LOOK: UP IN THE SKY...
As regular readers may know, I like stories about the potential for GSP-controlled robotic aircraft, be they for commercial and/or military applications today or the myriad possibilities for them tomorrow.
So of course, this story titled "Japanese Robo-Crop Dusters Seized" on Gizmodo caught my eye:
"More than 200 Japanese police officers raided the Yamaha office Monday seizing nine of these crop dusting robots that were scheduled to be exported..." to China, no less.
As BBC News explains in more detail:
"Yamaha acknowledges selling nine of the aircraft to China, but says they could only be used for agricultural purposes.
Yamaha's shares tumbled on the news, losing more than 8% and helping to push Tokyo's main Nikkei 225 index lower."
Defensetech already has a good piece on the story.
From a geek perspective along, these things sound pretty cool. Called the "Yamaha L181 RMAX Autonomous Helicopter", this gizmo represents some serious technology, as this schematic from Yamaha indicates.
What surprised me about the story though is the following tid-bit from the BBC story:
"Around 1,600 of the helicopters are currently in use in Japan, primarily by farmers for crop-spraying."
Didn't realize there were that many of these things in use already.
Part of the reason may be that these types of aircraft seem to be much more restricted in the US, as this article from the NY Times from four years ago, indicates:
"It is a common problem for civilian drones. A small, piloted airplane can operate pretty much anywhere with little or no notification. But flying a drone means filing for a certificate of authorization, a narrowly drawn permission slip from the F.A.A. to roam a small strip of the skies. Getting the certificate takes months."
These devices are still relatively expensive to acquire and operate, as the NY Times articles goes on to explain. But with continued improvements in technology, this could change, opening up far greater consumer applications for these devices over time. You can look at a couple of my prior posts for ideas (here and here), for a glimpse of where these things could go.
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