Tiny Surveillance Aircraft Fly in Tucson 106
An anonymous reader writes "Science Daily reports that thirteen teams from the United States, Korea and Germany will be in Tucson April 9-11 to compete for $6,000 in prize money during the 8th International Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Competition. MAVs are tiny, radio-controlled airplanes that carry video cameras."
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think nothing sums up the problem with american society today.
Actually as a country the USA does more to save lives than it does to kill. Groundbreaking research in medical and safety innovations, in search and rescue, being at the head of the forefront when natural disasters strike around the world, more donations to foreign nations in need for food, medical supplies and fresh water, and better care worldwide in general due to US invention.
I think if you look at the number of deaths it pales into insignificance. Let these kids play with their planes, it's all in fun
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's almost 10 people I've saved. By your logic, how many am I allowed to kill now "all in fun" ?. M
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:3, Insightful)
This kind of inmature reasoning is what keeps the society in a loop of war and hate.
Technology doesn't kill people. People kills people...
Re:Do these people have morals? - (Score:4, Informative)
Its on position 20, with a very skinny $23.76 per person per year.
Number one is Luxemburg, with a whopping $352.30 per person.
All terribly off topic, but I had to...:)
Re:Do these people have morals? - (Score:3, Informative)
Contributions to charities by the US private sector are 2% of the US GDP, which far surpasses any other nation. Most of that goes to foreign aid.
Bill Gates and Ted Turner alone surpass most countries with the billions they've spent on health care for poor countries...and none of that money is counted in your very misleading stats.
Re:Do these people have morals? - (Score:1)
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1)
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it would be pretty damm difficult anyway, to kill someone directly with a "MAV" (although you could, with a bit of semantic jiggery-pokey define a lump of lead as a "micro flying vehicle"
There are far more destructive inventions up for the gold medal in this debate: nuclear weapons, the gun, TNT (old A
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:5, Interesting)
Wars are going to happen, period. Politicians are just as willing to kill 1000 as 10 to achieve their goals. It's naieve to think that they'll be more likely to go to war because we have a camera in an RC plane.
The most likely result of having spy planes like this would be LESS casualties. Imagine being able to fly a video fly into a building where there's a hostage crisis going on and getting real time video. Imagine flying into a mosque and having video telling you who's in there, where, etc. The place could easily be filled with civilians, and we'd avoid attacking them. Or, it could be filled with armed troups, and we'd have proof to the world that we're justified in attacking.
Almost all war-related technological innovation of the last 50 years has been targeted at reducing civilian casualties, collateral damage, and exposure of our own troops to fire.
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:2)
That's really not such a bad idea - limit war to symbolic hand-to-hand combat between a small number of elite warriors. But I think we need to go even further back. Say, before agriculture, when there was no need for wars of annihilation at all. I
Skynet? (Score:2)
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:2)
Well, it's 50/50 chance (here on
Paul B.
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:2)
None of which really matters to the sense of my post, which was that pre-agricultural people (and people from non-agri. cultures up to current times) were better off IN MANY WAYS than we are. I'm not suggesting that they were better off overall, though it makes one wonder to think th
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1)
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1)
Well stated. Anti-war folks have a hard time understanding that better weapons can mean less war/killing. And better information can mean a LOT less killing. Many of the things that are unreasonable are outlawed by the Geneva convention (biowarfare, etc).
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1)
I struggle with this. I am an aerospace engineer, and right now if I want to work in the field I love, I need to work for a defense contractor. This is not my ideal solution. I believe, however, that America (my country, which I do believe in) does far more good than harm with its military. I know lots of people disagree with me, and that's OK. I ha
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:2)
On the corner of Marine and Aviation, by any chance?
Paul B.
Re:Do these people have morals? (Score:1)
Re:You're full of shit, buddy (Score:1)
And people think camera phones are prone to abuse? (Score:1)
Re:In Germany... (Score:1, Funny)
proposed uses (Score:3, Interesting)
Do we really need control systems this light? They have set a "wind date" for this competition for fear of a gust of wind destroying the MAVs; how will we make something reliable out of this?
Re:proposed uses (Score:2)
Its the weather thats not reliable.
And the intelligence
And the double agents
And the cowards
And the enemy
And the allies
Perhaps "useful" is what is needed.
Sam
Re:proposed uses (Score:3, Insightful)
Think: Fly on the wall.
Before this is over, everybody is going to know everything about everybody, at which point nobody is going to give a shit about anybody. Crooks excepted, of course. Should prove interesting.
Re:proposed uses (Score:3, Funny)
Hmmm.... infrared....
Re:proposed uses (Score:1)
Warp engine (Score:3, Insightful)
Research is done in small steps, or did you hear the anouncement of a Warp engine in the next decade? Right now we are at "mega ultra sonic speed" for under 60 seconds. Next time it will be 5 minutes...
Re:Warp engine (Score:2)
What?! When did that happen? I'm still waiting for my damn flying car that I was promised!
Re:Warp engine (Score:2)
Even if you don't like flying you gotta admit it beats parralel parking.
Interesting definition (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interesting definition (Score:5, Insightful)
It's that "Good/Evil is in the user, not the tool" thing though. I would love to be able to fly a tiny little thing and wear goggles that let me see where "I'm" going. Sure, one could spy; or one could just have a grand ol' geeky time exploring hard to reach caves or condemned buildings or even network plenums.. Seems like having a camera on it is just a sensible way to control the thing. If the first ones didn't have that, well yeah, the tech was early still.
I, for one, welcome our acronym-subverting overlords.
