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Ryan Calo: Ten Myths About Drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles ("UAVs"), often called "drones," are coming to American skies. In February, President Obama signed a law that requires the Federal Aviation Administration to pave the way for public agencies and, eventually, private companies, to fly drones within the United States. The proliferation of domestic drones has been preceded by a proliferation of news stories about the technology -- and of some misconceptions regarding what drones are, and how they might be used.
Wikileaks
An aerial surveillance drone. Photograph: John Giles/PA Companies seeking to enable the routine use of surveillance drones across Britain are planning a long-term public relations effort to counter the negative image of the controversial aircraft.
Surveillance drone industry plans PR effort to counter negative image | UK news
Domestic use of drones
Over half of Air Force UPT (undergraduate pilot training) grads are now assigned to pilot drones rather than a real aircraft.* The big question is why are drone pilots, guys that fly robots remotely from a computer terminal, going to a very expensive year of pilot training? I can understand why the Air Force has chosen to send drone jockeys to pilot training: A shift to piloting drones rather than real aircraft is an assault on organizational culture of the Air Force. In the Air Force, pilots do the fighting and as a result take most of the leadership positions. A transition to robotics upends that arrangement, and is why the USAF has strenuously resisted taking control of the drone mission until recently.
The Future of Drone Warfare
The Drone Threat to National Security
Technology :: Features :: November 11, 2011 :: :: Email :: Print Continued advances in unmanned aerial vehicle technology have profound implications regarding the nature of modern warfare By John Villasenor WASP III drone Image: Courtesy AeroVironment, Inc.Technology :: Features :: November 14, 2011 :: :: Email :: Print In a world in which nearly anyone can purchase a device capable of photographing locations behind walls, gates and fences, will anyone be able to keep a secret? By John Villasenor Strike VTOL Image: Courtesy AeroVironment, Inc.
The Drone Threat to Privacy
Teal Group Predicts Worldwide UAV Market Will Total Just Over $94 Billion
Details Published on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 08:38 Written by Tim Storey BERLIN, Germany, May 28, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Teal Group Corp. announced today at the ILA Berlin Air Show 2008 its revised figures for the Worldwide Mission Model survey of future space payloads. The study encompasses 1,981 payloads proposed through 2008-2027.Everyone has either heard or uttered the old cliche, “I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during that conversation.” The United States Air Force has taken that statement to heart, and has been working on miniature remote controlled drones that resemble a flying insect. With the ability to capture audio and images, this new drone could be the ultimate in spy technology. Military and civilian scientists at the Air Force Research Laboratory came up with the concept while researching how to create unique winged drones that resemble nature’s creations.
Air Force creates fly-sized drones
Ultimate Mashup: NASA's Predator UAV and Google Earth Join Forces to Fight Fires in California - Telstar Logistics
NASA's Ikhana UAV hard at work over the Lake Arrowhead blaze, with a thermal imaging pod under the wing. ( NASA Photo by Jim Ross) Telstar Logistics has written quite a bit about Tanker 910, the DC-10 water bomber that has become an essential firefighting tool in California this week. But Tanker 910 isn't the only advanced aircraft helping to battle the blaze; to generate the advanced data firefighters need to identify critical fire hotspots, NASA has also been flying a version of the General Atomics Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the smoke-filled skies above Southern California.
Little is known about the actual abilities of the WJ-600 drone or the more than two dozen other Chinese models that were on display at Zhuhai in November. But the speed at which they have been developed highlights how U.S. military successes with drones have changed strategic thinking worldwide and spurred a global rush for unmanned aircraft. More than 50 countries have purchased surveillance drones, and many have started in-country development programs for armed versions because no nation is exporting weaponized drones beyond a handful of sales between the United States and its closest allies. “This is the direction all aviation is going,” said Kenneth Anderson, a professor of law at American University who studies the legal questions surrounding the use of drones in warfare. “Everybody will wind up using this technology because it’s going to become the standard for many, many applications of what are now manned aircraft.”
Global race on to match U.S. drone capabilities
<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-58396" title="progeny_1" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2011/09/progeny_1-660x318.jpg" alt="" width="660" height="318" /> Perhaps the idea of spy drones already makes your nervous. Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the notion of an unblinking, robotic eye in the sky that can watch your every move. If so, you may want to click away now.
Army Tracking Plan: Drones That Never Forget a Face | Danger Room
$230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below
July 29, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. “Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”Those drifting moon jellyfish at the aquarium may not seem like they have much purpose in life, but one group of researchers has been looking to make a jelly-inspired underwater robot that could go on search- and-rescue missions and survey for the military. Now the team, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, has created a silicon Robojelly that uses hydrogen and oxygen for fuel as it swims, so its only "exhaust" is heat and water. They published their findings March 20 in the journal Smart Materials and Structures. Robojelly's muscles are made of a shape-memory alloy , a metal invented by NASA that "remembers" its original shape.
The Military Is About To Start Using Robotic Jellyfish For 'Surveying'
Personal recreation drones being developed
By Daily Mail Reporter UPDATED: 13:13 GMT, 8 November 2010 They could put your mind at ease - or do very much the opposite. A new arms race is on and it could change everything from the way we parent to how we get our celebrity gossip. For the technology currently being used by the CIA to ferret out terrorist leaders in the hills of Pakistan is set to arrive in a neighbourhood near you - and there's nowhere to hide. Coming to a sky near you? A remote CCTV camera drone circles in the sky during a political rally in Britain last year.Garage-built DIY drone plane can cause serious damage worldwide By Erick Hansen LAS VEGAS (Hollywood Today) 8/10/11 – Hackers have built a DIY flying drone that can launch remote attacks which astounded attendees at the Black Hat/Defcon meet here. The hackers built their drone for about $6,000, while the CIA coughs up about S4.5 million each for their Predator drones. Though it doesn’t fire a pair of Hellfire missiles like the CIA models, the hacker drone has some serious teeth. Hackers could use them to to intercept all wifi traffic and steal credit card numbers, fly above corporations to steal intellectual property and other data from a network, as well as launch denial-of-service or man-in-the-middle attacks.