

Israel's Butterfly UAVs - nyellin
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4294

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milkshakes
Just in case anyone is wondering what the USAF is dreaming up for drones over
the next 50 years:
<http://www.uadrones.net/military/research/acrobat/090724.pdf>

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ynniv
Harvard recently developed an improved manufacturing technique for similar
robots based on self-deforming materials and origami construction techniques:

[ [http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news-events/press-
releases/pop-u...](http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news-events/press-releases/pop-
up-flying-robots) ]

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sigil
The latest New Yorker also has an interesting article on drones:

[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/14/120514fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/14/120514fa_fact_paumgarten)

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ChuckMcM
Clearly the reporter has dialed up their glasses to 100% rose tint :-)

There are power, material, and optical problems that have 10 year lifetimes
between this vision and reality.

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JabavuAdams
The time-lines seem unrealistic. While the mechanical design seems impressive,
what about imaging, computing, and comms?

I.e. it's one thing to make a mini UAV flight demonstrator, but quite another
to put a payload on it and have it transmit data over a usable range, for a
useful length of time.

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bigiain
You might be surprised to see what hobbyist-grade gear is capable of today.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zogJ-hIM-90>

and some discussion of it:

<http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1650766>

That's only a few hundred bucks worth of off-the-shelf equipment (and a fair
few tens or hundreds of hours worth of acquiring the skills needed to make it
all work together)

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JabavuAdams
The original article is about a UAV that masses 20 g, whereas the links you
mention have video from a Funjet, which is has a mass of 550g, according to
this: <http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/L4E_arctic.htm#x3>

So, that's 27x the mass -- a completely different problem in terms of
engineering.

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ph0rque
Just make the wings of semi-transparent solar cells
([http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/19/2958923/flexible-
transpare...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/19/2958923/flexible-transparent-
solar-panel-heliatek)) and you've made it immortal (at least during the day).

~~~
ars
You wouldn't be able to collect enough energy, solar energy is very diffuse,
and those wings are tiny.

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zdw
Maybe not for continual use, but if you had it land and charge then launch
again, you'd greatly increase the deployment time, range, and utility of such
a device.

Put a microphone or timed camera on it, and it would be pretty slick.

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nivertech
1\. Re: airports and train stations - its much easier and more productive to
hijack security cameras.

2\. Re: forests and jungle - much better results can be achieved by implanting
cameras and control chips into real birds.

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Someone
20 grams?
[http://www.delfly.nl/?site=DIII&menu=&lang=en](http://www.delfly.nl/?site=DIII&menu=&lang=en)
is almost an order of magnitude lighter.

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hartror
I am sure that weight/size isn't the only parameter they're optimizing around.
Likely battery life/flight range is the other primary parameter and optical &
audio quality and transmission range secondary priorities they would be
considering.

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kiba
Use the butterflies to identify privacy-invading butterflies.

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spudlyo
... and then destroy them with robotic spur-winged plovers.

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hnhg
Would the technology demonstrated to target and destroy mosquitoes with lasers
be useful in some application against these?

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drpancake
Imagine gaming the stock market with one of these. Just fly it into your
nearest Fortune 500 boardroom.

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FrankBooth
Nobody ever suspects the butterfly.

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gnu8
It would be best if israel didn't have these.

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Zhenya
Tell us why.

