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Saw some guys racing drones like the first video in a local park. Every bit as fast and maneuverable, but they had them going through 6 ft gates on a course roughly the size of a football field. I assume they're not really human-controlled because I could barely track where the drone was, let alone give it precise controls for how to pass through the gate. Went home and told my wife "If we ever get into a war, humanity is fucked."

Usually they’re human controlled with an FPV camera setup. Lots of stuff on YouTube to check out related to it if you’re curious. The camera and live video feed to goggles greatly increases what you can do with the drone

And they use analogue video signals to avoid encoding/decoding latency

Not always, there are starting to be some good digital systems. Analogue is just cheaper and lighter.

“Starting to”? DJI FPV is two years old and naked Vista is negligibly heavier than analog (and it mostly matters for micros, anyway)

Naked vista overheats, there's a reason it comes with heatsinks.

There's also been severe availability issues with the DJI gear.

Yes, something only available for two years qualifies as starting to. In the realm of transmitting video 2 years is definitely early stages.

Oh wow cool! And what sort of latency can they achieve?

Turns out humans are actually really great at controlling ridiculously fast aircraft, the drone races are controlled by a person looking through a camera pointed forward on the drone. You can think of it like speedrunning an N64 game, finding the timing that lets you act instead of react.

But +1 humanity’s fucked, don’t Google Slaughterbots but maybe Google how to build an EMP, it’s easier than you think.

>maybe Google how to build an EMP

Sounds like a good way to get on a list.

Folks, this is why we need to preserve privacy!

Why is Google allowing lists to be built?

So they can sell you aluminum foil

Well, once you get past the loaded allow part, if you read their mission statement, you will note it is their actual mission:

"Our company mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/

Never thought of it that way, part of the world’s information is, “who’s asking?”

No worries, a lot of people search about EMP every day. Smaller EMP devices were (are?) commonly used to rob poker/slot/vending machines. I have no idea of the truth behind this, but there are homemade devices being sold online, sometimes disguised as "research" devices with photos showing how they can turn on a CCFL lamp from distance, while others blatantly declare their purpose.

Example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002077843786.html

Conversely, shielding electronics against EMPs is surprisingly easy. Just wrapping things in aluminium foil goes a long way.

Doesn't this also mean that they would not be able to receive comms?

If you folded the entire thing then it could mean that.

But you want to shield the parts which do not directly need to receive rf signals, like the mainboard.

Comms can also be laser, and the drones can be pre-programmed and self guiding. Though in either case, you can still always dazzle either the sensors or the comms (MEMS sensors used for inertial guidance are vulnerable to ultrasound IIRC). And I’m sure the military either have or are developing an anti-drone-drone.

Well the military has AESA radars that can be programmed to act as a microwave laser so there’s that. A Faraday cage won’t be of much help if it’s literally cooked.

Um. What do you think the grid of wires in the window of your microwave is for? Its a faraday cage to keep you from being cooked.

If you pump enough power at the shielding, a) some of it will get through and b) the shielding itself will get very hot from induced eddy currents.

> pump enough power

Problem is you’re fighting path loss which is exponential with distance, whereas the power of your emitter is scaling linearly.

> Problem is you’re fighting path loss which is exponential with distance, whereas the power of your emitter is scaling linearly.

No, EM radiation power decays quadratic with the distance, not exponentially.

You’re right of course.

Not necessarily. You can transmit signals between completely isolated circuits with an optocoupler for example.

I fly FPV drones.

The idea they are not human controlled is absurd.

They handle like nothing else. There is literally nothing else to compare them to so they seem almost alien. You could dive bomb a gate yourself after maybe 10 hours of practice in a simulator.

Of course the first time you try you won't even be able to keep the drone in the air but really quickly the controls become second nature.

The irony is the guys at the park were most likely not even great pilots. Look up Mr Steele on youtube if you want to watch someone do really inhuman stuff.

I fly FPV drones too and the batteries suck and this thing seemed to have 40+ minutes of flight time.

