
Guy builds nightvision drone to hunt feral pigs - revorad
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1478852.
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fungi
i like, very cool idea and relatively cheap. don't think it would be a good
idea to mount a gun as you need to ensure a clean kill and be 100% sure of
what you are killing.

another technique that has been very successful with pigs and goats is to
release a pig with a tracking collar. pigs and goats are much better then
human at tracking down other pigs and goats. mounting the tracking collar
receiver on this system would be of great assistance.

<http://www.feral.org.au/tag/judas-pig/>

<http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR96109.htm>

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Shenglong
_don't think it would be a good idea to mount a gun as you need to ensure a
clean kill and be 100% sure of what you are killing_

Regardless, I was disappointed when I didn't see/hear PEW PEWs.

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fungi
yeah i felt pretty cheated as well.

maybe you could mount a paint ball gun with fluro pellets :)

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yvdriess
And here is the guy's Something Awful thread:

[http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=343...](http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3431642)

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mumrah
I have some relatives that have the same problem in central Alabama. It got so
bad that the local officials have allowed the use of scoped night vision
weapons to let farmers hunt the pigs.

Also, this same relative says he doesn't walk around at night without a 0.50
caliber pistol and a shotgun. Apparently these pigs can be pretty unfriendly

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smackay
This is probably way more efficient than just going out stalking but with
something like 3 million feral pigs in the USA it is going to take a lot of
effort to bring the problem under control. Perhaps something like the Judas
Goat, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_goat> with an infra-red strobe (so
you don't end up shooting it) might be more (cost) effective.

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terrellm
As a hacker who lives and codes from his ranch in Texas that has problems with
feral hogs, I give this two thumbs up!

One thing to add for those not familiar with feral hogs... these animals are a
non-native species and highly invasive. They can have at least 4-6 piglets at
a time, 3 litters a year. They damage crop and farmland, carry disease, and
compete with native wildlife for food.

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wingerlang
Would it not be easier to add motion sensors or something like this?

Depending on how huge fields they have this might be hard though..

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itswindy
_Guy builds nightvision drone to hunt feral pigs_

Federal government shows up to help ;)

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ErrantX
no no. It's literally feral pigs; I can see how you might be confuse though ;)

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bluekite2000
What costs more raising a pig or shooting one in the wild? If the answer is
the latter perhaps someone can make a fun business out of it :)

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terrellm
The most effective way of removing feral hogs is by trapping since you can
catch multiple animals at a time. Shoot one and the others scatter.

Feral hog meat, unlike typical pork, is a deep red and can have a wild-game
taste. It makes for great sausage and barbecuing but you wouldn't necessarily
want a ham sandwich everyday in your lunch.

Many outfitters charge both the hunter for the opportunity to hunt and the
farmer for the removal service.

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stfu
Might be interesting to some of you: <http://diydrones.com/>

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roboneal
What about mounting infrared cameras to weather balloons?

He seems to have a problem "lingering" over the right area.

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runjake
Weather balloons do not provide a stable visual platform for the optics, nor
are they maneuverable. Recovering your $4,500 FLIR sensor also becomes a
challenge.

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roboneal
Sorry, I meant "tethered" weather balloons. Which I assume would solve the
"recover-ability" issue. No idea on "stability".

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ErrantX
A quadrocopter would probably be a better bet for hovering/stability

<http://www.quadrocopter.us/>

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mbreese
I don't know how well those fly at ~650ft (he was consistently around this
altitude in later videos). Perhaps a traditional RC helicopter might work as
well, but the noise would probably be a problem (I think he has electric
planes).

However, if you just want to get rid of the pigs, not kill them, I could
imagine that you could do pretty well herding them with a loud RC
helicopter... perhaps even herd them into a trap or kill-zone.

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ErrantX
Fair point. I am not 100% sure how high these fly; but you can put together an
open-source arducopter for a lot cheaper than in that link (about $300 or so)
and they can be programmed/automated.

So if you could get them high enough for the noise not to be a big issue, and
to give them a reasonable coverage with the camera, you can easily put a few
of these up in a network on autpilot (with way points) and just watch several
screens at once.

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alnayyir
Is this just for spotting? I can't tell if it has any weaponry equipped.

This is a very cool build indeed.

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xyzzyz
Equipping it with weaponry would almost certainly be illegal, let alone the
fact that it would be next to impossible to aim if you don't use very
expensive weapons.

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baddox
Why illegal? Are there specific laws about mounting a firearm to an aircraft,
or is the problem the automation of the weapon?

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rjknight
It seems that 'remote hunting' has been banned in various US states, although
not all of them: [http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2011/02/north-
da...](http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2011/02/north-dakota-mulls-
banning-remote-hunting-internet)

Obviously it would be illegal in most of Europe and probably elsewhere too.

This is something I've spent a fair few idle afternoons daydreaming about, and
to be honest I'm quite worried about the future possibility of semi-autonomous
weaponised drones. The average HN reader probably has the knowledge and access
to resources necessary to build a basic manually-controlled drone. An iPhone
or even an Arduino would provide the necessary computing power for semi-
autonomous activity (and a whole bunch of useful sensors, including GPS,
camera etc.) and it can't be long before someone builds some open source
software to enable these things to fly basic missions (go to these
coordinates, film for 30 minutes, return to base, avoid obvious obstacles
whilst doing so). Mounting some kind of weapon on there is a fairly simple
step. You could even print the weapon parts with a 3D printer...

What really scares me is the arms race that will occur when law enforcement
has to deal with this kind of thing.

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eftpotrm
If you're building this for purposes law enforcement will be concerned with, a
flying bomb / guided makes far more sense than a gun platform IMHO. Build a
few kamikaze drones, load them up with semtex and shrapnel, put them into a
steep dive from altitude over your target...

(I should stress I'm a very peaceful chap with no revolutionary or violent
inclinations whatsoever!)

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baddox
> _(I should stress I'm a very peaceful chap with no revolutionary or violent
> inclinations whatsoever!)_

That's how it starts...

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labby
cool. how about getting those angry birds on this.. :P

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BerislavLopac
Is he shooting the drones out of a giant slingshot perhaps? ;)

