What do you think could be in this Trex450-style copter that could make it worth $50,000?
From Robots.net:
This small helicopter is called Inceptor and it is the latest product of Insitu, the innovative company behind ScanEagle that is now owned by Boeing. Inceptor weighs only 3.5lbs and fits into a police car trunk. It has an electric motor with swappable lithium polymer batteries. It can fly for around 24min, take-off and land autonomously, navigate and hover via waypoints and also controlled semi-autonomously through a touchscreen. The integrated flight control system is aFCS20 provided by Adaptive Flight Inc.
One can learn to operate it in a few hours and it provides electro-optic or IR imaging immediately even during adverse weather conditions and wind gusts. Video imagery is transmitted to the handheld ground control station and distributed to decision makers for real-time viewing. It flies below 500ft and within line of sight (as dictated by the FAA-issued certificate of authorization).
Inceptor will enter a developing but still very niche market sector that is mostly dominated by quadcopters. Prototypes are already flying and initially it will be available only for US public agencies at a cost of around $50.000. Selected law-enforcement customers will test it soon.
Comments
This sums it all up: "...that is now owned by Boeing."
@Petrus would you really want SAPs flying UAVs of major South African metro areas...they would be up for sale on ebay or flown into the ground.
The free market dictates the price. If there is is somebody willing to pay, it is worth it.
They are lucky, The South African police doesnt even have any UAV's at this stage, mind you coming to think of it even our air force's UAV capability is questionable. Yes we do have excellent companies like Denel who put in many hours of R&D to develop top of the range UAV's only to sell it elsewhere since the SANDF didnt buy any since 1994. Makes me sick
@DaveyWaveyBunsenBurner
You are right, I have never read the Mikrokopter forum. (Microcopter costs $50,000 and still have the same problems?)
My point (if any) was only that I think it takes a few man-years in programming and design to get rid of such problems. Then, there is still the education part to be taken care of, as you pointed out.
The cost of failure in ONE real operation (for a PD) can in my view however be much higher then the $$$ mentioned.
hmmm in our country it is not legal to steal from the government... But maybe (they want the police as a customer) they made it idiot-proof? That would explain the high costs ;-) If that's the case: i want two for i will certain break one...
If you think a few k $ stops those problems you clearly have never read the Mikrokopter forum!!! Remwmber, Arducopter is Beta, not release, and how many of those problems are user induced? The cost of these things does not define te quality...
If the situation was I was head of some PD and planned to use an UAV in real situations, I would gladly spend a few K $$$ in order to avoid messages like:
- "Motor failing behind"
- "Flipping tendency during startup"
- "ESC's refusing to arm"
- "Altitude problem in AUTO mode and flipping over during descent: Crash"
;-))
The flight controller alone likely costs 10k or more. Add in the real IR camera (8k ish) the rugged tablet (3k), and the heli (800 to 1k depending on equipment), A good radio system(2-3k+) and you start getting closer and closer to that 50k mark.
Those $500 hammers we all hear about are modal hammers used to do system identification tests. They would cost you the same amount.
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