s gravelly-voiced narrator. "They can be equipped with incapacitation chemicals, combustible payloads, or even explosives for precision-targeting capability."

Cool.

[hat tip to Danger Room]

This ain’t your normal hummingbird

Steven Hodson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:48:15 +0000

A growing segment of the US Armed Forces arsenal is its collection of Predators and Reapers otherwise known as drones. These remotely controlled flying spies and killers are constantly seeing action in multiple places around the world as everyone from the US Border Patrol to the US Coast Guard wants a piece of this flying technology.

It is almost getting to the point where these flying wonders are becoming passe and old fashioned. Not one to rest on its technological laurels the US Special Forces Command (SOCOM) is upping the flying drone stakes when it takes possession of a radically new drone from Boeing. This revolutionary new drone is actually a helicopter with the moniker of the A160T Hummingbird.

According to Janes SOCOM has already begun taking delivery of the Hummingbird which folks in the know are saying can be used for re-supply and surveillance missions. Additionally it these birds will soon be equipped with a new radar that can identify enemy targets hiding beneath dense tree cover.

Apparently SOCOM will have 10 of these super quiet Hummingbirds ready for action by the end of November of this year.

[graphic courtesy of Danger Room]