What is the controversy with military drones?
As far as I can gather, the media and general public have between them managed to bend the term "drone" into a synonym for "killer robot". As opposed to remote control aircraft that have been around for decades, or actual autonomous killers like guided missiles or mines. An armed UAV kills things when its human pilot sees a target and decides to hit the switch, much like a manned aircraft. A mine decides when to blow shit up according to its own (usually crude) sensors and decision-making process, entirely unattended. You can tell a cruise missile to mess some place up hundreds of miles away, and it'll navigate over there and make its best effort at just that, all by its lonesome with no more input from you.Somehow the UAV is the sinister unchained killing machine of the bunch. The notion of autonomous machines in particular is a red herring when it comes to current UAVs - they're certainly heavily automated (and remote-controlled), but there's very much a pilot in the loop. If you want a cold and mindless flying death machine, send a 1980's Tomahawk. If you want a killing machine that decides when to shoot of its own accord, stick a 1960's Claymore under a bush. There's unfortunately nothing new about machines that kill who they please when they please.That's not to say there aren't serious conversations to be had around remote weapons systems and use of force and so on, but the controversy around "drones" specifically seems to be bigger on sensationalism around technology than anything else.
Why are all the pictures made by military UAV/Drones so blurry?
Because real life is not a movie. the physics involved with getting video imagery taken from a drone that is 10,000ft up and offset by a Km or so means the drone is 3-4 miles away slant range. I know you've seen telephoto lenses take some amazing shots from long distances, but not 3 miles. Add to that the camera is on a moving platform, then beam the imagery through the air to a ground station. Oh and you're also missing that image that you've posted isn't an optical image, it's thermal. meaning the camera sensor isn't measuring light, it's measuring heat. (actually the change in heat) And was likely taken at night. therefore you've got a low light image, from 3 miles away, on a moving platform, and you wirelessly transmitted it to the ground instantly, and you want to know why you can see their faces??? You should be amazed that you can see anything at all. I'd really like to see these lenses that you think could make this image any clearer and would be "negligible compared to the price of the drone".
Why are drone videos so choppy?
They are not, of course not. Drone footage is one of the most stable footage I’ve seen, if you know how to fly a drone.However, these days, it is very much possible to import drones to India, since the government of India also has launched the Digital Sky Initiative, which is a licensing platform to register drone flyers in India.However, to be a registered flier in India, you need a license, and that is IMPOSSIBLE to do.I’ll tell you why,Me and my friends went to Hisar, to a centre that was listed on the website of DGCA, and we were not able to get a license, in fact, no one there was even trained at all.You can watch the video, and get answers to all the questions arising in your mind. It’s a very informational video, and I'm sure you’ll love it. If you do, please leave a comment on the video that you came from Quora.Thanks, it will make my day.
Why are racing drones so square looking?
2016 International UAV competition grand openingJune 17, 2016, a three-day "International UAV Competition" held in Shenzhen, China Convention and Exhibition Center grand. International Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Exhibition is sponsored by China UAV Industry Association and Shenzhen Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry Association. The theme is "Intelligent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - Outstanding Future". More than 110 unmanned aerial vehicle companies brought over 200 unmanned aerial vehicles for this competition. China's first international unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) competition attracted top players from 6 countries. Heads and exhibitors of UAV industry association from the United States, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Germany and other 12 countries and regions, attended the opening ceremony.……… ………Click here to see more>>http://www.sinopine.com/news/sho...
Why are drone laws so useless and ineffective?
I don’t think the law is the issue. The issue is more about implementing it. It is against the law to fry drugs into prisons but having a law does not stop this from happening. It is against the law to fly drones close to airports but this did not stop drones being flown over Gatwick and closing the airport.
Why did electric drones get so popular and we don't see any fuel based drone?
Of course there are drones (helicopters/airplanes) with both piston engine and turbines! You can find plenty of commercial and home made hobby aircraft, look around on youtube. Quadcopters are really not popular, but they do exist. Of course not with 4 engines, but one engine and shafts/belts to the variable angle blade propellers.In fact fuel-powered model aircraft appeared first, many years back, well before the advent of high-power lithium batteries. I believe I saw the first in the 80’s. Earlier batteries did not have the energy density and power for aircraft, even today they have a very limited flight time and batteries are destroyed quickly due the extreme current draw. Using fuel was the only option.Such machines were expensive, complicated to build and were available to very few people only. Nowadays they’re considered too dangerous to play with. Being hit by a 200g small drone might be painful, but serious injury is not likely. A 450g is more dangerous. A 2–3kg one can be easily fatal. ICE/turbine drones are hardly below 10kg. Just imagine that something goes wrong, technical problem, RF interference, distraction of the pilot, anything, and the drone hits someone or a passenger plane. With a small battery drone you can have fun at home or in the office without jeopardizing life/property.
Why have drones suddenly become a big thing? Are there any recent technological reasons why drones have started to prevail?
Drones aren’t really new. Military drones have been used since the early 30s and unmanned aircraft and spacecraft have been flying every day since the 50s. However, multi-rotor drones and airplane-like drones have been trendy only since the last decade.Why ? The answer is simple. What we now call a “drone” is only a simple RC model, the same that have been used for decades. But there is, under the hood, a huge difference : while an RC model plane is controlled directly (pilot inputs go straight to throttle and ailerons servos), what we call “drones” use an intermediary which is the autopilot. This autopilot is a tiny microcontroller board with various sensors (barometer, gyroscopes, accelerometers) and is running a software analysing flight dynamics in real-time and translating pilot inputs to throttle/aileron outputs that ensure flight stability.The emergence of autopilots has allowed large progresses on fixed-wings drones, and it allowed multi-rotor drones to fly.Multi-rotor drones are inherently very unstable and could not be flown without an autopilot doing all the low-level control.Autopilots are at the foundation of the new drone era. These autopilots have been appearing on the market at very affordable prices thanks to another huge technical revolution - the emergence of tiny, reliable and cheap sensors like MEMS accelerometers. This revolution is largely due to the demand coming from smartphones.In a way, drones can fly nowadays thanks to technological advances that were originally made for smartphones.