Currently on my mind these past few days: Quad and Hexa - copters. The possibilities seem endless and profound.
From a military standpoint there are almost an absurdly diverse amount of applications. Everything from individual and squad level (CAS and ISR) to airborne resupply for small units with almost zero infrastructure needed. I know that the technology is still immature but even now the potential is obvious. Current thinking on this idea is a combination of two budding technologies.
#1: High capacity hexacopters - Awesome example of a hexacopter with lift capacity
#2: Oakley's new heads-up display goggles, with ruggedized controller - http://www.oakley.com/airwave
#3(just for background on the state of development for these mini helicopters) super fast hexacopter with GPS
So putting those two pieces of technology together you would have a semi-automious airborne asset that could deliver anything it could carry to a distance that has military utility, or maintain altitude and provide live video of the surrounding area. The best part of this whole idea is that the cost of these devices would be in the area of 1-2 thousand, compared to the 100K of the army's Raven UAV. With only a little development these technologies could transform how the american army fights, allowing units to be more flexible dynamic and light on their feet.
In a completely nonmilitary direction imagine how combining these technologies with an iPhone could revolutionize trivial day-to-day things like food delivery, if your house was within the radius of the flight distance a food service worker would hook the fast food bag onto the Quad/Hexa-copters hook and just like all the incorporated fast food chains have managed orders the copter would already have the destination queued up. The worker would press a button and off the copter would go with the food, (staying low enough as to not breach the FAA rules about airspace). On arrival an iPhone would begin a video call back to the restaurant to execute the payment transaction and check to ensure everything is in order.
(realizing now this may have been partly inspired because it's lunch time)
From a military standpoint there are almost an absurdly diverse amount of applications. Everything from individual and squad level (CAS and ISR) to airborne resupply for small units with almost zero infrastructure needed. I know that the technology is still immature but even now the potential is obvious. Current thinking on this idea is a combination of two budding technologies.
#1: High capacity hexacopters - Awesome example of a hexacopter with lift capacity
#2: Oakley's new heads-up display goggles, with ruggedized controller - http://www.oakley.com/airwave
#3(just for background on the state of development for these mini helicopters) super fast hexacopter with GPS
So putting those two pieces of technology together you would have a semi-automious airborne asset that could deliver anything it could carry to a distance that has military utility, or maintain altitude and provide live video of the surrounding area. The best part of this whole idea is that the cost of these devices would be in the area of 1-2 thousand, compared to the 100K of the army's Raven UAV. With only a little development these technologies could transform how the american army fights, allowing units to be more flexible dynamic and light on their feet.
In a completely nonmilitary direction imagine how combining these technologies with an iPhone could revolutionize trivial day-to-day things like food delivery, if your house was within the radius of the flight distance a food service worker would hook the fast food bag onto the Quad/Hexa-copters hook and just like all the incorporated fast food chains have managed orders the copter would already have the destination queued up. The worker would press a button and off the copter would go with the food, (staying low enough as to not breach the FAA rules about airspace). On arrival an iPhone would begin a video call back to the restaurant to execute the payment transaction and check to ensure everything is in order.
(realizing now this may have been partly inspired because it's lunch time)
No comments:
Post a Comment