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While the vehicle featured in the video above is a rehash of the original, my first autonomous vehicle was the Big Trak. It was an amazing piece of engineering courtesy of Milton Bradley, and mine came to me thanks to my Dad's work cleaning out some old junk.

You see, in the mid-80's my Dad worked as the assistant director of a science museum. Let me tell you, when you are seven-ish, this is only slightly less cool than your Dad being an astronaut. I pretty much had free run of the place when I would visit, and one day, while poking around, I found one of these guys being sent out to the dumpster. I asked around about it, and found it had been used during a demonstration about robotics in the early 80's, but had been recently replaced by a donated HERO robot. I asked if I could have this coolest of toys, and was told it had to go to the dumpster first. After that, it was fair game. So, I waited. Later I dumpster dived my first autonomous vehicle. Prior to this I had a remote control car, but with this thing I could program a course, hit start, and send it on its way! How cool was that? VERY COOL! About two years later, my parents bought me my first RC airplane, which I flew, crashed, repaired, and flew again for several years.

Many years later, I have re-entered the RC aircraft world, and am now pondering re-entering the autonomous vehicle world in the form of UAS. Things have come full circle, I suppose. But, as I read, and study, and think, and ponder, I sometimes wish there was the autonomous quadcopter version of the Big Trak. Something I, and more particularly my son and daughter in a few years, could pick up, program, and let go. I understand there is a big difference between flying, and rolling around the living room carpet. Still, I can't help but think a cheap, easy, safe experimental platform for kids would be a tremendous benefit to the UAV hobby, and budding UAS industry. If middle school children were to experiment with, "drones," and share their positive experience and excitement with parents, perhaps the general public would become more accepting. As an added benefit, these children would be ready to move into a future where the technology becomes an integral part of society.

I feel we are at a point where aviation was about a hundred years ago, or personal computers were around thirty years ago. We are at the point where viable, commercial applications are being seen, and UAS, particularly sUAS, are no longer the domain of the small hobbyists, big government, and big corporations. The, "drone," is becoming democratized. This is a good thing! But, if the DJI Phantom has become the Macintosh of UAV's, where is the Apple II the middle-school kids can play with?