Cameron Rose quite eloquently put his thoughts and hopes on the futures of UAVs in a recent National Geographic article. Cameron is a graduate student at UC Berkeley in EECS in Ron Fearing's group, which is famous for, among other things, foundational work in flying insects through the MFI project, rapid prototyping of millirobotis, and the recent spin off company, Dash robotics.
¨My dream is to be able to contribute one day to advancing the field of robotics enough to achieve something even close to the level of maneuverability and control that animals possess in nature,¨ said Cameron Rose, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley
. ¨There is so much to be learned from behaviors and control surfaces of animals that can be applied to robotics.
Rose, 25, graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. Today, he is a member of Prof. Ron Fearing’s Biomimetic Millisystems Laboratory, and his research focuses on modeling and control of flapping-winged robots in flight away from equilibrium. ¨I also dream to use my knowledge and passion for robotics to encourage other African American students to pursue similar paths. There are so many middle and high school students that don’t have the same opportunities that I had growing up. If I can do anything to fix that, be it through simply speaking at schools or showing my robots, I’d like to help. I’d like to see the number of African Americans pursuing undergraduate degrees and PhDs in engineering increase.¨
¨I was always fascinated with planes and flight growing up,¨ said Rose. ¨I liked to play with everything from paper airplanes, to building models, to launching model rockets. I have many memories of my dad out in the field behind my house launching all sorts of flying things into the air.¨
Rose is inspired by his grandfather in the way that he approaches his life. ¨He always puts his family and God first,¨ said Rose. ¨The level of passion and joy he has for photography is remarkable in the face of some of the hardship that is in his life. I hope to achieve that level of passion and happiness from my work in spite of the tough times that may arise.¨
¨When I was in high school, I was in the Civil Air Patrol,¨ said Rose. ¨I had the opportunity to attend Solo Flight School, where I could get the classroom training and flight time to work towards my solo flight and eventually my pilot’s license. I’ll never forget the first time I was able to take the plane up in the cockpit by myself. It was one of the most exhilarating and honestly terrifying moments of my life. Fortunately, there were no problems, and I successfully completed the flight by myself. I’ll never forget the feeling of accomplishment, freedom, and relief, when I successfully landed the plane at the end of the flight.¨
Regarding the FAA regulations Rose thinks there should be licenses for operating civilian drones in public settings to ensure people know how to operate them safely around others to avoid injury.
Rose Master’s thesis “Flight Simulation of an Ornithopter” has been published by the University of California. His paper “Cooperative Control and Modeling for Narrow Passage Traversal with an Ornithopter and Ground Station,” was in the 2013 Autonomous Agent and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) Conference.
¨The H2Bird is a 13 gram flapping-winged robot that includes custom-designed electronics for sensing and control,¨ explained Rose.¨ Flapping flight provides high maneuverability necessary for navigating in indoor environments on a small mass scale. Building fliers on such a small scale is made possible by advances in the size scale of electronics and sensor packages, and through study of flapping aerodynamics. Additionally, minimizing the power consumption of the motors and electronics has enabled flight times up to 5 minutes. The goals of the current project are to develop optimal control policies for single or multiple vehicles to achieve sensing and navigation among un-modeled obstacles such as doors and walls. One of the possible applications for the project in the future is within the realm of disaster relief. If a group of sensor-equipped crawlers and fliers can be released into something like a collapsed building, they can help locate survivors or areas that could be dangerous for humans.¨
5 good things people should know about drones:
- They’re good for more than just military applications.
- Occurrences in nature that could not ordinarily be photographed or recorded by humans can be captured with the aid of drones.
- Drones can be used in emergency situations in conditions that would be dangerous to humans.
- Drones can be used to transport materials on repetitive journeys that would be a waste of human resources.
- Drones can be used to create art.
5 things people probably are not aware when it comes to drones:
Not all drones are quadrotors.
The large majority of them are not armed.
Civilian users of drones are increasing more rapidly than military-use drones.
More information on your life can be gained simply by using your cell phone than a drone can provide.
There are a wide variety of non-military applications for drones that are beneficial.
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