blandy Posted January 5, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 5, 2017 The Amazon trials of deliveries have been put on the internets (links to vid) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V01 Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 They expect us to walk to the end of our garden to pick the package up, seriously?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 3 hours ago, blandy said: The Amazon trials of deliveries have been put on the internets (links to vid) Is that the first step towards something happening that you said would never happen?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 On 06/01/2015 at 18:25, blandy said: On 06/01/2015 at 13:48, Risso said: You really can start to see how Amazon's plans to deliver by drone aren't as far fetched as you might think. I can send my drone around our garden and beyond, missing all objects in the way like trees and walls simply by plotting points on a map on my mobile phone. "Technically feasible" versus "legally, reliably, verifiably safely achievable" are so far apart as to make their "plans" very "far fetched". (IMO). Almost exactly two years to the day in fact!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 5, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Risso said: Almost exactly two years to the day in fact!! It's the first step. One of my mates is working on it. He pointed out the video. I'm still sceptical that they'll get permission to actually do it in the real world, in the UK, as opposed to a demo under carefully controlled conditions. I still think what I said back then, but perhaps with slightly less certainty, to be fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarjei Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 On 4.1.2017 at 11:07, maqroll said: I'm looking at a Phantom 3 right now. Think I might buy one. It seems like fun, and if there's a few shekels to be made in a year from now, all the better. Real Estate companies are a massive opportunity for drone operators here in the US. How is everything working out for you? I haven't used it in a while. There's a few reasons for it. The laws have gotten a bit discouraging here... I have to leave town (due to the airport) and stay 150m away from roads and buildings to be able to use it. The license for commercial use cost a bit to get and requires insurance (all in all about £300). A long operation manual need to be written and logs must be kept. As for the drone itself there was a firmware update a good while back which (arguably) caused a lot of 'older' models' gimbal to vibrate when hovering. It's very visible when looking straight at it, but only slightly noticeable on video when hovering. In addition no matter how many times I run it through calibrations I can't get the horizon to stay level on a consistent basis. Short sequences are fixable in post since I record 4k and only use 1080p, but it's a bit annoying and long sequences are unusable due to the horizon tipping from one side to the other over time. I've had it tip over in take off a couple of times so there are some marks and bruises on it so I think sending it in would be a loss for me as they would just blame crashes. Maybe it's my fault.. I don't really know for sure. I got to go on a all expenses covered 3 1/2 week trip to Bahamas as part of a documentary project using it though, so in that sense it was worth it for me If you can get a good deal, sure. If it's just for fun. I had a great time using it at first and experimenting with technques. It's a safe option to go for and a good place to start. Camera quality is below average on today's standard though. These things become obsolete quickly. I wouldn't mind something better, but the Phantom is perfect size and weight that you can bring it everywhere with ease. So I think maybe in a year or two I'll get another one and try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 I went for a walk along the coast on the weekend. Well away from car parks and tourist spots. I can't say the experience was massively enhanced by the constant whiney buzz of christmas present drones getting their HD quality pictures of cliffs and pebbles to stick on twitter. Really hope we are in the realm of a fad here. Total noise pollution on the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 23, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 23, 2017 On 05/01/2017 at 20:06, Risso said: Is that the first step towards something happening that you said would never happen?! A bit more from someone else Quote You may have gasped with disbelief the first time you saw a photograph of a drone home-delivering a box from Amazon or cakes from a bakery or carrying a bag of crisps. Until recently, this was the stuff of science fiction. Your initial reaction was probably: “Amazing … but will it ever take off?” Drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles, as we once called them – have now become capable of lifting and delivering on the back of continued research and technological ingenuity. Amazon has recently been trialling drones in Australia and the UK, but don’t get too excited: this is likely to be an exception rather than a norm. The practical reality of using drones in cities remains far away and is getting ever more distant. There are already too many potential problems to let drones fly with sufficiently loose