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Handheld Black Hornet Nano Drones Issued To UK Soldiers
cylonlover writes "Drones have become a valuable asset for any military force in recent years for both combat and surveillance. But while scanning a warzone from miles away is great from a tactical standpoint, unmanned aircraft can be just as useful in the hands of troops on the ground. That's why British soldiers in Afghanistan have been issued several Black Hornet Nanos, a palm-sized UAV that can scout around corners and obstacles for hidden dangers. Each UAV measures just 4 x 1 inches (10 x 2.5cm) and weighs a mere 0.6 ounces (16 grams), making it easy for troops to carry along with the rest of their gear. A built-in camera transmits live video and still images to a handheld control unit at a range of up to half a mile (800 meters)."
I thought this was some video game fantasy!
At £125.000 ($200.000) each they are a steal. :-)
That seems like a good deal.
-- sigs suck --
Before the aspbergers show up with their negativity... This is fucking awesome! And $200 thats it? Ive seen model airplanes that cost 2-3x+ that. Scouting with this thing, I would think, many lives will be saved. Well not the brown people's lives (the ones being shot at.)
Drone strike.....
"Ow!"
Yeah, they cost 200k for the first few. But that is to cover development. The actual price of these things should fall dramatically over the next year or so as they get rolled out. If this is the same tiny drone I've seen pictures of in the news lately, they look like something you'd find being flown around the mall by some guy selling them at a kiosk, albeit with quite a bit more technology in the camera and remote control.
--Forest C. Adcock--
Read the article: One of the main selling points of this tiny little helicopter is the fact that it is actually very stable even in high winds.
Remember that it was developed here in Norway where we have quite a bit of "inclement weather", i.e. it has to be able to handle both wind, dust and some rain.
Re. the excessive cost: This will obviously come down a lot, and even if the main article didn't say so, each kit contains multiple drones: The mil-spec controller is probably far more expensive to manufacture than each drone.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
standard issue Army gear.
Like there's not enough crap to lag around already...
Those are some very small palms.
One thing is for certain, soldiers will have plans formed in much less than the first hour after the drones are issued to them..."We need drone style, real-time visual recon of the nearest women's shower. ASAP!"
Troops will be troops, it has been so for thousands of years: Live to get laid, have the next drink, and collecting some coin.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
A can of wasp and hornet spray, and a fly swatter, and you're good to go!
Or go high-tech, and get the laser anti-flying insect defense system that was an article here some years back. It shouldn't be too difficult to boost the laser output power.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
How about one of these?
If the UK government is going to bulk buy for a better cost then there are probably other parts under the government umbrella that are going to get some. Like M16. Like the police. Could be useful to buzz in for some pictures of faces in a crowd.
It's tempting to think they tested it in Bergen
I fly a walkera genius (it's a tiny bit bigger http://www.helipal.com/walkera-hm-genius-cp-v2-helicopter-2-4ghz-value-edition.html ) and it handles the wind exceptionally. Wind i couldn't fly an rc plane in, the little chopper barely gets disturbed. I think it's due to being such a small surface area, plus those little motors have surprising amount of power. If any one wants to try this at home you can also buy 1 gram camera and transmitter modules http://www.fpvhobby.com/143-sub-nano-combo-set.html ; it'll only run for 8 minutes or so (not like the 30 this uk military one does) but the genius is fast and it's full 3d cyclic pitch (fly it upside down if you can handle it).
Rocket Surgeon.
I was quite surprised to see that this military model is a heli, was expecting a quadcopter, they're mechanically simpler (easier to repair!). Micro-sized toy/hobby-grade quads (e.g. Walkera Ladybird, Hubsan X4) are pretty impressive these days, I'm sure with a military hardware budget they could be made even better...
30min battery life is impressive though, compared to toy/hobby gear, where 5-8mins is about all you'll get out of something on that scale.
The quads are defiantly easier to fly. Even with all the gyros the genius has it takes a bit of skill/practice to fly right (luckily they are so light you can cut power at pretty much any height, crash, and it'll usually come out unscathed, depending on the surface it hits). Downsides to the quads is they aren't as good in the wind, bigger, and not as efficient.
I Found a nice video of a mini cp (also from walkera, very similar to the genius) setup with a mini camera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtL2kqQhEfA&playnext=1&list=PL5DD8DBE964939570&feature=results_video
Rocket Surgeon.
Re. the excessive cost: This will obviously come down a lot, and even if the main article didn't say so, each kit contains multiple drones: The mil-spec controller is probably far more expensive to manufacture than each drone.
Terje
And, I would imagine, cheaper than repatriation and medical costs - not to mention the lost cost of training etc.
I'm wondering how they managed to get stability and 3X battery life in something that looks like a glorified Air Hogs Havoc. (That's a Picoo Z to the rest of the world. It's much closer in size to the drone than the Walkera or whatever.)
Usually I find that by the time I get the yaw trimmed out, battery is half-dead already. The slightest air currents can make that sucker go wild. Also the stock controller needs the lift/throttle spring to be removed in order to be reasonably usable.
How much C4 do you need one of these things to carry before it becomes a nice way to take out the target after it finds one?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
The concept of portable drones a soldier can deploy in the field reminds me a bit of manhacks (those spinny-blade enemies in Half-Life 2).
Not that anyone remembers such an old game like Half-Life 2. Heck I think even Valve's forgotten about the series... /cry
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Spy_Drone
The future is here.
