3D Robotics

Wall Street Journal: "Friendly Skies: Drones to the Rescue"

Excellent positive piece about domestic drones in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, featuring us ;-)

Excerpt:

'Didn't you always want a bird on a leash?" asked the young man. He was wearing a dinosaur hoodie, with soft fabric spikes down the back, and holding a piece of tape about 10 feet long. At the end was an airborne personal drone—four hoops fused together, propellers inside each—buzzing obediently behind him. The crowd of a hundred, at this month's DroneGames in San Francisco, was rapt. A drone as a pet! We all wanted one.

The competition, a sneak peek into what's coming in the new year, included 12 teams, with 43 programmers from Twitter, Stanford and beyond. The winner wrote a virus that installed itself in a drone and made it go crazy. He called it "amuckcopter." But don't let that throw you. Drones are more peaceable than you think—or they can be.

Decades ago, computer clubs tinkered with military technology and paved the way for personal computers. Today, the same creative brains are demilitarizing drones, as the cost of sensors and digital cameras has plummeted and ready-to-fly models have become available online. A drone that cost $100,000 a decade ago costs a hundred dollars today. And forget remote controls; many of these unmanned aerial vehicles are autonomous.

Before you start muttering about the "Terminator" movies and casting your eyes fretfully upward, consider the aspirations of these drone-makers. Most seem to be aiming high: not to kill but to cure—and more.

Read the rest here

Views: 479


Developer Comment by R_Lefebvre on December 29, 2012 at 6:53am

Bummer, it's behind a paywall?

Comment by Andrew Chapman on December 29, 2012 at 2:40pm

If you type "Friendly Skies: Drones To the Rescue" into news.google.com, then click the link from there, it bypasses the paywall. Works for me anyway.


Moderator Comment by Nathaniel Caner on December 29, 2012 at 3:07pm

Good article. Be sure to read the comments section. Why is it that the first people to post comments when articles like this are posted are always the ones with guns that want to shoot first and not even bother asking questions after? Makes you wonder if they even read the article, the article speaks of humanitarian and agricultural benefits to drones where there is a benefit to the greater good of those in need and they want to shoot them down?

Regards,

Nathaniel ~KD2DEY


3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on December 29, 2012 at 4:53pm

Sorry about the bad link; now fixed. 

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