The Falcon Project

[Believer57]

8 hours ago, Catmandoo said:

Before powered small drones, we had kite photography and balloons. KAPshop has a selection of aerial equipment. RC vendors have a huge selection of supplies for builder/operators.

Thanks for the welcome! Back in the day, I used the CHDK on my Cannon S100 cameras for mapping. The script came right from the KAP site and one of my S100s was converted to NIR for inexpensive hobbyist use before we got to use equipment from the university. Since I was the one usually flying the drone or plane, I became the "voice of reason" when confronted with the "let's do this" scenario. The woods was always something we tried to avoid.

 

2 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

I think a thermal-equipped drone would be an excellent tool if you had a large group of people that could encircle an area then have the drone fly within it. If movement is detected, members of the group could begin to enclose the area. That would take a fair number of people and have to be equipped with 2-way radios and more. Personally, I'm more interested in going out alone or with one or two other people.

Exactly my thinking. The amount of coordination to pull that off may require a specially trained group. Thanks for the thermal video! I enjoyed watching the chipmunks run around. You can see how easily the camera shakes in your hand. Until recently, we used brushless gimbals to smooth out the jitters. Now, many cameras like GoPro and DJI have the anti-vibration built-in to the image capture. Hopefully, we will see this technology hit the thermals soon.

 

Thank you all and Merry Christmas!

 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

Entry level thermal drones are under 2,000 bucks now.  

 

I expect to see the cost of a usable thermal drone to become somewhat affordable over the next few years.

[Arvedis]

14 hours ago, Catmandoo said:

And Arvedis, what happens to the Audi when the headlamps fly away and don't return? 

 

There is definitely that possibility, especially with a concept car.

 

 

[Arvedis]

On 12/17/2020 at 6:18 AM, Believer57 said:

I do agree with your assessment. The project caught my eye when watching the show because I specialize in UAVs and VTOLs, now only as a hobby. Back around the same time frame of 2015, we used drones (hexacopters and octocopters) with expensive multispectral cameras for checking agriculture, algae, and various inspections like rooftops and electric utility lines. Although the equipment was owned by a local college, I still have several of my own drones including a large DJI S900 hexacopter. In the 5 year span to 2020, the technology has changed so fast that it was difficult (and expensive) to keep up even when you were in that industry.

 

My first concern when seeing the Falcon Project was that it would never work on windy days. We have a similar issue when flying VTOLs that are part copter and part plane. A large blimp-like aircraft like the Falcon would get blown away with only small fans to control it.

 

Next, I saw that the project looked like it just stopped in its tracks. The Web site hasn't been updated since its inception and I can only find dated articles on it...much like your 2015 article. Yet, someone seems to be paying for the domain name (I also have my own) and host area to keep the files.

 

More recently, there have been suggestions of using a Parrot - ANAFI Thermal Drone for searching the surrounding woods. At only $1900, perhaps some field researchers could use it on a calm day. Much more capable, and expensive, solutions exist but it is still unknown what these creatures would do if they heard the whine of a drone overhead.

 

Cheers!

 

I think we have incomplete information on the drone that Barnes was trying to (get an investor to) buy. The builder of the craft had pretty good aeronautical background. It was a catamaran design which is currently used on some larger drones. Would that help with the wind? I was never aware of any flight tests of the craft and that would tell the story if it could handle adverse conditions.

 

Total mystery what happened to the builder. He had a company in Canada that made drones for the agriculture industry. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Arvedis

[Believer57]

12 hours ago, Arvedis said:

Would that help with the wind?

Yes, especially cross-wind. It also changed the craft from being a one big bimp-like shape with all your components underneath to two smaller sections with the components in the middle. Much more manageable.

 

I think that the Falcon Project and strapping multi spectral cameras to airplanes was just a too costly approach. They also didn't play well with the winds that you get over the tree tops. Using bigger personal drones with quality FLIR thermal cameras (like they did in the new Finding Bigfoot sequel) is the way to go. A large hexacopter or octocopter is more affordable and more tolerable to wind. You can target a specific area inside the woods for the price of a few rechargeable LiPo packs.

 

The 6-cell 30C 21AH pack below was used on my DJI S900 hexacopter and now on my larger VTOLs. It weighs 5.3lbs (2.4kg) and can deliver a whooping 630 continuous amps, if needed. I have three of them which cost $250 each.

[Arvedis]

I'm no expert in drones, especially the big commercial ones. What i find intriguing about this is, what happened to the falcon drone that Barnes wanted to buy? There was a legit business behind the proposed sale. There are legit businesses in Canada making drones specifically for wide open areas with lots of wind. Those Canadian plains have serious winds so the designer must have planned for it.

 

As far as the camera, it was positioned straight down. That's it. Is that normal? Shouldn't the camera be fixed so it can rotate and be controlled remotely to capture targets? It adds too much complexity to try and hover directly over and zero in on a target with the camera. That means you lose opportunities for better angles. Also, machine engines are going to vibrate the frame which will skew photo and video capture. 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Arvedis

[Believer57]

13 hours ago, Arvedis said:

What i find intriguing about this is, what happened to the falcon drone that Barnes wanted to buy?

A good question and one of the reasons I started the thread. I thought that I had missed something along the way.

13 hours ago, Arvedis said:

As far as the camera, it was positioned straight down. That's it. Is that normal?

Yes, especially for mapping. You have GPS and a Barometer to tell you location and height on a Google map so you don't need the camera video to fly. Sometimes you can have a video downlink for the camera to see what is going on back at the GCS (Ground Control Station. Back in the day when we were helping a local college, their focus was agriculture so I never got to use a camera like a FLIR thermal. Many of these cameras cost $30K which made me nervous to fly. Sometimes they were bungeed into position, other times a gimbal was used. As soon as we let someone else fly it, they crashed. Mostly it flies itself, but if something happens, and it did, the pilot needs to have a keen eye and take over manually. I'm sure the newer designs are more robust.

 

There are all different sizes of drones and cameras now so you can pick one that suits your needs. I saw a promo clip from the new "Finding Bigfoot" special that showed them (professionals) using multiple hexacopters with FLIR cameras. The looked like a good choice for the job.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Believer57