UAV for you and me

Press

They’re making drones, but not shooty-shooty death-death drones. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), otherwise known as drones, are remote control operated mini airplanes with cameras attached to their bellies, or noses, or both. These are not the drones you’re looking for—well, not if you want to remotely control a gun, that is—but these little beauties will help in aerial mapping for geography, filming for entertainment and sports events, tracking for police chases, and even emergency collection for emergency situations like natural disasters.

Here at CSULB, the Anthropology department uses UAVs for research by gathering visual data. Unfortunately for them and the budget, each unit is really pricey when bought from currently-existing retailers, and the only two feasible options are to fork over the money and hope the budget can survive it, or make one themselves.

This is why the Anthropology department approached the Industrial Design students about creating UAVs that were not only easy DIY drones, but also were units that were cheaper than, say, $15,000 per plane. The concept behind the UAV project was to create a system so that hobbyists with no engineering experience could use and assemble one functional enough for professional and scientific uses, and be cheap enough so it’s accessible for university and personal funding.

http://www.lbunion.com/feature/648-uav-for-you-and-me.html