Can these be bought off-the-shelf? (Score:2, Interesting)
What video-goggles are recommended?
Re:Can these be bought off-the-shelf? (Score:3, Insightful)
That way you'll miss out on quite a large part of the fun. Building such a thing is more than half the fun of it. I like to build small mobile robots and usualy it takes several weeks to make it "do" something, but the cool-it-work-moment usually only last an hour or so (depending on the complexity of the "do"). Most of the fun is the actual building and designing the thing.
Building the bett
Wouldn't it suck... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wouldn't it suck... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wouldn't it suck... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like a terrific idea for a book.
Re:Wouldn't it suck... (Score:3, Funny)
There's no money in THAT. What we need are big defense contracts to build anti-micro-UAVs. Then we'll have to arm our micro UAVs so they can defend themselves, then we'll have to have anti-micro-UAV air-air missiles, and then ...
Re:Wouldn't it suck... (Score:2)
The real experts in video technology (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The real experts in video technology (Score:5, Funny)
When is the A-MAV contest? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:When is the A-MAV contest? (Score:3, Funny)
You're way too late, it's called a fly swatter.
~dan
photos [pbase.com]
MicroWarfare (Score:5, Interesting)
more on microjet at
http://defence-data.com/f2000/pagefa1006.htm
X-10 is a sponsor (Score:3, Funny)
I don't understand the problems (Score:1)
Its great but... (Score:3, Interesting)
As a citizen of this world and then of America, one can only make one observation about our world...
There never were civil rights. Its a myth because those who followed, never really beleived it applied to anyone other than themselves. Freedom is a radical experience where those with the most capital get as they please while others get monitored through mini airplanes
So get to work guys! Stop being so moral and ethical. Get rich and you too can have your civil rights... and imunity from the law.
Frankly i'm far more impressed with that recent soccer autonomous robot. As a big fan of robotics and the robotic soccer games.... I was just impressed to see what a civilization in love with technology and progress where intrigue and curiousity for the good of man kind dominates, build such a unique thing.
Sony and Honda have also done similar things. Its amazing how Japan has created so many wonderful things and how its embraced by their culture compaired to ours. We seem so quick to build new missles, spy planes etc...
Lets get started on a nice friendly game of autonomous soccer. We have our competitors in this country but... its a shame such a great and wonderfull acomplishment goes so unnoticed by our civilization.
Perhaps we just dont appreciate science and technology for the sake of creation enough. Perhaps we diserve to destroy our own culture and economy.
Re:Its great but... (Score:1)
Re:Its great but... (Score:2)
Re:Its great but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Its great but... (Score:1)
Cool pictures and some movies of these thingies (Score:4, Interesting)
Looks like these little blighters can be tricky to fly, they are using a computer to track the horizon to help keep them level.
Two words: 12 guage (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, right. If I can take down clay pigeons with one of these [world.guns.ru], then I can take down a MAV.
Re:Two words: 12 guage (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Two words: 12 guage (Score:1)
The word is gauge.
More things for the paranoid to be afraid of (Score:2)
Re:More things for the paranoid to be afraid of (Score:1)
I hate this (Score:1)
The MAV is a medium armored vehicle program
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/s
Ornithopters (Score:1)
For instance could you take an exoskeleton from maybe a grasshoper, and add microparts so it's remote controlled?
Re:Ornithopters (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ornithopters (Score:1)
Re:miniature weapons delivery system (Score:1)
Gallun, "The Scarab," 1936 (Score:4, Informative)
The story is set in the year 1987 and describes "a tiny thing, scarcely more than an inch and a half in length. The fancy of the craftsman who made it had given to the Scarab the form of the beetle of which it wa snamed. But its body had a metallic sheen, and its vitals were far more intricate than those of the finest watch."
It is capable of observing with its "quartz-lensed eyes" and sounds are "detectable to [its] sensitive, microphonic ears." It can fly at "terrific speed" to "the cold, unresistant texture of the stratosphere." It makes its way into meeting room where a dastardly plot is in progress. It is never made clear it relays information back to "the mind that controlled the Scarab," but when that mind "had seen and heard enough" it instructs the Scarab to land on the bad guy's neck and "a tiny part of a drop of liquid was injected into its victim's blood stream."
The good guys win.
Air rights (Score:4, Funny)
So there are some bad purposes for this.. so what? (Score:2)
Look, I see a world of better ideas about what good these things can do. Stop looking at all of the negatives.
First of all, it would help explore the tops of large building areas if need be, or could be used to cover larger high areas for search and rescue. What if a person was trapped on a cliff on a deep woods rescue? You could definitely use one to spot a way down to get them. What about just to check power lines for damage? Or to look at endangered bird nests in an inobtrusive way?
There
Re:So there are some bad purposes for this.. so wh (Score:1)
Just like GPS has its limits compared to actual military GPS.
I simply do not see such military being sold openly for anyone, including our enemies to buy.
Thats just not how our government operates. Military technology companies have restraints on who, what, and when they can sell their stuff to other countries.
We have plenty of rc helicopter s
oh crap better stay inside those days (Score:1)
Re:oh crap better stay inside those days (Score:2)
Automatically rechargeable? (Score:2)
Re:Automatically rechargeable? (Score:1)
Re:Automatically rechargeable? (Score:2)
How about... (Score:1)
Great way to monitor WMD production (Score:1)
The teens were controlling the little flyers with thier home computers and were searching for some sort of evidence of WMDs or such.
Perhaps a thousand of these little flyers with video cameras could have helped avoid an Iraq invasion by showing the w