Drones Get Ready to Fly, Unseen, Into Everyday Life

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703631704575551954273159086.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

by cwan • 16 years ago

43 39 16 years ago

online.wsj.com

After viewing the video of the MIT lab using the AR Drone I'm confused...

From the Development License of the SDK Drone API (Article 5 v):

"AR.Drone, shall have for sole purpose to be used by a User for entertaining, game, leisure or training. The creation of applications for the use of the PARROT Drone for military, and, without limitation, security, watching, spying, defence, cartography is strictly forbidden."

ceejayoz• 16 years ago

"This is for entertainment purposes only" is how manufacturers cover their asses from liability lawsuits when someone uses their product illegally.

joe_the_user• 16 years ago

If a machine gun with an SDK was currently sold, I would imagine it would include the following conditions;

"Machine gun shall have for its sole purpose training, sport and 'making a loud, satisfying noise'. Use for military purposes or for turning snitches and rival mafia dons into bloody swiss cheese is strictly forbidden"

Vivtek4• 16 years ago

Radar detectors are sold under the same sort of disclaimer that they're never, ever, ever to be used to circumvent speed limit laws. It's safe to say we can all roll our eyes at this boilerplate.

edave2• 16 years ago

They have the AR.Drone for comparison and entertainment, it's not considered a serious piece of equipment at all. The drone they're actually doing research on is a Ascending Technologies Hummingbird

asynchronous134• 16 years ago

As others noted, this is largely a CYA clause. I suspect the real reason is because UAVs are a legal grey area as far as the FAA regulations are concerned. It is generally accepted that regulations for R/C aircraft also apply to UAVs. The tricky point is that the FAA regs specifically state "for recreation". So you can legally fly an R/C plane and take aerial photos as a hobby. However, if you sell those photos then now you've broken the law. (R/C clubs recommend selling one ground photo and giving away the aerial ones to skirt the issue). The AR.Parrot folks know the regulations and are simply trying to distance themselves with boiler plate.

olefoo2• 16 years ago

So will we soon see a co-evolutionary arms race as ever stealthier drones are harassed, blocked or outright disabled by ever more aggressive counter measures?

I could see the paparazzi style flying eyes being dealt with by LIDAR countermeasures. The tracking drones are already vulnerable to a number of the same tactics that involve shaking a tail of any sort. I foresee some exciting new precedents getting set from this conflict though.

lsc3• 16 years ago

I think this would bring up some interesting legal issues. I mean, obviously sending up ground to air missiles is likely going to be illegal just due to safety issues. But what if I, say, set up a drone that tangles up your drone in a net of some kind? something no more unsafe than the drone crashing due to problems? What if I only use this on drones flying low over my own property?

Vivtek4• 16 years ago

I'm going to find out. If people are flying free hardware over my property, then by golly, finders keepers.

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

I'm hoping for air-to-air strike drones that hunt other drones, perhaps through echolocation. I'll gladly install some power outlets in my rafters for them to roost.

asynchronous134• 16 years ago

With the current technologies, a simple rock is sufficient to bring down most of the small uavs. Heck, even a stray leaf will take out some of them. Clearly strike-drones would be cool technology, but there are so many cheaper ways to bring these things down right now.

pandakar• 16 years ago

Stephenson's Diamond Age theorizes on what happens nation-states develop nano-drones. Funky stuff.

olefoo2• 16 years ago

That's exactly what I was thinking of; I figured the reference would be obvious to those who'd read the book and useless to those who hadn't though.

ryanwaggoner• 16 years ago

Several efforts to develop personal drones are scheduled for completion in the next year.

If only scheduling innovation was so easy...

rsheridan62• 16 years ago

Could these be used for last mile transportation? As a way to deliver a letter, or perhaps even a pizza, at least during nice weather?

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

I don't see why not, but there'd be a payload weight limit, and if popularity increased, you'd need some kind of routing system to keep bots from colliding.

asynchronous134• 16 years ago

You are correct that these issues need to be addressed, the FAA already has a system in place to prevent aerial collisions of commercial and private planes. I'm sure the existing regulations can be modified to be more suitable for uavs and city-scale flight patterns. For example, stay at odd-hundred elevation for north and east travel and stay at even-hundred for south and west travel.

