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| Science & Technology |
| Crashed drone in Somalia shows how the military hides its eyes in the sky |
| 2016-07-15 |
| [Verge] Drones flying over a war zone are nothing new, and as they've proliferated, there have been more efforts to make them harder to see from the ground. Don't neglect the short video, which contains Prioria Products Mavrik field demo, 360 degree gimble cam, cool sound track, and F-150. Case in point? A drone that was recently downed in Mogadishu, Somalia looks less like a drone and more like a large bird. Local reports associate this drone, which came down on May 1st, with Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). It's unclear exactly how it was downed, or if similar drones have been used in the country before. What’s most interesting about this particular drone are its wings: in addition to looking like a bird, the wings will flap, although it looks like it’s actually powered by two sets of propellers. A quick glance at it flying overhead likely won’t attract a lot of attention, which is exactly what you’d want for a surveillance robot. The US Army Special Operations Command has used a similar drone that can be fired out of a canon or deployed by hand. Like this drone discovered in Somalia, it has wings that can flap, making it appear like a regular bird flying overhead. As Atlas Obscura points out, there have been concerted efforts for companies to mimic bird behavior in drones both for appearance and for the obvious reason: physics. Birds, after all, are the experts at flying, and learning just how they fly is a good step in adapting their mechanical counterparts to accomplish the same tasks. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 I used to have an organic drone. Very tricky to use and had to use a mind meld GUI. Cheap to to operate tho. Fierce and Scary, but not overly affectionate. I could go for another one, except... Cats. Actually kept "the bird" in a Fort Lauderdale studio apt, corner of Oakland Park and 441, Lauderdale Lakes (ha) to be more accurate. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-07-15 05:44 |
| #2 Just to lighten up a dreadful day, some additional 'Mavrik' tunes. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-15 04:34 |
| #1 Makes a novel I wrote 10 years ago quite prescient. It featured a bird like surveillance drone. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-07-15 04:23 |