Stanford's Francis Fukuyama Builds Personal Surveillance Drone

HerbieTMac writes "Political science professor Francis Fukuyama builds and flies his own personal surveillance drones. His current model requires ground visibility but he is working on the HAM license that would allow fully remote operation. His YouTube videos (video 1 , video 2) are particularly impressive." I had no idea that Francis Fukuyama had such technical interests.

Comments

Ham license

[Anonymous Coward]

A ham license might let him operate on different frequencies and with longer range. However the FAA does not allow a radio-control aircraft to operate out of view of the controller under current guidelines.

Cool but not all that impressive

[Bretski]

Beside the fact that people have been doing this for years, he built this on a multi-rotor heli platform. Flight times for these are usually under 10 minutes, given the power needed to keep them in the air. If he really wants surveillance with long range, he should try a fixed-wing setup, where flight times can be 30-45 minutes. DIYDRONES.COM is a good place to start.

No worries...

[msauve]

The summary was written by Timothy, which means it's only peripherally related to reality.

The license is so he can do more sophisticated telemetry. FTA:

I've bought the package that includes a real time video transmitter and receiver, camera, and telemetry system that will send back GPS data on the drone's location, heading, airspeed, etc. This requires, among other things, a ham radio license.

Maybe he should stick to technology

[quax]

After all his "End of History" prognosis was spectacularly wrong.

Re:You will all be watched ! Question here.

[captainpanic]

I prefer the situation where everybody is watching everybody, with nobody in command, to the situation where a powerful government is watching everybody with only a handful in command.

We cannot stop technology. Cameras are getting too small, and computers too fast and both get too cheap to realistically think they won't be applied on a massive scale. The big question is who controls the data, and what happens to it.

OTS solutions already available

[GameboyRMH]

If you want one of your own, there are many solutions already available off-the-shelf, the cheapest is the Parrot AR.Drone which is computer-controlled via Wifi. If you want something a bit more serious, Mikrokopter makes kits and sells parts, but if you want more range you'll have to swap computer control via WiFi for a traditional FM remote plus UHF camera.

So you put a camera on a RC model

[LanceUppercut]

So you put a typical camera on a typical RC model - something virtually every single RC pilot has been doing for years already. YouTube is choke-full of such videos. Where's the news? The fact that he call it a "personal surveillance drone"? Or the fact that a Stanford professor is playing with a toy) (He should have bought a real non-toy RC model) P.S. And no, HAM radio licence is not sufficient for BVR operation.

ugh

[nomadic]

I don't particularly care what Francis Fukuyama does with his free time, though I guess the more time he spends working on electronics hobbies the less time he can dedicate to screwing up the world through his incompetence. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Welcome to the old hobby professor.

[Lumpy]

Several of us have been doing this for years now. http://diydrones.com/

I have had a self guided drone that will take off and land on it's own as well as fly to preprogrammed waypoints for over a year now. It runs off of an arduino http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8785

ham radio ATV is the video feed and I send packet data via cellphone to control it. I am hoping to get a Android phone to make it completely cellular based for video and control to avoid the problem with using Ham radio (long range is a problem with HAM and fast scan ATV.

I am glad a Professor has finally caught up to us hobbyests that have been dinking with it for years now.