DerbyCon talk: "The Law of Drones"

Great news--I was accepted to speak at DerbyCon! Here's the abstract for my talk:

A decade ago, drones were mostly associated with terrorist strikes in the Middle East. Since then, the proliferation of drone technology has resulted in widespread deployment of unmanned aerial systems for law enforcement, commercial, and personal use.  The recent drone crash on the White House lawn has sparked a renewed interest in unmanned aerial systems by governments, commercial users, and hobbyists. Recent events have also put a spotlight onto the Federal Aviation Administration's renewed efforts to regulate drones. This talk will review the history and development of laws, rules, and regulations regarding model aircraft, drones, and other unmanned aerial systems. Next, we will survey the legal landscape to understand current efforts by the FAA and other governmental bodies to restrict and regulate drones for personal users while expanding opportunities by governmental users. Finally, we will look at the way forward in an opportunity to evaluate the balance between the rights of drone users and the privacy expectations of citizens. If you're interested in learning more about model aircraft, drones, and other unmanned aerial systems, come check it out!

Who will think of the children? Drones and bounce houses edition

On Monday during a Memorial Day parade in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a small drone (likely a DJI Phantom) crashed into two spectators. There were only minor injuries and the injured refused treatment. Here's an image from before the crash:

According to the article, "No charges will be filed. Police Chief Bob Picariello told WBZ no permits are required to fly the drone." This is the right call from the police department's perspective. However, the pilot could be subject to a fine from the FAA for flying in a dangerous manner. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

On the same day, a waterspout came ashore on a Fort Lauderdale Beach and lifted a bounce house off the beach. The video is pretty remarkable. The bounce house was lifted "at least 50 feet into the air." Four children were hurt.

These incidents were unrelated, but the drone crash will likely be used as further evidence to regulate hobby flying of drones. I would be surprised, however, if we see a strong push to further regulate bounce houses. Just a thought.

DEFCON CFP submission: "The Law of Drones"

Here's the abstract for my DEFCON submission:

A decade ago, drones were mostly associated with terrorist strikes in the Middle East. Since then, the proliferation of drone technology has resulted in widespread deployment of unmanned aerial systems for law enforcement, commercial, and personal use.  The recent drone crash on the White House lawn has sparked a renewed interest in unmanned aerial systems by governments, commercial users, and hobbyists. Recent events have also put a spotlight onto the Federal Aviation Administration's renewed efforts regulate drones. This talk will review the history and development of laws, rules, and regulations regarding model aircraft, drones, and other unmanned aerial systems. Next, we will survey the legal landscape to understand current efforts by the FAA and other governmental bodies to restrict and regulate drones for personal users while expanding opportunities by governmental users. Finally, we will look at the way forward in an opportunity to evaluate the balance between the rights of drone users and the privacy expectations of citizens. If you're interested in learning more about model aircraft, drones, and other unmanned aerial systems, come check it out!

Fighting the wind

I wanted to get in a short flight before all the snow melted, so I programmed a short autonomous flight around the neighborhood. Perhaps I should have entitled this video "beware the wind," because it was definitely a factor. The current weather shows winds out of the west at 14 mph and gusting to 26 mph. As you see particularly in the first minute of the flight (and then at the end), the Phantom is heading southwest and really fighting the wind to stay on course and speed. It seems that today's flight is a good measure for what you can expect out of the Phantom under similar windy conditions.

Autonomous flight at Westfield Annapolis Mall

I have no idea if there is such a thing as having trust in a quadcopter drone. But there is certainly some amount of nervousness in sending her off and hoping (praying?) that she comes back. My previous autonomous flights were in areas close to home and areas that I could get to on foot. Today's flight went a step (or two) further as I flew from the top of the parking garage at Westfield Annapolis Mall. Of course, this means flying above a busy parking lot filled with traffic. Here was my programmed flight path, starting at the red chevron and proceeding counter-clockwise:

As you can see from the screenshot, the route was designed to take my Phantom around the outskirts of the mall and then return home. The programmed altitude is 50m (above the starting point on the third floor of a parking garage); so roughly 200 feet AGL. I also programmed the Phantom to flight faster--twice as fast as my previous autonomous flights. As a result, this flight took barely five minutes. I also ran the video through GoPro Studio to remove some of the barrel distortion. Other than a few moments where the Phantom was out of sight and my heart skipped a beat, everything went exactly as planned. I could even see the quadcopter at its furthest point away. Here is the video:

The only time I used the remote controller was to land the Phantom once it had returned to hover at the starting point. All of the rest of the flight, from start up until then, was autonomous from my pre-programmed flight plan.

Baymeadow Industrial Park flight

Flying at a new site: the Baymeadow Industrial Park off Ordnance Road. For this flight, I reconfigured the GoPro camera to the "medium" field of view setting (127°) as opposed to wide (170°); in this configuration there is less barrel (fisheye) distortion, but you don't really see any of the horizon as you did with the wide field of view.

It was bound to happen: the inevitable first crash

I was flying my Phantom on a practice high-speed run, low to the ground. You should try to avoid trees. I didn't. Unfortunately, I crashed onto a hard surface. Fortunately, the only damage was to one of the plastic prop-guards.  No other noticeable problems. It flew fine afterwards, too.

Neighborhood Flight

Down the street, around the corner, past the bank, stopping momentarily at Rite Aid to view the intersection of Mountain Road and Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard; then past Checkers and over "hostile" terrain before returning home.

Autonomous Flight at Freetown Elementary School

At the end of the video, the Phantom started to go back to Waypoint 1. Apparently I forgot to add a landing step! I was able to take control of the Phantom and land it manually. Won't forget that step next time...

A view of the Walmart construction site at Ritchie Highway and Jumpers Hole Road in Pasadena, Maryland

A view of the Walmart construction site at the intersection of Ritchie Highway and Jumpers Hole Road in Pasadena, Maryland.

Close call

I was flying the Phantom this afternoon when I lost control of it. Still not sure why--it wasn't very far away. Maybe some type of interference. Anyways, when the quadcopter can't contact the remote control, it simply returns to the same spot where it took off. Here, I didn't anticipate that someone else would drive past me on this newly-constructed parking lot...and it ended up being a close call! For what it's worth, the Phantom landed less than 10 feet from the spot where it took off.

Phantom test flight

Here is the (mostly) raw video from the first test flight of my DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter. I have a GoPro camera on the Phantom.