Robot Living

I’m not sure how old this video is.  One commenter states it is 2 years old.

That being said, it seems like the Houston police are using an Insitu ScanEagle to spy on it’s residents.

The news team from KPR2 in Houston followed the drone in a helicopter and was told by the police they were in a restricted area and to leave.  Several calls to the FCC and the FCC new nothing about that area being a restricted area.

I wonder if the FCC will make the Houston police file flight plans 60 days in advance as they are doing to buyers of the Tactical Information Craft drone?

The ScanEagle uses a 1.9 hp 2 stroke engine, has a wingspan of 10.2 feet and is 4.5 ft long.  The drone weighs 28.8 lbs without any extra gear and can add an extra 15 lbs of gear and still lift off.  It can also cruise at a speed of 48 knots and stay aloft over 24 hours.

Click through for some ScanEagle photos.

Link via (Boing Boing)
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The most recent UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) from Theiss Aviation is the TIC or Tactical Information Craft.

This company has been awarded several contracts already, including a contract from NASA and one from the Air Force Research Laboratories.

The new model TIC costs around $6,000 and can potentially be launched from the trunk of a car.  It contains chemical as well as biological sensors and could also be outfitted with a small color camera.  These vehicles are designed to fly in ventilation shafts,  tunnels, small quarters and even dense woods. Using a 72 MHz radio, the TIC has a range of 1.5 miles and  can be run in basic radio controlled mode, auto assist mode or completely autonomously.

Theiss Aviation is now seeking to sell these aircraft to police departments, search and rescue crews or other emergency personnel.

Unfortunately the FAA seeks to treat these tiny craft just like regular planes.

The owners of a TIC must  register the aircraft with the FAA  and give 60 days notice of flight plans to the FAA.

Link via (Fortune Small Business)

The Scarlet Knight is a UAV (Underwater Authonomous Vehicle) from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Last Friday it completed its underwater journey and landed in Spain.  Scarlet Knight was deployed on April 27th on the New Jersey shore and since then has traveled more than 4,600 miles to reach its final destination in Spain.  This marks the first successful underwater crossing of the Atlantic by a robot.

The robot gathered information on salt levels and ocean currents on its journey while being only powered by batteries and the current. The robot will now be displayed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington and a replica will be on display in Spain.

Congratulations to Rutgers University on a job well done!

See our previous post about the Scarlet Knight here.

Link via (Yahoo News)

Supposedly the border between the US and Mexico will soon be patrolled by the UAV  known as Predator B.

The UAV(Unmanned Airial Vehicle) is made by a company called General Atomics and the Predator B will be based in Florida to patrol the Gulf Of Mexico.  The Predator B has special sensors for detecting things in or around water and the main goal is to detect drug smuggling. A secondary goal is to catch human traffickers.

Customs and Border Protection will use a two person team to operate the UAV.  One will fly the plane and one will operate the sensors.

Check out the Predator B specs in this PDF file.

Click through for a video of the Predator B at an Air Force base in Grand Forks.

Link via (Boing Boing)
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The Sensorfly website describes it best:

The SensorFly is a novel low-cost controlled-mobile aerial sensor networking platform. A flock of these 29g autonomous helicopter nodes with communication, ranging and collaborative path determination capabilities, can be extremely useful in sensing survivors after disasters or adversaries in urban combat scenarios.

Link via (BotJunkie)