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+--- Thread: Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane (/showthread.php?tid=3965)
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Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - Oxbeast - 7th June 2011
http://www.korecgroup.com/measured-solutions/gis-data-collection/digital-cameras-with-gps/sensefly-swinglet-cam.php
As far as kite/balloon/aircraft reconnaissance gizmos go, this has to be one of the best looking, and also looks incredibly easy to use. I couldn't find out what kind of range it has, but for that price ( ?7,182.52 by my reckoning), you wouldn't really want to let it out of your sight. It could be really useful if you had a large site/smallish landscape to photograph, as it produces a georeferenced mosaic.
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - P Prentice - 9th June 2011
i want one - anyone fancy chipping in?
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - archaeologistkarl - 9th June 2011
Look quite impressive just a few thoughts, you would allways need to have quite a competent model airplane controller has the light weight body of the plane means when "and definitely when" you loss GPS signal it will quickly crash has the single wing will be unstable without the computer or person correcting for the wind and so on. Also it seems very good at landing on a green lawn freshly cut don't think it would enjoy ploughed fields or scrub too much or the general abuse model planes take on landing, go on the web and look for training airplane models their built to be stable and to take landing abuse theirs a lot of difference.
If you where looking into a system like this the real time georefereced mosaic look very useful, and the electronic hardware looks quite good however I would do wonder if the plane itself would last more then 2 to 3 years of commercial use never mind if you did crash it the electronic are very exposed and even if the plane can be replaced cheaply the electronic would be eye watering. If i was paying out that much I would expect something on the order like the British Army Desert Hawk which is the same size but a lot sturdier construction.
Though it look like a quite valuable tool system in principle wish I work at a place where an idea like this could be taken further image the micro-air photos you could get for landscape projects, open area excavations, if used at the right time of year "thinking about harvest season when geophysics is quite common" soil marks; Look at the companies making money form a landrover a pole and a digi camra!
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - Dinosaur - 9th June 2011
My boss said no without even considering it :face-crying:
...mind you, you could buy a second-hand microlight for less than that, with enough left over for a GPS and a really good camera!
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - kevin wooldridge - 10th June 2011
I am guessing however that the quoted price does not take into account the cost of the camera equipment...As a comparison the six rotor Draganflyer X6 helicopter costs around ?1500 for the flying bits but adds up to nearly ?14,000 when you add the camera equipment
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - Sith - 10th June 2011
There might be a few of these going cheap.
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - Dinosaur - 11th June 2011
kevin wooldridge Wrote:I am guessing however that the quoted price does not take into account the cost of the camera equipment...As a comparison the six rotor Draganflyer X6 helicopter costs around ?1500 for the flying bits but adds up to nearly ?14,000 when you add the camera equipment
A ?200 14meg pocket camera set on continuous shooting seems to work fine dangling off a kite, at least for site work (and its a big site) - with a big memory card runs for half an hour on 2-second gaps although wading through all the resulting piccies is a bit tedious - suppose it depends on whether you actually want to check what people are writing on their context sheets by looking over their shoulder from 500 feet?...and a lot cheaper when it all goes t**s....presumably you could do the same off a thing with a propeller(s)? The main interest in propellor things is increasing the likelihood that the camera's occasionally pointing in the right direction (although some of the random mistakes have been really interesting)
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - kevin wooldridge - 11th June 2011
The helicopter powered model I saw was able to hover and was linked to a PC so you could see on screen what the camera could see. It was also possible to adjusts both the camera focus and zoom so just about perfect pictures everytime. The only problem was the amount of time the helicopter couild be airborne before the batteries gave out and had to be recharged or changed - c 10 mins
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - Filter - 12th June 2011
If you have a few spare tens of thousands floating about
this one is the sex! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqtkUVRhziA
http://www.gatewing.com/gatewingX100
Flying Swiss robot reconnaissance plane - BAJR - 12th June 2011
Of course there is also the low level aerial of Aerial Cam..
http://www.theimagefile.com/web/aerial-cam/portfolio.html
A lot more control of the image. as the photogapher has time to alter image location, position, focus, F stops etc. and from a stable platform, so has more play with shutter speed. Aerial platforms need fast shutter speed and good vibration control.
That said I work with Flying Scot and John MCreadie in a Rampart Scotland Project. WE are looking at using fast flyover to process 3D Data Terrain Models with photographic overlay. mmmmm nice.
At the end of the day, you pay for what you get.
I Liked this one for a fast a cheap method of site overview... (when I said cheap I mean it... 300 quid
:face-approve:! - [video=youtube;V3KrFV0-WFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3KrFV0-WFw[/video]
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3KrFV0-WFw"]
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