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Flying Robot Ambulance Finally Takes Its First Flight (popsci.com)
What weighs 2,400 pounds, flies 100 miles per hour, and doesn't haven't a pilot? An anonymous reader writes:
This week Popular Science remembers a 2007 article which discovered "an amazing machine of the future, almost like a flying car, that seemed plausible but just out of reach" -- and reports that it's now finally performed "a full, autonomous flight on a preplanned route." Designed to provide unmanned emergency evacuations, it's been described as "a hovercar-like aircraft" flown with a built-in AI-controlled flight system.
Tuesday's route was two minutes long, and "According to Urban Aeronautics, the vehicle's Flight Control System made the decision to land too early." But what's significant is there's no human pilot. "Decisions by the flight controls are checked by the craft's flight management system, like a pilot overseen by a captain...all informed by an array of sensors, including 'two laser altimeters, a radar altimeter, inertial sensors, and an electro-optic payload camera.'"
The test brings the giant unmanned vehicle one step closer to its ultimate goal of becoming "a robot that can fly inside cities, weaving between buildings and hovering above any dangers on the ground below."
Tuesday's route was two minutes long, and "According to Urban Aeronautics, the vehicle's Flight Control System made the decision to land too early." But what's significant is there's no human pilot. "Decisions by the flight controls are checked by the craft's flight management system, like a pilot overseen by a captain...all informed by an array of sensors, including 'two laser altimeters, a radar altimeter, inertial sensors, and an electro-optic payload camera.'"
The test brings the giant unmanned vehicle one step closer to its ultimate goal of becoming "a robot that can fly inside cities, weaving between buildings and hovering above any dangers on the ground below."
Decisions made by the flight controls? What?
hovering above any dangers on the ground below.
I hope they built it tough enough to withstand RPG and ATGM hits... especially if they plan on doing a lot of "hovering".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Could this be adapted to retrieve persons of interest and return to a predetermined location? Any way we can include kill/no kill AI?
Thanks,
Your Government
But remember, automation CREATES new jobs as per the article a couple of spots down the front page.
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Will it cost $50,000 a ride like a 'copter?
The operation was a success, but the patient died..
Make up your own Martian lander joke...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient."
Did you hear of the one that crashed? All died, of course. Oh, right. Manned. Woman pilot so that was ruled the cause. Heading to Utah, by way of Nevada. USofA for you foreigners. Out west. Desert country.
How many unmanned evacuations do we do in the US? Could this thing handle that? Better than a manned helicopter? Many evacuations require human's to help so I am not sure how relieved I would be to see a unmanned ambulance. After all what are you supposed to do treat yourself?
I do love automation, I really do but EMTs are an essential part of ambulances. Something flying like this would need to be able to carry at least 1000 pounds before it could really be useful. Also, I'm not really comfortable with leaving emergencies in the hands of autonomous machines because of the unpredictable nature of emergent situations.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Somehow the news reminded me about this one:
http://www.arielambulance.org/...
Does the robot lose its ability to fly when it gets hurt?
Bad headlines apparently come from more than corduroy pillows...
"What weighs 2,400 pounds, flies 100 miles per hour, and doesn't haven't a pilot?"
Mothra?
I suppose such a system would have limited use, much more widespread use if it is as reliable as a helicopter but significantly cheaper. But far too many military envisioned systems are heavy on claims and light on delivered capabilities. Until I see this thing flying a decent distance (say 40 miles), being loaded up with one or two realistically weighted dummies and flying back to its origin point its nothing more than a pipe dream. Maybe for military applications have the test involve a few people with AKs shooting at it from a few hundred yards.
Which if I recall works to a slightly greater altitude in dual rotor systems. I remember reading about a company that's building a "flying car" which like this thing gets lift from a pair of large ducted fans arranged fore and aft; it's rate for 4m maximum operating altitude.
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autonomous, pre-planned route, and 2 minutes.
Excuse me if I am a little less than impressed. Someone has bigger toys than me.
It used to be called the Air Mule and it was funded by the Israeli military
And that surely included some US taxpayer money, like this $38B in military funding
So, the real question is whether Musk will snatch it up now that it is in the public markets.
...I want one I can fly when and where I want.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
my Moller Skycar.
Without a medic on board, it isn't an ambulance, it is a meat wagon. Using something like this would be considered patient abandonment, this will never take off for use in the medical field. The idea of hauling people to the hospital as fast as possible was replaced with prehospital care a long time ago.
Sig: I stole this sig.
There are admittedly many technical problems with a robotic patient evacuation device. Some comments mentioned the importance of patient monitoring, and indeed that is a problem. However, being evacuated as a patient on a gurney is a far different experience than riding in a car or helicopter. Illness or injury provokes profound anxiety in many people. This is not merely emotional. It has physical effects. People can faint, have asthma attacks, develop heart rhythm abnormalities. Transporting even a simple injury (e.g., simple fracture) on an otherwise stable patient in such a way can trigger any of these. Airborne without a supporting attendant is likely far more complex. Admittedly, in a combat situation, it may be safer than a crewed vehicle, and combatant personnel are not average civilians. A complex problem that requires very serious examination in all aspects.