Even top of the DJI drones (which are not exactly freestyle/racy) would top out at around 30 minutes.

Not implying aliens, but I wish we had that kind of battery technology in my Nazgul5, if it's a drone they've seen.

Hydrocarbons have 100 times the energy density. We have the technology.

Fuel cells for drones are a thing with about 3x endurance https://www.intelligent-energy.com/our-products/uavs/

This is why I love HN. Between this and animat's post, I've got four amazing RC/quadcopter videos to watch that are a lot more worthwhile than Drive's 5000th "But what if UFOs were real tho?" article.

Assuming that the story is true, the thing that rules out a traditional quadcopter is the fact that it was flying for an hour. You can make quads fast or long range/endurance, but AFAIK, nobody is even close to making a quad that can do 100mph for an hour. The battery weight for that kind of flight time would be too heavy for the quad to fly.

You can use a gas engine to hit that kind of time in a quad. There aren’t any great options on the market right now, but as a DIY project it’s not that difficult to use an engine to charge the batteries in flight.

I wouldn't say it is impossible.

A (relatively) simple solution would be to use something with more dense power source, maybe fuel. RC enthusiast use fueled engines routinely, it isn't something special. There are various types of advanced fueled engines for RC use from traditional 2-4 stroke miniaturized engines to turbofans.

They are not very common on small quadcopters because of lack of response. Quadcopters depend on an onboard controller for fast corrections and for this to work you need a motor that can react very fast and precisely. A liquid fuel engine in a craft that does frequent changes in direction of g forces is not an easy thing to control precisely.

But this could be easily remedied by making this at least partly hybrid (use engine to charge small battery and use this to power additional motors to improve response to help stability and maneuvers).

I never said it was impossible, but I did say that I "ruled out" a quad. I meant very unlikely, not that it was impossible. There are quads that have >1 hour endurance, and there are quads that can do 100 mph, but none that can do both, even with gas. To make a quad that can go 100 mph and stay in the air for an hour is a crazy big stretch of existing capabilities. I'd love to see an example, because none of these come close: https://blog.dronetrader.com/list-of-the-top-hybrid-gas-elec...

There are also non-hybrid quads, but again, none of them can deliver the performance observed by these pilots: https://www.mydronelab.com/blog/gas-powered-quadcopter.html

I said in another comment that my bet is on an RC plane. A fixed wing is much more likely to achieve that kind of speed with the endurance. Considering that the pilots didn't provide a good visual description I think it's the safest bet. I'm not going to worry about how it might be possible to make a quad that can do this when an obviously feasible solution is staring us in the face.

> I never said it was impossible

I never said you did.

Helicopter use variable pitched rotors. I assume a gas powered quad would as well. This would give very fast response and even let them fly upside down.

But still. This still doesn't solve why it wasn't visible on thermal and would still be an extraordinary drone doing all these things.

Could be gas powered?

Did they say the "quadcopter" was flying 100mph sustained for an hour, or just short bursts of up to 100mph to avoid being caught?

Why even use drug mules if you can just drone everything over the border?

Their carry weight is absolute shit and ferrying over 10 doses isn't really worthwhile

There is this confusion over the word “drone”.

What you say is absolutely true about quadrocopters and octocopters. It is much less true about fixed wing drones.

You don’t have to go all the way to a Global Hawk to get reasonable carrying capacity. Even hobby sized stuff could be used for this reasonably well. Parts are easy to acquire, they are easy to conceal, you can launch them with a catapult like setup, they can drop off their load and fly back autonomously.

I bet that it is already happening or at least there are smugglers experimenting with the tech.

If your target country has a large coast, there are submarine drones already https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine

iirc theres a fixed wing drone ccaught by lea at mexico(?) right?

> you can launch them with a catapult like setup, they can drop off their load and fly back autonomously.

This had me thinking about homemade disposable rockets. Either use them for cargo, or attach one to a strong enough glider, so that it can reach the desired area, release the glider (that can use maps + GPS and sensors to land safely) then proceed for a while fooling whoever would follow its heat trail.

