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Have you ever wanted to do survelience on your friends, neighbours, enemies, or that sketchy-looking house down the street? Have you ever wanted a drone of your own? Well Lehmann Aviation’s LA100 might be your chance if you can spare the scratch.
Unlike other RC “drones” that require you to fly them, the LA100 is completely autonomous and carries out pre-programmed flight paths of up to five minutes, reaching heights of up to 330 feet with no need for real-time control; it’s a real UAV. And when it comes to taking pictures, the LA100 goes all out with a mounted GoPro Hero 3. All you have to do is program the flight path, take it out for launch, wait for it to finish its flight, and check out the footage.
What’s the catch? It’s a little expensive. It comes out in December for the low, low price of £800 (€990). It’s not cheap, but really, what more could you ask of your own personal drone? Maybe firepower, but I think I speak for all of us when I say “oh god no please god no, no no no.” [Lehmann Aviation via Gizmag via Ubergizmo]
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I was all ready to flame this but then I read ‘autonomous’.
All that’s left to make it perfect is an indefinite flight path, solar panels and 4G connection so it can continuously upload video as well as provide a live feed.
I’ll have twenty of them flying round my area.
If you are spending that much it would be easier to build one yourself. Part of the attraction of the cheaper ones is they are actually cheaper than DIYing it and you get a more finished product even if its lacking the more extensive features and flexibility of a home build drone.
You might be able to build one, but are you confident enough in your programming skills that your navigation software will be robust enough to deal with changing wind speed and direction? Control software are very difficult to write.
I probably could with enough time but there are open source programmes available already written. All the tech manuals and code along with parts lists are available for dozens of types of UAV with all the tools and help available to take what is available and work on something new.