WEBVTT - The FAA and Drones 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:12.240 Technology with tex Stuff from staff stats. Pay there and 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.880 welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. Then 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.959 it's a solo show today and a bit of an 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.720 up date. You see, back in two thousand thirteen, my 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.000 old co host Chris Pallette and I recorded an episode 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.800 about drones, and I thought it was about time to 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.360 record a sequel to that episode, and that's what brings 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.280 us here today. Now, there's gonna be some overlap with 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.720 that first episode, but then it's been three years and 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:39.519 I've bet a lot of you haven't even heard the 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.360 original one. Uh, if you have and it's one of 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.800 your favorites, I apologize for some of the overlap, but 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:49.440 mostly we're gonna be looking at the law, and I'll 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.239 use the first half of this episode to kind of 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.440 cover the working operation of a drone. UM and by drones, 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.880 I i'm talking about consumer and prosumer unmanned aerial V 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.959 vehicles or small unmanned aerial systems. So you get U 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.240 a v S or U A s IS, which more 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.200 frequently than not fall into the quad copter or quad 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.920 rotor category. Now there are other types as well, including 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.520 fixed wing aircraft and Moldy rotor drones that have more 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.039 than just the four but quad coptor is the form 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:24.760 factor that seems to be the most popular. It provides 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:30.399 a less stability and makes the whole whole industry more 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.840 attractive to a larger audience. And um, I should also 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.280 mention before I get into this too far, that the 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:42.480 term drone is technically a misnomer. To be a true drone, 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.640 at least in the you know, the traditional definition of drone, 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.160 typically it needs to be at least semi autonomous, meaning 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.160 it has to be able to operate on its own 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:57.120 for a significant amount of its use. Um, they have 0:01:57.200 --> 0:01:59.840 to have a specific purpose or mission. So a drone 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.640 has to be something that is got a specific reason 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:08.440 for existing, like spying, for example, or in the case 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.200 of things like predator drones, perhaps combat. They tend to 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.600 be much larger than the consumer and prosumer RC aircraft 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.240 on the market that I'll be talking about, and they 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.079 can often fly for many many hours, whereas your typical 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:27.440 consumer U a V is good for maybe half an 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.400 hour of use, depends on the battery. Some of them 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.880 are better than others, some of them have very limited 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.280 flight times. But the term drone has been applied to 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.720 these r C aircraft in general, and it's not only 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.120 just stuck to them, it's grown in popularity. More and 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.680 more people use the term drone to describe all of 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.840 these things. So you could argue that the definition of 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.800 drone has been expanded to include RC aircraft outside the 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.320 model plane and helicopter and blimp stuff. Pretty much anything 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.320 that isn't one of those traditional model aircraft now ends 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.400 up being called drowne and whether we like it or not, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.760 that's the term. So I know there are a lot 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.960 of r C enthusiasts out there, people who have been 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.680 hobbyists and model aircraft for years, who don't like the 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.400 use of the word drone to describe these vehicles. Uh. 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.160 They feel that is to misleading. Honestly, at this point, 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.880 I think that we could all agree that the definition 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.399 of drone has changed, and that's the nature of language. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:33.080 Sometimes language changes to incorporate things that weren't possible to 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.840 cover in previous uses of a word. It's a technology 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:41.680 that's been developed since the word was coined, and now 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.720 we just have to agree that this is one of 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.200 those susceptible terms. So I'm gonna be using the word drone, 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.120 or the abbreviations of U, A V or you know, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.920 acronyms whatever of you A V and UH and U 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.680 A s quite a bit in this, but they all 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.760 mean the same thing. I'll also be talking about quad 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.720 opters and quad rotors a lot, mainly because that represents 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.920 the vast majority of the market share for for these 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.960 types of devices out on the Well, I guess on 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.680 the air today. So, uh, now that I've got that 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.240 all the way, Um, what prompted the decision to talk 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.440 about drones again in the first place. Well, there's been 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.159 a lot of news about drones over the last couple 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.080 of years, and again we recorded the first episode, and 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.520 particularly there's been a lot of news and debate about 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.520 drones as they are being used to capture video and 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.160 images and situations that raise some pretty tricky questions. For example, 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.640 there's the story from two thousand fifteen of drones interfering 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:50.600 with firefighting operations in the San Bernardino National Forest in California. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.120 Some people were using drones to get images and video 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.360 of the fires, but that meant that firefighting helicopters were 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.760 grounded because the potential collision dangers. So because these drones 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:05.000 were hovering over the sites where fire was raging, the 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:09.280 helicopters couldn't get clearance to take off and deliver uh, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.440 you know, water or sand or whatever it was they 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.960 were going to use to put out the fires at 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.520 those regions, which meant the fire continue to get bigger 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.040 and bigger. And this raised a lot of questions for 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.520 people saying, well, is that as should it be legal 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.279 to operate a drone anywhere around there? If a drone 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:32.000 is operating under there, what what course of action is 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.680 law enforcement allowed to pursue? Could they shoot down a 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.560 drone like that using whatever means they had at their disposal. