A friend came to stay at the Homestead. He is technically accomplished, computer and internet savvy, and a seeker of future trends. He brought his latest purchase, a drone. A year or two ago, I have railed about America’s immoral and reckless use of drones in the middle east as online comments on such publications as Huffington Post. I had warned that the US had a monopoly on this high-tech stuff as of now, but it would soon be freely available at a corner store near you, and they were setting dangerous parameters for their use. What I didn’t anticipate was how fast the future is rushing at us.
In a suitcase my friend had a four rotor helicopter drone capable of 25 minute flights to 300m and horizontal speed about 30 kms/hr. It carried a steerable camera fully controllable from the console and displaying real-time video. The steerage is a remarkable combination of GPS, inertial guidance and console joysticks. The inertial guidance stabilises the platform in wind gusts by interactively altering to the power to each rotor. The GPS corrects for slide and will return the drone to its take-off point if telemetry is lost. The console is your input to tell it where to go and what to look at. If you drop the console and go for smoko, it will hover on station.
Homestead from drone
This is the Homestead, my rambling mansion with solar panels, internet satellite and chimneys on the roof. A curious collection of technologies, old and new. At its original size, you can see my male duck between the house and the vehicle under the tree.
At 50m altitude, you can see it and hear it buzzing like an swarm of bees. At 150m you cannot see or hear it. It is magnificent technology, but leaves me uneasy about privacy issues. At Possum Valley, I am used to and value my privacy.
At this time, I don’t think there are any restrictions on the use of drones apart from already restricted airspace, eg around airports. As usual, government and legislature are more than a decade off the pace.
The owner of this mini-marvel didn’t get it to cruise the suburbs in the hope of nude sunbathers, but intends to use it to inspect transmission towers for signs of corrosion and decay. Instead of attempting to climb a 200m tower, send up the drone to carefully inspect and photograph any defects. There are many legitimate uses for this brilliant device for any kind of ariel view or inspection. Even farmers could use it to highlight areas of good and poor growth.
You need an i-phone plus about $1400 to see the world as birds do.
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