Slashdot Mirror
Your Car: Aerial Drone Launcher? (dice.com)
Nerval's Lobster writes: Ford and Chinese technology company DJI (which manufactures drones that specialize in aerial photography) used the spotlight of this year's CES to announce a developer challenge: figure out how someone can use the dashboard touch-screen to launch (and land) a drone from the back of a pickup. While the challenge is framed as a "search-and-rescue system for the future," drone control from a moving vehicle has a lot more applications than search-and-rescue. In 2014, Renault designed a concept car that came with a small flying drone controllable via tablet or preset GPS waypoints. In theory, this "flying companion," launched from a retractable hatch in the roof, could prove especially useful at scanning the road ahead for possible traffic jams. (Renault hasn't yet announced a production model of the car.) So are drones-from-cars an odd sideshow? Maybe. But if they catch on, imagine the driver-distraction issues from trying to pilot a UAV while you're on the road.
... the collision-avoidance logic you'd need if e.g. on a busy highway lots of cars had a drone companion.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
In my mind, the use case for my personal vision is dwindling, though. There used to be a lot more relatively uninhabited back road. These days urban sprawl is filling all the great driving roads up with commuters making two-hour trips in each direction, but in a world with a lot of empty road it would be very cool to have a fixed-wing camera drone that would let you know when it was "safe" (for others, that is) to drive like a nutter. It doesn't actually have to go very fast (all things being relative) because the use case is canyon roads where you're going to be making a lot of turns.
For search & rescue, it seems relatively pointless, because it's not a major drawback to have to stop and launch a drone...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They already have vision guidance, a camera that faces down and used for stabilization with ultrasonic range detectors to fine tune altitude. This gives their drones pretty good horizontal and vertical stabilization at very low altitudes.
But its not accurate enough, GPS simply isn't accurate enough to hit the fine target like the back of a truck.
All they really need to do is implement targeting on the vision guidance system. So that a special bar code target is laid in the back of the truck, and the drone see's that as it is near its home point and steers for that. All they'd need to do is a minor change of firmware.
It should be trivial to do, barcodes are very easy to pick out of photographs, as it reaches the home point either its bar code is visible in the guidance camera and it tries to land on it, or it isn't visible and it lands only by GPS.
In theory, this "flying companion," launched from a retractable hatch in the roof, could prove especially useful at scanning the road ahead for possible traffic jams.
Yes, jams caused by crashed drones littering the road ahead.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Sounds very Bond...
Go, Speed Racer, Go!
we'll be able to drive like in need for speed
But if they catch on, imagine the driver-distraction issues from trying to pilot a UAV while you're on the road.
Because the driver would have to pilot it, right? There is no such thing as an autonomous capability which would allow the drone to, say, fly up/ahead/somewhere for half a mile, take a bunch of pictures or use some sensors, transmit the result to the car computer which processes it and outputs a simple warning icon to the driver, right? Such things are completely unheard of.
In the case of save-and-rescue, you would have a second person in the car piloting the drone, that's so obvious it's a "doh".
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Windows for accidents, anyone?
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
A drone launching car is useless, and at worst dangerous! You want a live traffic report, you've got a cell phone right? There you go. Just tie that info back to your dashboard with a HUD or standard LCD display. Traffic avoidance has been a solved problem for years now. Just pull up Google Maps or Apple Maps.
As for the concept of drone launching from vehicles; law enforcement and the military would have better use with this concept, not the civilian sector.
Life is not for the lazy.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
Admit it, you all considered the implications of a high tech drone in place of a trunk monkey when reading the summary.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It would seem a textbook use for voice controls for vehicle delivery for remote operators. I could easily picture such a tool used for low cost scouting of wildfires: the delivery vehicle wouldn't even have to stop moving. This also sounds like a military or security project: a casual search reveals several Navy projects for just such moving vehicle based drone launches. While a small pickup mounted drone wouldn't have enough power to loft large weapons, it seems just the vehicle for delivering a few targeted rounds to an urban target. It seems even more suitable for poison, tear gas, or incendiary attacks: Incendiary attacks on tall buildings are a security nightmare.
Targeted tear gas or incendiary gas delivery is a real security concern with modern drones. It's perhaps not as strange as the incendiary bat bombs of World War II. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., which were considered for igniting Japanese cities during WW II, but could not be aimed well.
Currently DJI products use an IMU (a combination of a gyro and magnetometer), GPS and a barometer to control positioning and flight. Before the flight, conscious pilots assure the IMU is calibrated properly and that there's GPS lock. It's not currently possible to calibrate the IMU around ferrous environments, something required when changing flight locale.
Using today's control systems to launch from a metal moving platform will have more issues than just the air flow.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Wasn't this a feature in the 60 minute Viper commercials in 1994? I seem to remember that among the absurdities it had the ability to launch a flying drone type thing from the trunk.
Been there, done that..
It's called a "sunroof." Also useful for launching cigarette butts, litter, and obscene gestures.
Flying car? That would make it easier to get around road hazards. Now we'll need to be drivers and pilots at the same time, so why not just make the car fly.
How about just one drone operated by a qualified party and everyone gets access to the information?
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
both had launchable drones and that was in the 1960's. This news is ho-hum.
Does nobody remember the Bond films?
Everything's fine until some wacko uses a drone launched by car to attack America.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The Mach 5 had a drone all the way back in 1967!
Besides drones are dumb, I want auto-jacks on my car.
Mostly for the cool sound when i use them.
I wonder if him and Pops put in a patent on this?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Sorry, you're in a no drone zone!
I already have one I launch from my truck. It scouts ahead to see if there are any boarder patrol checkpoints, oh and fuck the FAA, there is no way I would register it, and neither should you.
No possibility that drones will crash into each other and fall from the sky.
No possibility that drones will loose communication with their vehicle due to radio interference from other drones.
No possibility that road rage fools will get in drone fights or interfere with other vehicles.
No possibility that distracted drivers/pilots will get in accidents.
No possibilities that emergency respondents will have problems with a bunch of amateurs cluttering up the situation by remote control.
No possibility that the size of the problem area will expand as drivers try to sneak around congestion.
This idea makes perfect sense for a day dreaming eight year old boy with attention deficit disorder. In the real world it makes about as much sense as encouraging drivers to shoot at each other while driving. What kind of moron comes up with this shit?
Why is Snark Required?
We tossed this idea around in the office before. Stuck in traffic but can't see ahead? Launch the tethered drone - just straight up and high enough to see what is ahead. Power is no problem as it is tethered, and you can get high quality video. With the right design, maybe handle speeds of > 5mph as it goes into 'kite mode'.
Just an idea. :-)
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com
that is all... thanks Ford.
It's interesting to me that it is a challenge at all.
I already fly my DJI Phantom out of the back of my pickup. I was initially concerned that the metal cage of the pickup bed would impair the drone's compass and possibly GPS, but it doesn't seem to have a real impact. The biggest issue is actually the circulating propwash in the enclosed space of the truck bed. This forces me to be quick and determined when landing, don't hover/loiter, but come straight in and land. After having done it a couple of times I have no problem launching and retrieving from the truck bed.
It really should be a simple matter to incorporate the DJI GroudStation software, or something similar, presently available for iPad, into the vehicle's infotainment computer. I wouldn't want it built into the vehicle, but that's what they're asking for. Then have the truck inform the drone of the bed's new GPS position as it's home point for landing. It's a really straightforward problem that should be easy to implement.
I really don't see why it would be a challenge, let alone need to be a public challenge.
And maybe the drone will have a smaller drone to make sure the way is clear for the first drone, it's drones all the way up.