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Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

baesystems.com

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Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#51

Post by meheleventyone »

the__alchemist wrote: post #31

Two thought triggered by this article. 1: What alternative designs for quadcopter would be viable for small drones? Some lighter-than-air quality? I assume the complexity involved in making a helicopter collective would be too heavy. Is it really quadcopters all the way down? 2: Why not smaller? Would an even smaller drone be unfeasible due to battery weight and square/cube law issues? What's stopping us from gram-sc…

Once things get small wings and propellers get much less efficient. For really small drones people are looking for inspiration amongst insects so lots of flapping.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#52

Post by ceejayoz »

m1gu3l wrote: post #30
newen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hundreds of thousands of autonomous drone killbots the size of bats flying around do get my pulse up.

Why do this when you can gas a bunch of people or blow them up old school for way cheaper? Not sold

Harder to do at range.

I'm glad I'm not the Secret Service. A drone swarm has to be rapidly becoming one of their scary scenarios for something like inaugurations.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#53

Post by vkou »

newen wrote: post #25
eloff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to nuclear and biological weapons, drones don't get my pulse up. A future where terrorist groups can produce their own weapons of mass destruction seems like it may well be on the horizon. Through exponential improvements in the underlying technology. Crispr for biology and laser based uranium enrichment for nuclear. I think it's entirely possible that the great filter might be ahead of us and might consist…

Hundreds of thousands of autonomous drone killbots the size of bats flying around do get my pulse up.

We don't live in a James Bond movie, any non-state actor who wants to kill people will have a much easier time of doing something incredibly boring and mundane, like buying an automatic weapon, or building a bomb.

You are vastly underestimating the difficulty of manufacturing hundreds of thousands of anything in secrecy.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#54

Post by vkou »

ceejayoz wrote: post #52
m1gu3l wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do this when you can gas a bunch of people or blow them up old school for way cheaper? Not sold

Harder to do at range. I'm glad I'm not the Secret Service. A drone swarm has to be rapidly becoming one of their scary scenarios for something like inaugurations.

A single medium-caliber mortar is a five-hundred-year-old piece of technology that can be carried and assembled by two men, has an effective range of ~1,000 to 5,000 yards, does not require line of sight to the target, can be operated by a high-school dropout, and has a kill radius of 30 meters.

One can probably be picked up from an army surplus warehouse somewhere in the former Soviet Union/(some current conflict zone), for an ~$X,000 USD bribe, or alternatively, manufactured by a literate, mildly motivated individual with a high tolerance for personal risk, a welder, a lathe, a tool-shed, and an outhouse in the mountains.

Given that we live in a world where gunpowder has been invented, you will have to pardon me if I'm more concerned about the dangers of lunatics with mundane explosives, and delivery systems thereof.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#56

Post by extropy »

bowmessage wrote: post #46
jleahy wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because of the energy density (per mass) of Li-Ion batteries. You basically hit a wall at 20 minutes that's very hard to push past (it almost feels like a law of physics). But maybe they're using non-rechargeable batteries: zinc-air or lithium-iron-disulfide (ie. a 'lithium' AA battery) or something else? Trade offs are different for military.

Don't a lot of the DJI models have a ~30 minute flight time? Point taken though, that there's a wall we hit with current battery tech.

The DJI drones that can do that are significantly larger. A 250 gram DJI mavic mini can do 30 minutes and with significantly larger propellers.

The efficiency goes down with smaller blade sizes (more losses to vortexes) so from the photo 20 min is the max to expect with regular lipo batteries.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#57

Post by ku-man »

realmod wrote: post #17

Drones are integral to current warfare and will continue to become even more important. And as we've seen in the Caucuses, the nations with the most effective drones will easily conquer other countries without or with worse drones. Aside from that, we've come really far with drones which are amazing technology-wise. We have small drones like these with a 2km-range and large drones that can carry huge payloads, i.e. p…

I'd rather die by a IA aimed bullet than by several hacks with a battle axe.

To put it in Hollywood terms, I'd much prefer be killed by the Terminator than Conan the Barbarian.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#58

Post by sandworm101 »

mattivc wrote: post #27

I work with nano-UAVs. I am very skeptical that the 40 minute flight time is even close to being real. Especially with a quadcopter design. They are way to inefficient.

It says autonomy, not flight time. They may intend this thing to land and remain active as a remote camera for much ot its mission.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#60

Post by CamperBob2 »

dimatura wrote: post #41
mattivc wrote: post #27

I work with nano-UAVs. I am very skeptical that the 40 minute flight time is even close to being real. Especially with a quadcopter design. They are way to inefficient.

I haven't looked into this drone in depth, but I think it may be feasible. The DJI Mini2, which any civilian can buy for $449, has a similar size, weighs 249g, and advertises a flight time of 30 minutes. (In my experience with the Mini 1, it's plausible). Side note: the DJI Mini 1 is an excellent drone -- stable flight, great camera, and great range. I wouldn't be surprised if it outperforms this 'Bug' drone by most…

It's hard to express how awesome the Mini is. IMO it's an underappreciated technological achievement at the once-in-a-hundred-years level. Only a few years ago, it was hard to get a decent digital camera for $400 and change. The Mini is a decent camera that also happens to fly.

When that realization hit me, it reminded me of the first time I saw a $29 DVD player for sale at WalMart. Some incredible things had to happen to make that possible, almost all of of them going completely unnoticed by almost everyone.

The BAE drone probably costs $50,000 apiece, and doesn't appear to be substantially different from the current-generation (or even the original) Mini.

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