
Finnish Filmmakers Gave a Drone a Chainsaw - venti
http://www.popsci.com/finnish-filmmakers-gave-drone-chainsaw
======
OldSchoolJohnny
As someone who has personally used a chainsaw for many years I saw that video
with interest but realized quickly it's faked. It takes a substantial amount
of force on a chainsaw to keep it cutting. A real chain saw is a relatively
heavy device. I see no evidence in that video that the chainsaw is in fact
cutting anything while only under the forces afforded by the drone. Every
cutting shot is from closeup and I did not see a single shot of it cutting
from a distance. Either it's very poor choice of editing since it doesn't show
what the whole video purports or it's a fake.

~~~
johansch
That is a pretty substantial drone they are using - it looks like the kind
that can carry RED ONE cameras, which are about the same weight as the light
weight chainsaw they used in the video.

Regarding the amount of force required to cut things: they are only cutting
snow and small tree branches.

I think you are being overly paranoid here.

~~~
fezz
Red One with lens was about 13-15 lbs although I don't remember a Red One used
on an octocopter. Red Epics were out by then which brought the weight down to
under 10lbs.

Chain saws without blades are around 10 lbs?

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athenot
This is something I often thought about, for the purposes of tree pruning.
What if you could point a laser-like LED beam to the location you want cut on
a 55ft-high pine tree, and have the drone-chainsaw cut that exact location?
That would beat using cranes or bucket lifts to hoist a person with their
chainsaw way up in the air.

(Of course the ground would still have to be cleared of people, as a branch
would be falling down and in case the chainsaw/drone combo malfunctions.)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Around here, they have used helicopters for years to prune trees away from
high-line power lines. That chainsaw is like 10 feet long and hangs straight
down from between the skids. The pilot hovers and inches forward alongside the
lines, and the tree limbs fly!

Its got to be the coolest job ever - helicopter chainsaw operator. I put it
above even wrecking ball operator.

~~~
danielvf
Here's a video of the helicopter chainsaw

[http://youtu.be/Mfz1YrpMbBg](http://youtu.be/Mfz1YrpMbBg)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Wow very different. Mine had no cable or a very short one - the chainsaw was
directly under the helicopter.

~~~
parfe
More like this?
[https://youtu.be/rF1vfMM3W08?t=133](https://youtu.be/rF1vfMM3W08?t=133)

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weld
Combine this with a vulnerability that allows you to take over a professional
drone and it could get messy.

[https://www.blackhat.com/docs/asia-16/materials/asia-16-Rodd...](https://www.blackhat.com/docs/asia-16/materials/asia-16-Rodday-
Hacking-A-Professional-Drone.pdf)

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ldonley
If anyone is interested in some more drone chainsaw action, they should check
out when Jamie from Mythbusters attempted to make one of these:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fe9IDx3vCs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fe9IDx3vCs)

He was unable to get it to work effectively or safely, though his drone was
not as heavy-duty as the one from this thread.

~~~
maaaats
Could this video be fake, though? Hitting the snowmen in that speed should
seriously alter the movement of the drone. And can you get enough force to
actually cut through a branch from a drone?

~~~
ldonley
Based on the video from Jamie, I would say yes, it is probably a fake. But
that's just my thought.

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eCa
That's kind of the 21st century evolution of this[1].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHuJGhe4oGw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHuJGhe4oGw)

~~~
cglace
I've done some pretty crazy things with a chainsaw but that has to be the
dumbest thing I've ever seen.

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PeterTMayer
It is a dangerous experiment. Luckily it only hurt a snowman. :)

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chris_wot
This article is redirecting me to an error.

~~~
prawn
If you're also in Australia, popsci.com has some idiotic redirects to
popsci.com.au that throw errors when they can't find a localised version of
the article you're trying to reach.

I don't think I've ever had one actually work.

~~~
chris_wot
Seriously, this deserves an automatic penalty until they fix their issues.
Business Insider do the same thing.

What's to localise though? We speak English!

dang... if you're reading this, anything you can do? _Very_ frustrating for
the many Australians who read articles on HN.

(a side note: when are U.S. sites going to stop treating Australians as second
class citizens? We are a pretty wealthy nation filled with people willing to
participate in the online world in a meaningful way, and yet we are constantly
screwed over either in terms of pricing or just plain being blocked from stuff
we are willing to actually pay good money for).

~~~
strictnein
> a side note: when are U.S. sites going to stop treating Australians as
> second class citizens?

Once we figure out how to digitally accept kangaroo pelts as payment.

~~~
chris_wot
Cool, so we'll just continue pirating your content and bypassing your filters
at record levels then :-)

~~~
SmkyMt
That's actually a most generous and humane service you provide the world.
Seriously.

~~~
chris_wot
I don't know if I agree with the pirating business (I don't do this) but
certainly I don't think it's unethical to bypass geoblocking which I find
borderline racist - and definitely greedy in the worst sense of the word.

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exabrial
So, better than sharknado?

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dsugarman
the perfect weapon for the next zombie video game

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afsina
I really dislike filmmakers doing this kind of stupid stunts (Ok I admit I
hate the film makers tries do deceive even more . Like the idiots who make
eagle taking a child or flying wing man etc.). Why not put a Ak-47 or a hand
grenade to the damn drone? You would get more attention.

~~~
exDM69
Some background from a Finnish news article [0]: these guys are experienced,
professional RC and drone camera operators and the copter is a professional
quality photography drone. They describe the copter as a "5 horsepower
circular saw" which is "pretty dangerous even without a chainsaw attached".
Indeed, you have to operate such machinery with caution and respect. All in
all, it looks like they were operating with caution and in an isolated area
without causing any risk to outsiders.

Silly and pointless? Yes. Reckless and stupid? Perhaps not. Fun to watch? Hell
yes.

[0] [http://nyt.fi/a1459480177666](http://nyt.fi/a1459480177666)

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amelius
Why did this have to be built and can't we just imagine things anymore?

~~~
zellyn
It appears you've accidentally wandered into hacker news. Welcome!

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xiphias
This should be illegal everywhere. I'm really afraid of the not too distant
future when drones are cheap and autonomous enough so that they are able to be
controlled by a small crazy group and used to harm lots of people. I don't
think we as a society are prepared for it.

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theklub
I seriously want to start a drone defense company.

~~~
Roboprog
DoD won't appreciate the competition :-)

~~~
bluejekyll
DoD outsources most a lot of that work. Though, they'd probably prefer a
machine gun.

