Control your APM/Pixhawk drone from the cloud with DroneDeploy

Drone-University.com May 10, 2014 at 2:00pm

That is a very interesting idea.

Sounds like an webserver / IP camera on board of an UAV.

The pilot remains at the same place, the person using the camera onboard could be anywhere in the world. Well done, I do think this is quite interesting.

MR60

Hugues May 10, 2014 at 11:23am

Assuming Stefan's security concerns would be solved, I still do not get the added value service that is proposed!? Except if prepositioned fully automated drones would exist, then I would see the interest of such service. Otherwise, assuming you still need to deploy people and equipment on the location you want to fly over, these local LOS operators could receive their orders via telephone or even Skype; then they'd immediately send the captured data via their local 4G internet connection.

So I do not get the point of using the cloud to make it complicated , less secure and less under control. Further I doubt any regulation authority is ready to allow cloud control drones; we'd already be happy if they'd allow locally controlled UAVs.

Stefan Gofferje May 10, 2014 at 12:57am

@Mike Winn:

I agree that LTE/4G is in principal much more secure than the current telemetry (I actually started a thread about the current telemetry's security problems in the forums here a while ago) - that's why a respective device was on my wish list, as I wrote. However, cloud services are not!

Location data as well as video streams have privacy implications as well as potentially touch commercial secrets. This alone makes any UAV remote-control cloud service a high value target for hackers from amateur to military level.

As I wrote, there is no such thing as a sufficiently secure cloud service and I have a 10+ years background in IT-security. Every system can be broken into - which has been impressively demonstrated by breakins into e.g. various US government systems, facebook, LinkedIn, who surely have a bigger budget and more people for security than you do and even RSA - who is was the information security company - has been hacked and their widespread and popular two-factor authentication system compromised - compromising millions of other systems around the globe.

Cloud service security is an illusion! If the target is of enough value, enough effort will be invested to break into it.

I already pointed out the operator liability issues, but they are only half the story.

A cloud service which allows for remote control of UAVs? Every terrorist on the planet is going to love that! No need to put yourself in danger, no messing around with TSA and the likes... Just hack the cloud service, hijack a suitable UAV and direct it into the path of an airliner, or maybe for starters just into a major power line, blacking out half a state, causing chaos and mayhem. And the best thing - it's almost impossible to prove and in doubt, the operator is the one going to Gitmo or getting the needle for that.

So - as I wrote... Nice idea but IMHO no UAV operator in his right mind would use a service like that!

If you develop a desktop box which can talk to the LTE box in the UAV directly, without any cloud service in between, through encrypted communications, I'd say "perfect - that is what we absolute need!" But a cloud service? Ehm, no!

Besides, Jack Crossfire also has a valid point... Yet another company that collects sensitive data (which are worth lots of money) - we don't really need that.

MR60

Hugues May 10, 2014 at 12:17am

How does this work in practice? Does it imply drones are prepositionned in the field? Or is this app just a remote viewing/control link in addition to a local pilot having brought physically the drone on site?

Dan Murray May 9, 2014 at 5:50pm

Man, every time I have an idea, someone else shows they have already built it better a couple days later! Congrats guys, this looks great.

Jack Crossfire May 9, 2014 at 5:37pm

That's the kind of service ripe for a multi billion dollar buyout. At least the data collected by it could be sold to the government for studying air traffic patterns or sold to Google for location based advertizing of more products designed to enable location based advertizing.

Thomas Robinson May 9, 2014 at 5:25pm

Have I understood this correctly? Are you saying that a web based application will be the interface between the drone and the pilot? What happens if the cloud application goes down? Also, what happens if the connectivity between the cloud based application and the UAV goes down?

Would love to know. I'm sure there has been something put in place to reduce risks.

Edgar Scott May 9, 2014 at 2:12pm

GREAT!!!!!!!

Mike Winn May 9, 2014 at 2:04pm

Thanks Chris!

@Stephan - you are right security is extremely important! We have worked hard on this and actually believe there are security advantages of LTE over traditional telemetry modems.

@Roberto - Agreed, drone pilots should stay in VLOS. Cellular enables less equipment in the field (just a cell phone/tablet!) and collaboration with others BLOS. Imaging sharing your flight with your friends as it happened, sharing FPV with your mom, or getting assistance from someone out of VLOS. GPS

@Hein - Thanks for your support. You can monitor it if its in another province (or country) - but you still should have a pilot on the ground!

100KM

Hein du Plessis May 9, 2014 at 11:37am

It would be fantastic not to be tethered to a telemetry link! I can monitor and control my drone even if it's in another province! What would the service cost? Latency is not an issue because it's not going to be used for piloting, but setting new waypoints etc.

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Control your APM/Pixhawk drone from the cloud with DroneDeploy

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