Devilboy3• 16 years ago

Probably not anytime soon. The technology is there but it's going to be almost impossible to clear the legal hurdles. Currently you can fly these things as a hobby but you have to be within visual range at all times and there's all sorts of problems when flying near people or buildings. We can't even get robotic vehicles on the roads yet, it's going to be a long time before we see them flying though our suburbs.

netcan2• 16 years ago

A robotic car is big and heavy. A robotic pizza delivery blimp might be relatively harmless even if it falls on your head, especially if it stays just above pizza snatching height.

modeless• 16 years ago

Have you heard the noise these things make? They're about as "stealth" as lawnmowers.

pjscott• 16 years ago

You could make reasonably-sized miniature zeppelin drones, which can be made quiet and stealthy, but I'm not sure how maneuverable they'd be in a stiff breeze.

asynchronous134• 16 years ago

My startup makes small (2.5lbs) electric helicopter uavs. At 50ft you can't hear them any more. If you are inside your car, I could position the heli within 5-10ft of you before you might even notice.

edave2• 16 years ago

What's your startup?

tomjen32• 16 years ago

What scares me the most is the possibility that they can be used for assassinations; at present drones are not fast enough, manuveable enough or stealthy enough, but thats a technical limitation that isn't likely to last for that long.

The main fear with this is that those who are going to be protecting other people are very unlikely to see this coming, nor to be especially prepared for it. The secret service (who are not the only ones who do protection, or even the main ones, but no doubt the best) are really good at closing of every attack route that they know of, but even so it is widely known that it is impossible or nearly so to stop an assassin who is willing to give up his own life. With this technology, this may become true of any person who can get an internet connection (until drones become able to navigate autonomously) and is willing to sacrifice a drone -- which is going to be a larger number of people that those who are willing go sacrifice their life.

I sincerely hope I am wrong, because I wouldn't like the kind of society that would have to be created to prevent somebody from doing this, nor the kind of surveillance methods that would be required to prevent somebody from building a drone (if your are going to kill people, you don't care if building a drone is technically illegal).

anigbrowl• 16 years ago

The main fear with this is that those who are going to be protecting other people are very unlikely to see this coming, nor to be especially prepared for it.

Why, you think working in security means not reading a newspaper? I rather suspect that the people with the high-stakes jobs hold them because they are actually proactive rather than the sort of people who stand around waiting for something to happen.

tomjen32• 16 years ago

No, I don't think that applies to people working in security.

But I know that it applies to a large number of people working in the government.

Devilboy3• 16 years ago

The US military has these already. Quiet, small and carrying an explosive charge designed to kill one human target.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/micro-uav-assassination-rob...

mattmanser• 16 years ago

Of all the massive implications this could have assassinations is probably the most unlikely and trivial of consequences.

It's weird how the human brain can't tell the difference between totally improbable (me getting assassinated) and extremely likely (my police force, local council or employer spying on me at some point for some imagined infraction).

This sort of irrational alarmism is exactly the cause of being scanned naked at airports.

People don't kill other people very often, apart from in the various shades of wars.

huhtenberg• 16 years ago

I would get one to fly ahead of me when I'm driving and monitor for the road work and traffic congestion. That's until the car native navigation is finally capable of collecting this information on its own. And I want a touch screen with pinch zoom on that damn antiquated piece of hardware already. And a satellite imagery! :)

Loic• 16 years ago

What scares me the most is not the military use, it this one:

> But the real prize may be in civilian applications. "The military stuff is kind of passe," Ms. Cummings said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody." As a parent of a 3-year-old, she said, she could use the same technology to track her daughter on her way to school (she would need to plant an electronic bug in her lunch box or backpack). That would "bring a whole new meaning to a hover parent," she said. Schools could even use drones for perimeter control.

I don't want my kids to be controlled by drones, I don't want kids to be looked behind on their way to school like animals. If you don't give a bit of freedom to your kids, if you are always on their back, they will never mature and reach adulthood. They will never have the feeling of freedom they need to develop themselves and be great creators, scientists, whatever. They will be sheep controlled by the sheepdog of the moment.

DjDarkman• 16 years ago

If I would want to spy on my <wife, child, whatever> I would simply write a GPS logger application and plant in on his/her Android/iPhone/whatever, I think that would be more practical and cost effective, still I can't take photos with that, so I guess this would be nice too.

Drones Get Ready to Fly, Unseen, Into Everyday Life

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