I'm having trouble believing the "16g" part of this story.
a) It doesn't seem possible - equivalent civilian 'copters with smaller batteries weigh 30-40g.
b) Even if it's possible, why bother? They claim it's "to make it easy for troops to carry" but an extra 30g isn't going to break anybody's back (plus the controller looks like it weighs a kilo...)
No sig today...
Had to read the headline a second time to realize it wasn't about weaponized hornet swarms. Now I'm dissapointed.
How hard would it have been to make some of them green? If I were in Afghanistan again, I'd want a Green Hornet.
If they're going to call it a Black Hornet why not make it black?
Well spoken and good call! You've nailed it.
'Those with Asperger' is just one of the emerging epithets used in discussion forums as chuckle zingers. The object of the game is to be the first in your group to come up with a zinger that is worded such that the author is winking and laughing with some (presumed, unseen) audience of like minded individuals.
It is a social gambit to build such a clique. Some readers are surprised by the novelty and cleverness of the remark -- and there is an inherent vulnerability in the human specie where our respect for the clever comic transcends subject matter and deep implications. They take it as their own and drop it elsewhere (always fast, always first) and it becomes a contagion of memery.
A chuckle zinger may result in a brief spell of uncomfortable laughter among the astonished, conspiratorial laughter among a growing clique. This is why blatantly racial and sexist jokes continue to have such persistence of memory. Not because racism and sexism is prevalent... they have astonished the most and therefore are most often regurgitated by those who prefer a bad joke to a period of quality silence.
There are exceptions however. A goatse link is always appropriate anywhere. It is a jesting reminder of our childlike preoccupation with astonishment that may be contemplated in thoughtful silence. Goatse does not present itself with word-jargon that attempts to inject it into social context. It just presents itself. Period.
With my pedantic and droll style of writing I am immune to such things as zingers.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Product placement. He's even linked to a hobby store.. cmon...
Sure, the UAV "drone" only weighs 16 grams, but what about the weight of:
a) The protective box that carries it
b) The recharging/refueling mechanisim
c) The receiver
d) The display
What does it weigh in hand grenades? Ammo clips? etc.
Ken
How is it obvious the cost will come down a lot?
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Because it has all the specs and videos. I don't work there its just where i got my stuff from.
Rocket Surgeon.
You have to separate 'cost' and 'price':
The price will of course stay as high as possible (i.e. whatever the military is willing to pay), while manufacturing cost will come down now that they have made & debugged the design.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
How much C4 do you need one of these things to carry before it becomes a nice way to take out the target after it finds one?
A drone can carry small amounts of chemical or biological warfare agents. Sometimes a small amount is all it takes.
A drone can also light up a specific target using an IR laser. The real damage will be done by a guided missile.
Seeing the size of the little copter really surprises me how stable it must be in flight on windy days. My Syma IR copter is impossible to fly outdoors even on days I'd consider to be relatively calm. I can't image the power the motors this thing must have and battery tech used to power the whole thing. Compared to my toy that takes 1 hour to charge for 7 minutes of flight time.
Nothing even remotely similar exists on the ground; - roll, pitch, yaw. Watching fuel constantly (it is never a flight, in the sense of a free flight, it is always a jump which is to be thought over and planned). Let alone wind, rain, wires, trees, birds, etc.
It will take years to get comfortable with this technology. The brain, the whole nervous system must adjust to flying.
... My Syma IR copter is impossible to fly outdoors even on days I'd consider to be relatively calm. ...
I have a similar IR toy copter, and I'm surprised you've been able to successfully fly it outdoors at all. The package of mine specifically states that it's not intended for outdoor use, and flying it indoors into a bright stream of sunlight coming through the front window of my house demonstrated very clearly why: the sunlight apparently obliterates the IR signals. My copter promptly became uncontrollable when it went into the sunbeam. As long as I kept it out of that sunbeam, all was fine.
I imagine the extended battery life is one of the reasons for the standard copter design, instead of the quadcopter design. Size is almost certainly another factor; they want to minimize the space that these little drones take up in a rucksack, as much as possible.
More weight also affects battery usage and efficiency. I'd imagine this little non-toy copter is very carefully engineered to balance the weight against the battery life. You wouldn't bother to put such engineering weight behind something manufactured to be a toy... but I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if the tech in these drones eventually makes its way to the toy market as well.
Here you go sir, one internet cookie with extra sprinkles!
I looked at the blurb, then found sites with 7 more including the one created by Darpa from 2007-2011 that is about the same size as, looks like and flies like a hummingbird. The only difference is that this bird sends 720p video streams back to the control unit. Flight time is quite short, but long enough for many many purposes.
... is a mini-Hellfire missile to attach to it, and voila! The next generation of battlefield weaponry is born.
licet differant, aequabitur
At least Germany military experts doubt its efficiency in bad weather conditions (link is to a Google translated site as the original article is available in German only, sorry). I'd say their expertise weights more than the argument they're from Norway so they'll be alright.
Also, at 144k€ per unit this seems ridiculously expensive.
Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
Aspbergers has been taken out of the DSM-V draft as a form of autism. So very soon "OFFICIALLY" if you are "high functioning aspbergers" now you're just an asshole. And if you're low functioning you have autism. So that shouldn't offend anyone. I don't care about being politically correct. This is the internet act accordingly, and/or go fuck yourself in your own asshole. Jackasses. -The Redman Cometh