Not that I wanted to become a drug smuggler, just brainstorming. We will need all that stuff when the next reptilian invasion occurs:^)

The Spanish police found a drone that had made trips from North Africa just a few months back.

It was a hybrid fixed wing drone that could carry 150Kg.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyvwmv/look-at-this-huge-dru...

Check out pro broadcasting drones. They can carry 3-5kg cameras with power packs. Some go as far as 1h fly time. They are expensive as hell though.

I'm sure the premium charged by broadcasting drone sellers has more to do with stabilizing drones even during manoeuvering than it has to do with maximizing payload and range. Drones used in broadcasting can do pit stops pretty much at will.

My company owns one, the same make as the one that shot the dragon battle scene in game of thrones. It's a single rotor, and you're right on with the specs. It's not super expensive though, about as expensive as a high end luxury car. Definitely out of range of most consumers, but not crazy for a small business to have. You also need a small team to operate it, and because of its weight there's more aviation regulation applicable, at least here in Europe.

That's why they like Fentanyl, Carfentanyl, etc... a lethal dose weight almost nothing.

Unless you have a thousand drones. If any one drone gets taken out then you just lost a negligible quantity of product. If a traditional mule is caught you lose millions. A single bust would pay for a fleet of drones.

> Their carry weight is absolute shit

In the case of the mule, the carry weight is relative to shit.

it has to be doable with cartel money; there is at least one startup doing drone delivery in Africa: https://flyzipline.com/

> Why even use drug mules if you can just drone everything over the border?

A few weeks ago there was a news article on how drug cartels were using cheap Chinese VTOL drones to smuggle drugs across the Mediterranean between Morocco and Spain.

https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-07-15/spanish-police-s...

Nice machine, but no way in hell it costs that much to build, the manufacturer is making a killing lol

Large drones are expensive just like any other aircraft.

Bet my life I can build that for half the cost. Anyone wanna get into business?

Because humans are cheaper than a drone.

Hell I live in a Western country and people are getting assassinated for just 10000 euro. Plenty of desperate losers out there to exploit for crime cartels.

God. Which country?

Unwilling humans, and humans getting paid less than the cost of their legal ruin, are a liability to criminal enterprises. Those humans are at risk of tattling. Yes, such enterprises can invest in buying prosecutors, prison guards, prisoners, etc. to punish tattle tales -- but robots don't talk. Sure, maybe parts can get traced, but it's bound to be easier to "secure" a part supply (make them yourself if you have to) than to "secure" your human liabilities.

Also F3D pylon racing class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4MJC7H7nzA

“Are you afraid?” “Yes”

>That's a full octave doppler-effect.

Per youtube comments. Impressive!

Almost. It's a minor seventh.

> it has to be satellite-driven because there’s no line-of-sight, there’s no cell phone coverage that could have dealt with that, so it has to be satellite-driven, which is pretty freakin’ sophisticated.”

Don’t rule out autonomous.

Most impressed by the camera tracking. Is that automated or is someone that good at pointing a camera? (First link I mean)

I think the video was accelerated (look at cars in the background or wind in trees/on grass or the occasional bird/insect).

Which means the drone may not have been as fast/manœuvrerabke as it looks.

It would explain the crazy Camera tracking skills.

Definitely not accelerated, just ridiculous thrust to weight ratios on those mini quads. You can tell from the sound - the pitch corresponds to RPMs you would expect from those specs (which are listed in the description BTW)

Probably head attached GoPro

Good point! Still very stable. Good head control!

jesus fucking christ thats cool

Exactly. A high school bully in a Bell 206 is not a good authority on the capabilities of even amateur UAV hardware

I doubt they are good authorities in anything. I wish they'd leave the knowledge speak to those who spend their time gathering knowledge.

The person you dismiss as a "high school bully" is also a helicopter pilot. That may not make them an authority, but they have fair odds of being more knowledgeable than the average person...