Slashdot Mirror


Drones Underwater, Drones on Wheels (Video)

Rocky Mountain Unmanned Systems seems to be primarily in the business of selling aerial 'copter drones ranging in price from sub-$100 up into $1000s. But there they were at the 2015 CES (Consumer Electronics Show), showing off a submarine drone and a wheeled drone. These products don't seem to be on the company's website or even on their Facebook page quite yet. Jon McBride, the person manning their CES booth, told Timothy these products would be around soon, as in February. But it looks like a bit of extra patience is in order, although you can contact Jon through the company's Facebook page (his suggestion) if you have an urgent need for an underwater or wheeled drone for your business or government agency -- or even just for fun.

18 comments

  1. Wheel in the Sky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keeps turning
    Don't know where I'll be tomorrow

    1. Re:Wheel in the Sky by davester666 · · Score: 2

      That's not an RC car. That's a drone!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. a "wheeled drone"? by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

    Is that like an RC car with a camera, perhaps?

    1. Re:a "wheeled drone"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      such a deal for you today! 800 dorrars! Just 800 dorrars for you! Today only! Mention Dice in your reply for 10% more discount!

    2. Re:a "wheeled drone"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that like an RC car with a camera, perhaps?

      Why there is not a multitude of competing startups near engineering/robotics universities hocking amazing sub-$500 autonomous smart-phone-clip-in-go-anywhere RC RV things is a mystery... too much weed and VR losers at university, not enough greed/drive/whatever-it-takes. NASA should be allowed to pad their absurd budget with balloon-launched sick quality smartphone terra rovers... these things should be everywhere uploading AV & point weather readings to Internet DBs... wtf this planet's commercial engineers have a ridiculous gap in their teeth and everyone with money and no good toys is stuck in there.

    3. Re:a "wheeled drone"? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Is that like an RC car with a camera, perhaps?

      Obligatory Big Bang Clip
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kzjqBacF1k

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  3. Do they have shark drones with frickin' lasers ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on their robotic foreheads? (I.e.,should we be preparing to welcome our robotic shark drone overlords?)

  4. DRONES UNDERWATER... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A fire in the sky...

  5. already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it already time for another paid product placement brought to us by Timmy?

    1. Re:already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know you're spouting nonsense, right?

  6. Sorry, beat you to it by spiritplumber · · Score: 1

    http://www.robots-everywhere.c... since 2008.... we designed the first openROV for the openROV guys, even. Also, we don't slashvertise (Well, I guess this comment counts).

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  7. Already here are... by magarity · · Score: 1

    ... drones on legs.

  8. Well, I'm OK with this, but ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... line of site, no more than 400 feet high, and not for commercial use.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  9. Re:Do they have shark drones with frickin' lasers by spiritplumber · · Score: 1

    They don't but we do. http://robots-everywhere.com/r...

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  10. You disabled autoplay! Good boy! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Thank you for finally disabling autoplay. Now, if you could just add a freakin' volume control...

    Oh, and HTML5 video instead of whatever weird hybrid thing you've got going on that means, with Flashblock enabled, that I get sound but no video.

    kthxbye

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Turn down the volume! by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Do these videos have to be set at full volume all the time? All it does is piss me off.

  12. Please stop the embarrasing "at CES" articles... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    CES was months ago now. Please quit the string of crappy "hey, this one time at CES" articles.

  13. "Drone" needs to die. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The DoD already has acronyms for unmanned systems that we can standardize around(albeit, inconsistent ones; IE: the sudden distinction between a UAV and UAS).

    "Drone" became popular because it linguistically allowed for 1950s technology(RC Cars/Planes) to be conflated with Predator Drones(really big RC Planes with missiles and expensive cameras) and systems like the Global Hawk(advanced modern technology). Some of the sUAS utilize actual autonomy to do GPS waypoint navigation which is undoubtedly a feature of larger UAS(no different from commercial passenger airplanes).

    Modern day fly by wire controls schemes seem to be the most consistent defining feature between a "drone" and an RC plane/car. If it doesn't have an AHRS(Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, and supporting MCU) it's probably not a "drone".

    It's not immediately clear what level of autonomy people expect from aerial vehicles but I think that's way more thought than people usually invest in media headlines.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle#Degree_of_autonomy

    Actual Drones:
    http://www.auvsi-seafarer.org/news-events/
    http://www.auvsi-seafarer.org/documents/2015Documents/2015_AUVSI_SUAS_Rules_Rev_1.0_FINAL_14-1023-1.pdf

    If autonomy is something you're interested in, Roboboat, Robosub, and the IGVC Competition are student competitions that have the necessary allowable weight-budgets to achieve some really impressive operator-independent behavior outputs. The SUAS competition is impressive as well, but the weight limitation implies a trailing level of sophistication in autonomy.

    The AUVSI Foundation is great, but the DARPA competitions are where the money really starts pouring in for "state of the art":

    http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge (Arguably the beginning of what is now Google's autonomous car.)

    There are also some very interesting CS challenges going on involving Cognitive/Software Defined Radio/Networking. Once again: DARPA money. These don't involve tangible objects so they are much less of a spectator sport.