G+_Johnathan Turner (Refra Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Random thought time. Is the technology there for an automated multirotor that can take off, fly a preprogrammed path and then land on a landing pad that recharges the drone through induction technology? I'm picturing a drone that takes off at the same time every day, records a moving shot and lands to recharge for the next day. It would be really cool to compile the footage and watch the seasons change, document construction and all kinds of other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Better make it land on a circle covered by a retractable dome so you don't end up with a snowed in drone or one that's been rained on. Of course if you're doing this in a place where there is no snow or rain then what's the point of the timelapse, it's going to be boring anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Johnathan Turner (Refra Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Good idea. This is more of a thought experiement than a planned project, but some sort of weatherproofing would be required. I guess there would also need to be some sort of weather station to prevent it from taking off in a bad storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I'm a programmer by day - we live for thought experiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 BTW, my own personal version of this thought experiment was a drone that would take off every day like you mentioned and go take a picture of the traffic near my house where some construction was going on, then return to base. Construction ended a few years ago and there were probably all sorts of reasons the idea was illegal anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 The technology absolutely exists. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 You just have to order it without the "blow them to bits" option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 only thing I haven't seen is the charging part in play for quads (but the roomba vacuum cleaners do this). Now for the landing, i wouldn't rely on the gps to be accurate enough to hit the spot. Id use a laser diode as a homing beacon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I can't remember what the patterns are called at the moment (not QR codes), but there are B&W patterns used in augmented reality applications where a camera can see the pattern and figure out both position and orientation. There are libraries available to use these. Paint the landing pad with one of them, and put the camera on the bottom of the quad and onboard processing to land on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Michael Heinz Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 So, the one thing that occurs to me is that you will need something more precise than GPS - possibly optical targeting. GPS will get you into the right neighborhood but if your drone lands next to the charging pad, or only half-on/half-off, it's not going to recharge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Wayne Black Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Sonar sensors and cameras for determining distance from the ground when landing. DJI Inspire (Vision Positioning System). Possibly infrared lights and sensors on the landing pad for accuracy. (Couldn't the Helipad be programmed to land the UAV automatically when it was 3 meters or so away using wifi?) A tractor beam that would... No, hasn't been invented yet. :-( A robot arm that could reach up and grab the UAV when it was close? Induction coils in the landing strut/pads for charging. It's entirely possible! Get busy people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Possibly could use the RF/EMI generated by the induction coil to guide it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Michael Heinz Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 That's a very interesting idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 My thought would be a combination of all of the above. If I remember correctly the Navy was working on something similar to this, only without the recharging. I think the landing pad would have to be contoured to seat the drone correctly because of ground wash, or make it mesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Travis Hershberger Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ already did a segment (sorry, forget what show or when) about a company that did an add on board for aircraft (fixed wing, helecopter, or multi-rotor) that you can easily program routes into. Seriously, all you'd have to do is get a charging circuit hooked up. Wouldn't be that hard to make a janky sort of setup. A good one would be a lot of fiddly engineering work. Either way it's just figuring out a way to make a connection to the charging controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Travis Hershberger NVDrones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Black Merc Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Build Snoopy's doghouse with a retracting roof. Infrared beacons to get in the yard. Belly cam to fix on LZ and land. WiFi to aid navigation and d/l data to server. Come on, some one do this already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Prior Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Instead of worrying about the drone landing in the perfect spot to be charged, you could have the drone land as close as possible to a landing pad target, and have a small tethered ground vehicle identify the right spot on the drone and move to hook up with it. That same type of optical pattern I mentioned before as a target with a relatively weak magnetic holder. That keeps more of the support intelligence in the ground station where it won't as weight to the drone and still be adaptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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