I have just joined and am very impressed with the work you all are doing. I am deployed to Iraq with one son just north in Baghdad and another son with a provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan. I have a great interest in seeing stable governments in this part of the world.To that end I have proposed a UCAV that the Iraqis can build in Iraq using off-the-shelf components. I have uploaded the proposal which was written before I discovered this site. I would appreciate your thoughts. I already have other ideas just reading the posts. To get the Iraqis to accept this idea I probably will have to build a prototype that they can actually see flying so cost is a factor.I hope this adds also to the community, and I will post as developments occur over here.One change from the proposal. I will probably go with a Lombardini diesel as the OCOP engine has not progressed as expected.Roger
The employment issue is significant, and we certainly understand your motivation. However, there might be an issue with the fact that a UAV can't be at all places all of the time, and operating time might be relatively low.
Could you discuss how you think the locals might employ this type of system ? Are you considering primarily urban or rural settings ?
Though this isn't what you asked, I had the thought that, at least in an urban setting, it might be worth considering creating a population of stationary cameras deployed as a large wireless mesh network, perhaps powered by solar cells + battery. That type of deployment would fairly labor intensive, between building and configuring the cameras and radios, installation, repair, and live monitoring, thus representing significant training and employment opportunities.
that is simply fascinating , i work for a small company building 1/2 scale uavs, our A-3 or a little larger version of it just might foot the bill , our whole concept is easy to build,maintain,repair and fly, we have also flown it for Washington state DOT under a COA . read more about us and the A-3 at Peak-Aviation also check out my profile
Thank you
wayne
Very interesting proposal. As you've discovered from reading this site, it's possible to do these thing for much lower cost than people think. I wouldn't suggest that our autopilots are ready for deployment in Iraq (or even the local park), but you can see that the low end gear is getting very capable and may soon suit a local build UAV.
BTW, I was amused to see that MicroPilot claims it's the smallest and lightest (28g) autopilot in the world. Every autopilot we've built is smaller and lighter than that, as are all of the commercial ones in our range, from Procerus to AttoPilot. I think it's time for MicroPilot to revise their marketing material (or build a much smaller autopilot!)
Replies
Could you discuss how you think the locals might employ this type of system ? Are you considering primarily urban or rural settings ?
Though this isn't what you asked, I had the thought that, at least in an urban setting, it might be worth considering creating a population of stationary cameras deployed as a large wireless mesh network, perhaps powered by solar cells + battery. That type of deployment would fairly labor intensive, between building and configuring the cameras and radios, installation, repair, and live monitoring, thus representing significant training and employment opportunities.
Thank you
wayne
BTW, I was amused to see that MicroPilot claims it's the smallest and lightest (28g) autopilot in the world. Every autopilot we've built is smaller and lighter than that, as are all of the commercial ones in our range, from Procerus to AttoPilot. I think it's time for MicroPilot to revise their marketing material (or build a much smaller autopilot!)