"Drone", why do you want to call a drone?

Drone, drone, why are you calling a drone?

Some people say: Dajiang, zero degree aerial cameras are not drones, just a model aircraft, just a four-axis aircraft . It has also been said that only the kind of drone that the US military flies and blows up is the drone, and the rest are just toys.

Consumer-grade aerial camera, whether it is qualified to be a "unmanned aerial vehicle", has been arguing with model friends and technology players.

"You, don't be such a figure, Tucson is broken. If you don't agree with the words, you will be promoted to a black-level technology on the tall." But even if you say a broken mouth, many white users still always say:

Boss, please give me a drone for aerial photography!

Official definition of drone

However, an aerial camera like Dajiang is really a "unmanned aerial vehicle." Do not spit. This is not what I said, but the American FAA said.

The so-called "UAV", under the official name of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), that is, unmanned aerial vehicle, or no Human aircraft system.

DJI Phantom 4 Sport Mode

According to the FAA's just-introduced Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the definition of Unmanned Aircraft is:

An aircraft that does not require humans to intervene directly from inside... such operations include modern aircraft, tied balloons, kites , industry-class rockets, and unmanned and free balloons.

To put it simply, in the eyes of the American FAA, whether you are a big plane, a small plane, or even a small balloon, you are eligible to become a drone on a taller one—as long as it does not require direct intervention.

So, you should never be caught after flying a small plane near the White House, and then argue: "You are a fool! This is a remote control aircraft , not a drone!"

Maybe you still think: "Which aerial camera has the ability to fly autonomously? Do you not use a remote control to fly?" However, in the FAA's many documents, the Dhan Phantom series of aerial cameras are still clearly written. It is a "unmanned aerial vehicle" (above), everyone still wash and sleep.

The past and present of the drone

Why is the FAA so dead-hearted, is it to use the aircraft model of the aerial camera as a drone on the tall? If we look back at the history of drones, there will be an amazing discovery:

The drone is simply a remote control aircraft.

As we all know, drones were originally derived from the military technology of the First and Second World Wars. Initially, because the electronic technology was not perfect, the drone could not perform too complicated tasks, and only used the target machine for practice. However, after the Second World War, the United States began to use a large number of drones as reconnaissance planes, avoiding the difficulty of air combat at a very high speed.

Later, with the continuous development of electronic technology, the Middle East war that the United States participated in at the beginning of the 21st century began to make a large number of drones perform attack missions. For example, the Raptor in the picture below is the military drone that the US military is currently the main force.

Predator (Raptor)

It’s a nap, why is the military playing a small plane?

The biggest reason is that the military wants to allow "humans" to enter the battlefield directly, reduce the air force's casualty rate, and also allow the controller to carry out extremely dangerous tasks more calmly. Therefore, the military needs remote remote control drones to enter the battlefield.

But so far, the UAVs that are used in large numbers in the United States still need to have real Air Force pilot operations when performing missions. The biggest difference is that they don't need to be on the battlefield. Therefore, the original drone is a remote control aircraft, and it is not thought. The pilot who performed the drone attack mission said that he was interviewed by the Guardian:

It is largely like playing computer games.

Of course, a remote-controlled aircraft is not equal to a remote-controlled model aircraft; but even a military drone is much more like a toy.

When the drone is no longer a remote control aircraft?

With the continuous advancement of electronic technology, the future of "remote-controlled aircraft" military drones has begun to be replaced by new automated drones.

Taking the British BAE Systems Taranis as an example, it has added a fully automatic mode. As long as the task is pre-set, the drone does not require human remote control for most of the time, automatic lifting, automatic navigation. , conducting reconnaissance missions. Yes, it is like the automatic flight plan of today's aerial camera "Way Point", "Flight Plan".

The latest military drone development plan has entered the "neuron" generation, the "neuron" drone (nEUROn) concept (below), pushing the "unmanned" word of the drone to a higher level. The peak. It is a kind of independent flight mission through artificial intelligence without any human command, and it can self-correct in a complex flight environment.

