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A.I. Helicopter?

Posted by michael on from the autorotate dept.

CowboyRobot writes "Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization just launched the Mantis, a 'low-cost, intelligent small helicopter'. SMH reports that 'Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will monitor traffic, inspect buildings for maintenance problems, map bushfires, look for faults in powerlines, and join search-and-rescue missions.' This is much larger than the Seiko flying robot reported last month, but the Mantis should be truly autonomous."

2 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Finding faulty powerlines by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Searching for missing hikers
    Surveying wildfires
    Surveying the houses of known government enemies
    Surveying the homes of suspected government enemies
    Surveying your home

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  2. Hardly covert by ChrisPaget · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You've evidently never flown an R/C helicopter. I fly a 30-size and that looks like a 60-size (about 30% bigger than mine in terms of weight and rotor diameter), and they make a LOT of noise. If this thing was anywhere near, you'd know about it - the engines are two-stroke, operating at around 20,000 RPM. And that's without the sound of the blades (also pretty significant).

    Add to that the fact that these things shake. A lot. You can't hope for a clear image from far enough away to not hear it. I've mounted a digital camera on my heli before, and used the remote to take pictures of stuff from the air. With a UKP500 digital camera at its fastest shutter speed, all I got were some vague blurs - you can just about make out me holding the controls and my housemate with the camera remote - and that was from about 20 feet away.

    Noisy as hell, shakey as hell, useless for covert surveillance. And anything that's not covert can be shot down...