Slashdot Mirror
Autonomous Model Glider Flies from 60,000 Feet
saccade writes "A couple
years ago we read about a telemetry laden balloon launched
to 80,000 feet single-handedly built by a laid-off engineer. Here's an even more elaborate
one built at around the same time: A balloon launched model
glider taken to about 60,000
feet that autonomously finds its way home. It had an auto-pilot
and elaborate mission control system. Also impressive is the
extensive testing
done before launch."
Parent was modded up funny, but this raises a serious question: what is stopping somebody with bomb-making skills from flying a plane like this loaded with explosives to a high-profile target such as the White House or other government buildings?
thisnukes4u.net
I can't find the link, but /. posted a story last year about an autonoumous flight across the Atlantic in a small robitic vehicle using GPS costing under $10,000.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Probability is.
There's only about 0.0001% of the population that's angry, desperate & psychopathic enough to consider acts of terruh, times about 0.001% smart enough to plan an overly-complex scheme, times 0.1% motivated enough to follow through, times 50% odds of success. (So, worry about dying in a traffic accident instead.)
Numbers out of my ass, but that's a basic "Drakes Equation" for ya.
Power to the Peaceful
.0001% * .001% * .1% / 2 = .000000005%
6billion people * .000000005%= 30 smart terrorists. seems low.
OTOH, he seems to have had some problems with navigation and obstacles (i.e., the mountain in the way), but I can't see how he can deal with that without using something like EGPWS. Standard GPWS (ground proximity warning systems) use radar and the power needs would be far to high. EGPWS extends this with a digital ground model and a GPS. He has the GPS, but whether he could make and store an model with terrain elevation would be an interesting question.
Uhm...S -700_Pri ntFriendly.html
t ml?smenu=105
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/ecat/at/FC
I'd say the answer is as soon as a 747 with a FCS-700A and a pilot that feels the need to use auto-landing durring an emergency all come together in the same part of the sky.
Here's the dope on the FCS-700A
Long version: http://www.rockwellcollins.com/ecat/at/FCS-700A.h
Short Version:
The FCS-700A is a fully digital, fail operational autopilot flight director system. The system, part of the Boeing 747-400 flight control system, performs tasks associated with flight director commands, speed selection, altitude selection, heading selection, autopilot, autoland, and system fault isolation. Utilizing the new FCC-703, system upgrades are much easier and less expensive due to the incorporation of dataload capability via either front connector or rear connector. The FCC-703 replaces the FCC-702, Collins part number 622-8787-106.
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
This is the kind of garage engineering that starts legends !
Given the site dates back to 2003, it would be really interesting to see what he is/has done recently.
The points on software engineering are also interesting - enough that I'm going to pass this one around the guys at work.
(and too bad that he still lives, sez i)
"He who throws mud, loses ground." - proverb
The two stories mentioned in the article were the source for inspiration for me that caused me to start building a wheeled robot that I had been thinking about for a long time. I read the baloon story on Slashdot and then searched for more similar stuff online and I found the glider article. That was about a year ago - maybe a year and a half.
:)
n sai1.jp g
Today, the robot (which I call Bonsai) is ready. The goal for it was to be able to do a couple of fairly basic things that would allow it to be a platform for later ideas that could be built on the base work. The things it had to do were:
It had to be able to know where it was in the world, how it was oriented and moving in the world, and to be able to use that information to figure out how to drive to get from point A to point B (possibly through a complex path).
It had to be able to be manually controlled in addition to the automatic control.
It had to have a good remote control software complete with moving map, full telemetry of all functions on the robot, and the ability to command every function of the robot remotely.
It had to have a camera, and the remote control software had to be able to see the image from that camera real-time (or as close to real-time as possible).
It had to have a wireless communications link.
It would have to be able to operate at least 60 minutes.
It had to have a solid vehicle base that had to be able to operate for at least 60 minutes and be able to operate precisely and reliably.
The vehicle base would have to be able to carry the load of the computer, batteries, as well as a sizeble amount of additional electronics and equipment in the future.
The whole thing would have to look decent.
It took about a year to design and build, but it was very fun and in the end, it turned out to be fairly easy and nowhere near as expensive as I imagined it would be. Projects like that are a great way to learn new stuff about electronics and I highly recommend it to anyone who has been thinking about something like this. In the end, all the goals of the project were met, and I now have a really fun toy!
The URL below is a picture of the robot in its final form:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/macpeep/bonsai/bo
"what is stopping somebody with bomb-making skills from flying a plane like this loaded with explosives to a high-profile target such as the White House or other government buildings?"
Ans: Don't fuck up other people's countries. Seriously. Blow up a few thousand people and then karma is a bitch.
Despite all the well-fanned paranoia incubated in this country, we really haven't been attacked much. I've a feeling that will change soon. Of course, the attack will recursively be used as justification for attacking foreign soil, and all will applaud our foresight.
But such a plane, on mars, would have a completely different mission. Rather, it's mission would be to take atmospheric measurements. Which, I might add, neither a satellite nor a rover can do well.
I should also add that NASA already has a glider designed to be sent to Mars. Its design includes a really cool folding system, which allows it to be stowed for the long travel. Once there, it would be dropped from very high up, unfolding as it falls. Once there is enough atmosphere, it would begin gliding. It's designed to travel at speeds greater than Mach (during free fall, I don't think that's it's general operating range) and has even been tested at high altitude here on earth. Last I heard, the tests went very well. I'm not sure what else needs to be done on it at this point.
US Population is ~300 million, not ~200
cruise missiles which can loiter for weeks or months waiting for a target of opportunity?
Admittedly the balloons wouldn't exactly be able to do much station-keeping.
In ww2 the Japanese prepared bomb-carrying baloons and let them drift on the winds. IIRC some actually reached the Western coast of the USA. Naturally, nothing much came of them... even California is (or was then) just empty land.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.