$100 smartphone controlled drone coming?
A new company called Rotary Robotics is planning a $100 drone, controlled by a smartphone, for aerial photography. They're planning to launch something in the $250-$300 range, with the price falling later. They call it "Drones for Peace" (tagline: "@DronesForPeace provides eyes for the everyman. Tyranny has no place to hide.") and are a finalist in the MassChallenge competition for startups. A Kickstarter campaign is also planned.
We are currently developing our first product, a $100 surveillance aircraft designed to bring airborne imagery to the masses. This aircraft functions as a flying point and shoot camera, allowing any operator to gather aerial photos or video with no prior training in aircraft or RC planes. The aircraft is preprogrammed through a map based application on your computer or smartphone.
The user selects the locations which are to be photographed and throws the aircraft. The plane automatically flys to these locations and takes the desired photos, after which it returns to its starting location and lands. The user can then download the photos from the aircraft onto their computer or other mobile device. The photos can be stitched together into a map or used for any desired photographic purpose.
(Via Co.Exist)
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Comment by Jack Crossfire on July 17, 2012 at 10:06pm -
The laws of physics are against that $100, but it'll get a lot of attention on kickstarter.
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Comment by Todd Hill on July 19, 2012 at 4:40pm -
Vague at best.
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Comment by Hans Cappelle on July 20, 2012 at 2:30am -
Is that flexing in the wing or dihedral? Anyway probably that pic is not related to the product anyway since I see no smartphone and an antenna instead.
Looks like a big challenge to get a RTF plane + autopilot electronics for that price.
What I don't like about this concept is that it will provide a (cheap) way to noobs to program some waypoints and launch it. What then? No control at all? What if some program error happens? No option to take over (if person can control it anyway). Or what if there is just too much wind and the plane doesn't have enough power? It will just drift off and get lost instead (hopefully without damage to anything else but the plane). Also at what height to fly and so on. A lot of issues I see there.
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