I look forwards to seeing how useful it is for the plod to fly drones within visual range only in the search for missing criminals.
Beware, sheep rustlers of the South West of England! Police drone spy unit gets to work
Devon and Cornwall Police is launching its drone-equipped aerial surveillance team today. The flying spy team was first established two years ago on a trial basis and has now been made a permanent unit within D&C Police. Its remit is to provide the same sort of aerial surveillance that the force helicopter provided but at a …
COMMENTS
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Friday 14th July 2017 19:53 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Re: Wildlife crime
Badgers. Don't mess with 'em.
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Friday 14th July 2017 15:03 GMT Doctor Syntax
We could do with a few here. For a start they could maybe do something about the fly-tipping that's the inevitable consequence of the council's restrictions on use of the
recycling centresdumps. And I'd like them to have caught whoever opened the farm gate down the road the other day - I am not happy about having the bull wandering loose on the lane. -
Friday 14th July 2017 16:11 GMT Haku
Battery life
One of the biggest problems with using drones for spy work in this way is the lack of airtime per battery, you're looking in the region of 15 useable minutes for an Inspire.
To get the kind of flight time that would really help tackle rural crime, a hydrogen fuel cell system is what the doctor ordered to give you hours instead of minutes of flight time.
Something like this: http://www.mmcuav.com/drones/hydrone1550/ But the lack of prices anywhere on the web mean it's probably going to cost a small fortune.
However there is an alternative, tethered power systems like this http://cardinalsecurity.co.uk/tethered-drone-systems/, enabling the drone to stay aloft indefinitely. But the drawback is the only place it's likely to fly is straight up, which actually could be advantageous if you attach a camera with a powerful zoom lens to the drone to track where the 'criminal' is, what they and their vehicle looks like and where they're going.
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Saturday 15th July 2017 13:08 GMT Adam JC
Re: Battery life
After having installed 30x optical zoom PTZ CCTV cameras at an airfield, I can attest that even with the strongest/sturdiest of mounts, at 30x full zoom the amount of 'wind wobble' can be significant. I can only imagine that on a drone susceptible to wind wobble at great height, this would present a fairly major issue!
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Sunday 16th July 2017 02:15 GMT Haku
Re: Battery life
@ Adam JC
High quality 3-axis gimbals are extremely good at filtering out 'wind wobble' and vibrations from the drone itself.
This is one of my most stable pieces of quadcopter footage I've taken, using a Zhiyun Z1-Tiny2 3-axis gimbal holding a Xiaomi Yi camera, granted there was practically no wind on that day but even on windy days it's still just as stable in regards to filtering out vibrations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLPnH5nmGc
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Sunday 16th July 2017 11:20 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Battery life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLPnH5nmGc
That's very nice, but the distortion effect of the wide angle lens does weird things to my head. There should be no visible curvature to the horizon at that altitude so it makes the whole scene look "wrong". It's almost disturbing.
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Saturday 15th July 2017 20:22 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Battery life
"However there is an alternative, tethered power systems like this "
Does no one build and sell ICE based drones? I could imagine syncing 4 or more 2-3cc engines might be a challenge, or a single larger engine with more complex mechanical linkages and pitch control on the props, but it should be capable of significantly longer flight durations and near as dammit instant "recharge".
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Saturday 15th July 2017 08:14 GMT David Roberts
Back in real life
I've seen a very sensible use of a drone by the emergency services.
Mind you, in Katooma, NSW, Australia.
There is a mahoosive stairway from the Echo Point viewing area down to the valley floor.
Someone was reported to be in trouble near the bottom.
They sent a drone down to check this out before commiting to sending someone down all those 800+ steps.
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Saturday 15th July 2017 11:57 GMT Ogi
A hackers dream...
...possibly delivered right to their feet for free.
I mean, a drone with a HD thermal imaging camera (with what looks like a decent lens on it), cool electronics, batteries, powerful motors, etc... I can imagine these things being pilfered by those so inclined for their parts alone.
Especially if the communication is the same COTS as pretty much all other drones (it tends to be, as a general rule, unless it is military spec). One successful MITM over say, a forest, and you could just make it seem like the drone lost power and crashed into the forest floor, out of sight.
By the time they go there to retrieve it, it can already be long gone (unless they send another one to look for it, in which case you might end up with two drones that day).
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Monday 17th July 2017 10:47 GMT Anonymous South African Coward
Build a drone with the means of powering itself with a petrol-powered engine? Then you'll be able to keep it aloft for long periods, and it'll be cheaper than a helicopter.
Drawback - engine sound need to be muffled properly otherwise the ne'er-do-wells will just aim a shotgun towards the general direction of the sound and hope for a lucky kill.
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Monday 17th July 2017 14:37 GMT Keith Langmead
Not just D&C
Uhhh, no, it's not just D&C that are deploying this, it's both Devon & Cornwall Police AND Dorset Police (eg all three counties have been involved in the same set of tests, unlike Sussex which is separate). As much as we in Devon love to mock our motorway deprived neighbours, lets not completely ignore them! :)
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Tuesday 18th July 2017 03:24 GMT JCitizen
I always wanted to run one of those things.
If it were me, I'd park occasionally on a high point, like the top of a pole or high rise building, and save flight energy for when I see an event, or a person of interest! I'd have a whole map of strategic perch points for my little electronic vulture!