Tag Archives: Drone

The Ogre-Faced spider of drones

Ogre-faced spider

As many of you know, I considered going to grad school for biology, specifically because I wanted to investigate the cognitive capabilities of spiders. I believed there were certain species of spider that had the genuine ability to think and plan out strategy, and although I decided to pursue another path, I would also like to note that I have since been proven right. I knew it all along. Not all of them have the ability to think, of course, in fact I frequently use the example of a black widow and her behavior to illustrate concepts in artificial intelligence, specifically to define what is and isn’t intelligence.

So if you take a look at the lovely lady in the header image, you’ll see a spider that is unique in many ways, not the least of which is that it has two different and distinct colloquial names – one based on her appearance, and one based on her behavior. That’s unusual in the insect kingdom (which isn’t really a kingdom in the biological sense, but you know what I mean). Her first name is the ogre-faced spider, for reasons I think are pretty obvious. Her other name, however, is the one we’re concerned with and it describes not just her behavior but what I believe is at least a low-level ability to cognate: the net-casting spider.

Net-casting spider in action

Net-casting spider in action

That’s right! This spider makes a net, waits for some unsuspecting bug to mosey underneath, then not only traps the bug in the net, but will expand the net to fit the bug if necessary, or in some cases allow the bug to pass if she feels it will put up too much of a fight. And people say spiders can’t think. Or maybe they don’t say that, but if they do, they shouldn’t.

So why all the talk of spiders that can do the thinky thinky? Well, besides the fact that I use spider cognition – insomuch as it is – to explain artificial intelligence concepts, the netcasting spider is also the first thing I thought of when I saw this post over at Engadget: It turns out students at Michigan Tech are developing a drone that, just like the netcasting spider, can throw out a net to catch other drones in midair! How badass is that? Here’s the gif, borrowed from Engadget’s post:

Dronecatcher

Dronecatcher

The designers call it ‘Robotic Falconry,’ which makes perfect sense if you’ve ever seen a falcon hunt; they often pluck their prey, if it’s a bird, out of midair. The rogue drone, as it were, is similarly plucked right out of the air via net and hauled away, helpless, to someplace for…well, I’ll say tea and cake, but more likely disassembly.

I like this idea. It seems a less-lethal way of dealing with a rogue drone. If you think that perhaps this is addressing an issue that isn’t a real problem, you might want to read this post from Ars Technica. We don’t want to see anyone get hurt, and this guy was ready to do it. There’s a fascinating follow-up to that whole thing as well that could set law and policy about drones and would necessarily be very wide-ranging, covering ownership, privacy, property, and how all these things interact and overlap where drones are concerned. Additionally, as Engadget’s post also points out, Japan is testing a net-casting drone because shooting them down could be harmful if they are loaded with a dangerous substance, a problem they’ve already had to deal with.

This could all be focused into something productive, though. What we REALLY need is some kind of gladiatorial drone-combat sport thing – that would be fun to watch. Just like the BattleBots competitions they have, drone wars could become a real thing. A real, exciting thing. Drones with nets, drones with lasers, drones that shoot flames and crash into each other. I’d watch that.

No Amazon drone flights for now

Last semester, I made a post about Amazon’s intention to start testing the use of drones for the purpose of making deliveries. That’s right, they wanted to have a drone, with your box attached to the bottom, fly to your house, land, drop off the box, then fly back to wherever it originated.

However, Amazon isn’t the only one interested in drones; they’re really popular. So popular, they have caused problems for commercial jets, landed on the White House lawn, and you can even take an aerial tour of various places in the world thanks to drones.

Drone that crashed on White House lawn

Drone that crashed on White House lawn

So popular have drones become that the FAA decided they had to develop some regulations regarding their commercial use, and it appears that because of this regulations Amazon’s dreams of drone delivery will be left out in the cold.

Happy holidays everyone, bask in some spectacular light shows!

Happy holidays to everyone, I will see you all early next year! In the meantime, here are some incredible holiday light shows that have been making the rounds. I’m saving what is clearly the best for last.

The first one which has everyone going crazy is the Star Wars-themed light show a music teacher in Newark, California set up on his house. Using 100,000 Christmas lights and some cool siren-looking things on his roof, he synced the whole thing to various tunes from Star Wars. If you’re interested, this is usually done using specialized hardware known as a controller that your lights plug in to, then you plug the controller into your PC and run specialized software that tells the controller what to do with the lights. That’s a lot of control! Some companies like Light-O-Rama sell the whole thing as a kit.

Anyway, back to the Star Wars thing. It’s good, but there’s a guitar and a keyboard, and a bunch of identical small light-tree-things in the yard, I don’t know…it seems to me that there should have been some Star Wars content in the light show itself. The music and the visuals just don’t come together for me, but everyone else seems to love it, so if you haven’t seen it, here you go:

Amazon is hiring flight engineers for its drone service

Amazon has been interested in making deliveries by drone for quite some time, but there are many questions that have to be answered. When the p[lan was first announced earlier this year, there were very valid question brought up about what would happen if you weren’t home, how would the drone know exactly where to land, what if someone shot at the drone or tried to steal it?

We’re not talking about drones like the military uses, either, the drones Amazon plans to use are more in-line with what hobbyists have been using lately to document great views all over the world so the questions become more pertinent.

Now, there may be the beginnings of an answer. Amazon recently posted a job announcement for a Flight Operations Engineer for their Prime Air service. The role involves developing the test plans, flight paths, certifications, and test flights for an eventual rollout of a full-fledged drone-delivery service, and of course aviation experience is required.

A site for drone Photography.

Not too long ago I made posts about taking a drone tour of the world and a drone filming fireworks from the firework’s point of view, so a site for drone photographs and video makes perfect sense. And it’s called just what you’d expect: Dronestagram.

The photos are very impressive: The image you see above of the eagle in flight – taken in Indonesia – is the first place winner in a recent contest they had for best picture taken with a drone. But many of the posted pictures are quite remarkable. It’s an interesting perspective that we don’t always get to see, a midpoint between pictures taken from planes or satellites and pictures on the ground or rooftops. I think it would be quite nice if this became a new style and method of photography, and for all the bad press drones get this is a positive side of the technology. I’ve included a few images below to give an idea, but there are many, many spectacular photos on the site.

Chatfield State Park, Denver, Colorado

Chatfield State Park, Denver, Colorado

Corpus Christie, Texas

Corpus Christie, Texas

Verniette, France

Verniette, France

Quiltoa Lake, Ecuador

Quiltoa Lake, Ecuador

Roxborough, Colorado

Roxborough, Colorado

Nozzano, Lucca. Tuscany, Italy

Nozzano, Lucca. Tuscany, Italy

Now this is how you record fireworks!

This was surprisingly incredible. A hobbyist used a remote-controlled drone – the only kind of drone, really – to film fireworks displays from above and within. I’m not normally a fan of music behind videos, but in this case it really adds to the visuals. Plus, if you ever heard what a drone sounds like, you neeeed music.

I also should make a clarification about drones: We often think of them only in terms of their military applications, especially here in Nevada since almost all military drones around the globe are piloted from right outside Nellis Air Force Base. However there is a vast community of private drone pilots who use them for all kinds of fun stuff, this video being just one example. Here you can read about someone crashing a quadcopter, there’s another site for people who want to try building their own, and on this page you can tour locations all over the world through the use of drone-filmed footage. You can even buy them on Amazon, who wants to deliver your drones using drones in the drone future.

Anyway, on to the fireworks!