Journalists and activists have also used drones: US journalist Tim Pool customised a drone – the Occucopter – and flew it above the Occupy Wall Street protests to stream footage to the outside world, for example. Sydney firm Flirtey runs a flying book-delivery service. Germany has a Dönercopter delivering doner kebabs, California has a Burrito Bomber delivering burritos. Expect to see more of this as drones get more popular.Īs more drones get into the hands of individuals, so they'll start using them for work. Meanwhile, AR.Rescue 2 is an augmented reality game with virtual aliens that need rescuing. AR.Race 2 runs on iPhones and iPads, and operates as a racing game for the drone, with players taking turns to complete a course as quickly as possible. The AR.Drone led the way in terms of getting apps beyond pure controllers. One of the key features of consumer drones is their ability to be controlled by smartphone and tablet apps, although how open they are to developers varies. Not the kind of thing you'd want to slam into a tree. 3D Robotics' 3DR Iris costs $729.99 in the US, but prices go as high as $30,000 for the Aibotix Aibot X6 UAV, which is more focused on commercial use – for example, by filmmakers. Sub-£100 devices aren't a huge leap from traditional remote-controlled helicopters, with the real action happening between £200 and £400 – although prices are likely to come down over the next year or two. There's a wide range of consumer drones available. For anyone who's followed the debate about military drone-related deaths, the comparison may be distasteful though. The 4 Channel Predator/Reaper Style UAV Drone RC Plane is a miniature version of the US air force's RQ-1 Predator UAV, for example, encouraging buyers to "fly your own covert missions". Having said that consumer drones are moving away from the military world, it's fair to say that a number of them take their design inspiration from the drones being used in warzones. Others, like the Lehmann LA100, use cameras like the GoPro Hero3+correct, and there's plenty of sites explaining how keener owners can build their own FPV drones too. Some, like the AR.Drone 2.0, offer FPV through their built-in cameras. That refers to drones capable of recording video as they go and streaming it so the owner can steer as if they were sitting in the drone. £279 in the UK, it has an add-on Flight Recorder accessory that uses GPS to navigate a pre-set route, and plot it on a map.īesides UAV, another abbreviation you'll often see used when talking about consumer drones is FPV, for First Person View. It's a "quadricopter" controlled from your smartphone or tablet, which is capable of zipping around for 36 minutes at a time, recording and streaming video. Perhaps the best-known consumer drone is Parrot's AR.Drone, which is in its second-generation model. One of those firms, 3D Robotics, raised $30m of funding in September, while the Federal Aviation Administration expects 30,000 drones to be flying over the US alone in 20 years' time. ![]() But drones have consumer uses too, and a growing number of companies are pouring money into making them mainstream in the years ahead. The use of drones – unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs for short – in military conflicts remains controversial. While drones are most associated with military uses, commercial drones (used by companies like Amazon) and consumer drones (used by us) are both growing areas.
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