"Neuron" drone (nEUROn)

Everyone should think that the design of the "neuron" drone is a bit like the self-stabilizing system of the aerial camera and the automatic obstacle avoidance system. It can stabilize the fuselage and obstacles in the strong wind or when encountering obstacles. It is also a bit like no. The man-machine's Return to home (RTH) system automatically returns to the takeoff point when the system detects a wireless signal interruption or a low battery. And these features are even like the driverless cars that Google or Tesla are pushing today.

Although these new generations of drones are still conceptual, their core technology is "automation."

But why do we think that the aerial camera is a model airplane and a toy? Because we still have to operate with a remote control. Therefore, in many people's minds, aerial cameras are not "unmanned aerial vehicles." But in fact, the current military drones are not as "automated" as we imagined.

Robot wearing a hangar coat

Although the aerial camera still has a remote control, this does not mean that the automation technology has nothing to do with the aerial camera.

In fact, the general RC mode is very easy to get out of control when it loses the remote control. At least it is not stable under the intervention of external forces. However, the modern aerial camera can fly even without a remote control. The following picture shows the flight performance of the Parrot drone. Is this more than 10 people operating with the remote control?

In fact, the remote control of the aerial camera is not actually a "remote control". The remote control is not used for operation, but is used to accurately command the instructions - because behind the remote control, the aerial camera is always operating.

Of course, the aerial camera is not 100% unmanned, but is somewhat automated; it is more like the driver-assistance technologies that Carman has previously mentioned, rather than “unmanned” ( Auto nomous Driving. The aerial camera will return to the same point even under strong wind or by people. This picture from You Media (below), what do you think?

Ai Faner has reported on the black technology mechanical dog supported by DARPA (below). You should remember it.

Of course, the technical gold content of the two is a bit different: the mechanical dog needs to deal with more joint activities, and the algorithm is more complicated; but although the technical level is different, the two are actually the same concept: their core technology is “automation”. "The robot. in other words:

The robot adds four legs, which is a mechanical dog;

The robot adds a wheel, which is the balance car;

The robot adds a model airplane, which is a drone;

The robot adds a car, which is a driverless car.

The drone is Drone

It is true that although the official English name of the drone is Unmanned Aircraft, the term is rarely used in the scientific community, and more is called the “Drone”.

Drone, before the popularity of the aerial camera, we called him a "mechanic." In the last paragraph of the Marvel movie "Iro nman 2", the robotic corps (above) that fought against Iron Man was named Hammer Drones. The drone is called the Drone because it is a robot in its bones.

In the United States, "Robot Business Review" (Robotics Business Review) robot named Global Top 50 companies (RBR50), ranked first Dajiang is the biggest rival in the United States of 3D Robotics (figure below), and as a Dajiang The drone company, which is also among the American robot companies, stands at the top of the list of 17.

So today, the Drone has become another alias for drones.

And many drones, aerial camera teams, and robots have various origins.

For example Dajiang Wang Tao, founder, when he was studying at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the study is not a radio or spacecraft dynamics, but under the tutelage of Professor Weilizexiang human rights machinery, mechanical people learning technologies; and, in recent years, Dajiang sponsored students Robot Contest (RoboMasters), it is not difficult to imagine also want to dig out some potential robotic talents. In addition, last year, Rapoo, which invested in Beijing's zero-degree intelligence control and entered the aerial camera and self-timer, is also developing robots.

Because of the "mechanical" characteristics behind the drone, the drone can have more functions that the model can't do. For example, the recently added "computer vision" can make the drone perform a lot of intelligent operations. Examples of automatic obstacle avoidance, visual tracking, gesture recognition, and more.

Crystallization of aircraft model and robot

In short, the aerial camera is not a model airplane, or it should be said that the aerial camera is “not just a model airplane” but a crystallization of a model airplane and a robot.

With the HM technology, robots can fly into the sky;

With robotic technology, the HM can make a lot of new features beyond our imagination.

Or, you will still insist that things like aerial cameras are just toys, and still look down on it. But don't forget that someone used to ridicule the iPhone 4 in the past:

NASA used this level of computing power to shoot the astronauts on the moon, while the iPhone 4 used more computing power to launch angry birds to the green pigs.

Technology is changing with each passing day, even if it is a toy, the technological content inside may be far beyond our imagination.