restrictions in cities to make a delivery business viable. One major issue is drones interfering with aircraft, thanks to surging numbers of near-misses. Drones are also increasingly being used to fly drugs and other contraband into prisons. In the US, there have been fears about camera-equipped drones stalking celebrities for paparazzi. There have also been stories about invasive drone surveillance, both on behalf of the state and private individuals. Drone law The biggest backlog of legal cases in the US is reportedly drone claims over issues including safety, noise, damage, personal intrusion and privacy. The whole area is a growing business for lawyers, with drone law journals springing up and fierce debates over whether, for example, drones fall within the definition of aircraft for legal purposes. New US flight rules introduced last August did lead some optimists to predict a new business opportunity that could create 100,000 new jobs, but the reality is that the whole sector is in a mess. The US Federal Aviation Authority has explicitly said drone deliveries are off limits, at least pending further research into their consequences. At the same time, technologies are emerging that are designed to down drones. Your initial reaction might be that these will never work either, but I’m not so sure. A great recent British engineering invention is the SkyWall100. It looks like a bazooka gun and uses laser-guided targeting to fire a ball. This opens into a net that engulfs the drone and brings it to earth under a parachute. It went on sale late last year and is retailing at between £50,000 and £65,000 depending on the size of the order. So far, it has attracted a promising level of interest. The SkyWall100 is safer and less messy than shooting down drones with bullets, yet it opens up a cavern of legal ambiguities. In the UK, for example, it’s classed as a firearm so can only be owned by someone with the appropriate licence – restricting them mainly to the police or military. The US has looser firearm restrictions, of course, but firearms still generally can’t be discharged within city limits. However, the SkyWall100 is not classified as a firearm in the US, so it can be discharged anywhere. Among other techniques for taking out drones, one is the Battelle DroneDefender, which is a large gun that fires a “cone of energy” at a device that disrupts GPS systems. So far, these are only in use by the military and not permitted for public sale. Going down … If the likes of the SkyWall100 are going to let people prevent drones from moving over their private property to avoid their nuisance, noise and frankly hazard of failure, a new sport of “drone downing” could easily become extremely popular in the coming years – at least in America. Drone-downing raises the alluring prospect of capturing free booty if it strays illegally into your property. So what constitutes illegal? While I stress I am no lawyer, the US rules for protecting your drone from such potshots would appear to be as follows. It must weigh less than 25kg and can’t be out of your line of sight or higher than 400ft in the air. It can only be flown in daylight, and at dawn and dusk it needs special lights to make it visible. It also can’t be flown over groups of people or near stadiums or airports. Mission: impossible? Alex Kee In the UK, the rules are similar, but with slightly tougher weight restrictions and additional requirements – it must be at least 150 metres from a building and 50 metres from a person or vehicle. If I was planning to build a shopping or pizza delivery business based on using drones that delivered to homes in cities, restrictions like these would make me more than a little jittery. Put all this together and it’s virtually impossible to see drone deliveries becoming viable in cities. It might be a different story in remote locations where special deliveries may be deemed acceptable and welcomed, but otherwise I’m afraid this is one vision of the future that has no chance of coming to pass. It is an example of a clearly brilliant concept that is colliding badly with human nature and reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) It's a good start, but it left his parcel on the grass about 20 metres from his house. Put a little hook on it to lift up wheelie bin lids, and they can properly recreate the Yodel experience. Edited January 23, 2017 by Davkaus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakotaDakota Posted August 23, 2018 Share Posted August 23, 2018 Rather impressive alternative use of drones, 777 of them to be exact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 How many angles of that footage exist? I'm always tempted to call CGI on stuff of this scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Drone registration made compulsory as UK scheme launches Quote Drone users in the UK must now sit an online test and pay a £9 annual fee or face a £1,000 fine after the launch of a mandatory national registration scheme on Tuesday. Owners are obliged to identify and label all drones by 30 November, and operators must pass a test about legal and safe usage before they can fly them. The Civil Aviation Authority estimates that about 130,000 people will have to pay and register by the end of the month. ... more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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