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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 15, 2008 at 1:24pm

For me, just aerial mapping to create high-resolution overlays on Google Maps (that's why I call them "geocrawlers" -- they can "crawl" physical space in an automated way the way Google crawls the web).

It's cheap "anywhere, anytime" access to the aerial imagery.

Others use it for real-time video, although all the usual civilian applications, from search and rescue to disaster relief, tend to require regulatory approval.

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Permalink Reply by wayne garris on June 15, 2008 at 7:14pm

one of the objects of my basic-x project is the ability to detect and utilize natural sources of energy in order to sustain flight .other then that i don't even have a camera in it I am mostly interested in researching my ideas about using AI in flight rather then just point to point navigation and pretty pictures .

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Johnson on June 15, 2008 at 7:31pm

Two words for you ... Remote Sensing ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_sensing

From the raw imagery that is shot from our platforms ... http://strabo.pictearth.com/missions/ ... We can produce mosaics http://openaerialmap.org/datasource/ ... which can be used for various types of visual analysis of phenomena that occur in the imagery.

As Chris points out ... the defining characteristics of platforms such as the geocrawlers is their relatively inexpensive, anytime, anywhere access to the sky to do basic remote sensing. Until very recently, acquiring 'fresh' imagery over a localized target area has been prohibitively expensive for all but very few applications (read DOD/DHS).

What we are doing is not so different from any other kind of remote sensing ... except that 'we' are doing this remote sensing ourselves and are not reliant on NASA, Sanborn, DigitalGlobe, Google, Microsoft, General Atomics etc for our imagery.

Check out our (Pict'Earth) presentation from Where 2.0 ... http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/schedule/detail/1688

A PDF presentation is available here ... http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/asset/attachment/2591

The strange thing is that we as 'amateurs' are often contacted by the very same military contractors ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/ortelius/sets/72157605546626016/ ... who are (also?) putting sophisticated autonomous platforms up, but don't think of anything more than a 640x480 vidcam in the air, and wonder 'how to put their imagery on a map' ... Seems like a clear case of cart before horse.

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Permalink Reply by George on July 30, 2008 at 6:43pm

Just wondering:

How close is the technology getting to realistically get set up with a couple of RC planes with programmable (with lat/long coordinates) that will transmit video back to the ground?

I'm a non-technical adult involved with a Civil Air Patrol group with a nice critical mass of cadets that will be around for 4-5 more years, and we're thinking about getting them into RC planes. So I'm brainstorming and I'm wondering how outside the realm of possibilities it would be (in a couple of years) to be able to help on ground searches with a plane equipped for such a mission.

I'm assuming that each plane equipped to have us get up in the air and then set it off to fly to certain waypoints and transmit video back would be prohibitively expensive now. I'm guessing that they'd be about $1,500 a piece, and with training/certifying involving some non-simulator crashes, we'd have to wait for the price to drop.

I realize there would be several regulatory/organizational hurdles as well.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on July 30, 2008 at 9:15pm

We're already there. The GeoCrawlers linked to on the front page can all do that, and they can all be configured for less than $1,000. Our ArduPilot project is intended to bring that below $500.

The regulatory issues are tougher.

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Permalink Reply by Genesis Factor on August 3, 2008 at 7:14am

depending on how you want to do this, Chris is right, been there, done that, Chris is going to have T-Shirts made some day (i take a Med-Large, BTW)

You have to decide how you're going to fly it (most used RC components with video transmitters for shorter distance, others use cell phone infrastructure to relay commands for long range, i'm using pure PC and TCP/IP).

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