Stanford's Francis Fukuyama Builds Personal Surveillance Drone

HerbieTMac writes "Political science professor Francis Fukuyama builds and flies his own personal surveillance drones. His current model requires ground visibility but he is working on the HAM license that would allow fully remote operation. His YouTube videos (video 1 , video 2) are particularly impressive." I had no idea that Francis Fukuyama had such technical interests.

Ham license

[Anonymous Coward]

A ham license might let him operate on different frequencies and with longer range. However the FAA does not allow a radio-control aircraft to operate out of view of the controller under current guidelines.

See also

[Anonymous Coward]

DIY Drones [diydrones.com]

Cool but not all that impressive

[Bretski]

Beside the fact that people have been doing this for years, he built this on a multi-rotor heli platform. Flight times for these are usually under 10 minutes, given the power needed to keep them in the air. If he really wants surveillance with long range, he should try a fixed-wing setup, where flight times can be 30-45 minutes. DIYDRONES.COM is a good place to start.

No worries...

[msauve]

The summary was written by Timothy, which means it's only peripherally related to reality.

The license is so he can do more sophisticated telemetry. FTA:

I've bought the package that includes a real time video transmitter and receiver, camera, and telemetry system that will send back GPS data on the drone's location, heading, airspeed, etc. This requires, among other things, a ham radio license.

Maybe he should stick to technology

[quax]

After all his "End of History" prognosis was spectacularly wrong.

OTS solutions already available

[GameboyRMH]

If you want one of your own, there are many solutions already available off-the-shelf, the cheapest is the Parrot AR.Drone which is computer-controlled via Wifi. If you want something a bit more serious, Mikrokopter makes kits and sells parts, but if you want more range you'll have to swap computer control via WiFi for a traditional FM remote plus UHF camera.