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New Bird Shaped Drone Shown at Security and Defense Trade Show

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-a-birds-it's-a-plane-it's-big-brother dept.

garymortimer writes "SHEPHERD-MIL, a UAV which looks like a native bird with the same flight performance, will be featured at HOMSEC 2013. This UAV is characterized by the glide-ratio and noiseless motor that make it invisible, silent and unobtrusive in sensitive missions. SHEPHERD-MIL is equipped with cameras and geolocation software. The system is especially suitable for border surveillance missions, firefighting, and anti-drug trafficking operations amongst others."

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting patent issues... by girlinatrainingbra · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you follow one of the links inside the linked article for this, you find an interesting statement about some software available on iTunes called Parrot: Parrot removes FreeFlight 2.2 from iTunes
    French manufacturers of the worlds most popular UA have plainly run into problems. They issued a statement yesterday:- AR.Freeflight 2.2 was removed from iTunes last month due to the need for patentsâ(TM) clarification on accelerometer and absolute control...
    In a couple of years time I donâ(TM)t believe anyone will be left flying UAS with conventional RC gear when the smartphone in their pocket will be able to cope.

    It's talking about a way of controlling RC aircraft using your smart phone with a map-view control system rather than using a standard stick-controller to control the plane's pitch/yaw/roll using the control surface actuators directly. It's a shame that even software to do basic things like this has to deal with patent crap. Boo software patents!

  2. Actual Birds by Flere+Imsaho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I fly RC quite a lot, and it's not uncommon for birds of prey, gulls and magpies to attack model planes. Magpies, especially when broody and you are near their nest, will attack relentlessly. A mate has a plane that's shaped and painted to look like a hawk, and he reckons he gets twice as many attacks when flying it compared with his more conventional rigs.

    So I wonder what the lifespan of these things will be?

    --
    It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.