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.400 And that's kind of brought into public consciousness this idea 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.360 that the drones could potentially be dangerous and also not 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.560 just dangerous to property or people, but also to our 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.400 privacy because more and more drones are are equipped with 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:01.160 these cameras, some of which can capt you're pretty high 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.680 quality video, So that means that even if you're far away, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.480 if you've got a high enough resolution, you could digitally 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.880 zoom in a couple of levels down and still get 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.080 a closer look at something while you know, from an 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:17.800 external point of view it may seem the drone is 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.119 pretty far away. There are a lot of different questions 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.720 that come up from that. Another recent story involves filmmaking. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.640 This was one that prompted me to do an episode 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.000 of House Stop Works Now about this. The production crew 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.719 of Star Wars Episode eight had a real issue with drones. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.720 They were shooting in the UK. They had a location 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.560 scouted out and they were shooting at that location, and 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.680 they had this issue where people who were operating drones 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.360 were flying them close to the location in order to 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:51.440 get pictures and video of what was going on. So 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:56.120 when the crew moved to Croatia to do another stage 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.880 of the production for the film, they actually hired News 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:06.040 Security Team members to help bolster their numbers. And these 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:10.400 new team members were drone pilots and their job was 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:17.280 to intercept and stop any snooping drones from getting pictures 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:22.960 of the filming, which presumably included colliding with them so 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.080 that they would bring down the other drone um And 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.120 that raises the question of well is that legal? Is 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.080 it legal for some private company to use means to 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.800 bring down someone else's drone if that person's drone and 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.160 spying on what they're doing and um. And it's a 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.440 tough question. It's it's one that does not have an 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:48.680 immediate answer necessarily, particularly since we're talking about croatia UM. 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.400 So there's a lot of questions about legality, what, when, where, 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:54.600 and how can you fly your drone? Is it ever 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.120 legal to bring down someone else's drone? And once again 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.080 we see that technology has outpaced the legal system. This 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.200 is not a new thing. We've seen it a lot. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.119 The Internet really drove this home in more recent past, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.200 where you see the capability of doing things far outstrips 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.840 what we were able to do before. And then we 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.400 see the legal system try to react to this and 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.520 and compensate for it. Sometimes it overreacts. You could argue 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:25.320 that some of the in fact, I think you could 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.360 argue successfully that several of the laws that have been 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:35.719 passed to guard against copyright and piracy uh are overreactions 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.120 to the ability to copy material much more easily in 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.280 the Internet and computer age then you could in the past. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:47.640 Before you had computers, it was a real, you know, effort. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.760 It took a lot of effort to copy something and 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.920 distribute it. So the laws were pretty you know, they covered, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.959 they protected copyright owners, but they were pretty simple. Now 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.800 that it's a lot easier to make lots of copies, 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:09.400 those laws have become increasingly restrictive and overreaching. In some cases. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.680 The fear is the same thing could happen with U 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.920 A v. S. And in fact, some would argue it 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.520 already has started to happen there. And just so you know, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:20.600 I need to get this out of the way. I'll 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.640 be focusing primarily on the United States in this episode 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.240 because that's where I live. But these issues are going 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.880 on and questions are being asked and and actions are 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.720 being taken all over the world. Uh, regarding drones. I mean, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.280 the UK in particular had the story of the the 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.439 drone that was there was a story that a drone 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:46.240 had collided with a British Airways flight that was taking off, 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.400 I think, and that ended up bringing up a conversation 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.200 over in the UK. But these are conversations happening all 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.040 over the world. I'll mostly be focusing on the US because, uh, 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.280 it's one of those It's the country that is trying 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.960 to figure this out, and a lot of other countries 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.000 are looking to the US as a model for what 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.680 to do with their own laws. So that's why I'm 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:11.440 going to be looking at it. But this is still 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.280 tricky because there are different regions in the US that 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.000 have their own local laws that may or may not 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.240 come into conflict with any federal regulations once those are 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:28.800 finally published. So we've got a lot of of ambiguity 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.160 out there. Also, there are other places in the world 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.320 that have much stricter privacy laws than the United States does. 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:40.640 In the US, we're fairly fairly uh concerned about about privacy. 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.640 A lot of people don't like the idea of um 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.720 of cameras on every corner, for example, Whereas in the 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.079 UK that's something that happens pretty frequently in in urban 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.800 areas particularly, but in other parts of Europe it's it's 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.880 kind of the opposite. The privacy laws are such that, 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.200 uh that it may end up we may sing stricter 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.120 regulations in those areas for drone use um as opposed 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:11.000 to the U S. So, uh that all being said, 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.320 I thought it would be also a good reminder to 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.760 just kind of go over the way a drone flies 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.400 to explain how it works. I mean, this this podcast 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.040 is part of how stuff works. Big shock to all 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.240 of you guys out there who weren't aware of that. 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.560 Be Yes, How Stuff works is the is the company 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.120 I work for, text Stuff being one of the mini 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.880 podcasts we do, So I thought I would take this 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.640 opportunity to explain how quad copters work. So this is 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.640 specifically about the quad copter style of U A V 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.720 S or drones um, knowing that you know there are 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:48.200 other other methods out there. But a quad copter has 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.360 four rotors, which you would probably imagined from the name quad, 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.120 and it's arranged in a cross formation. So two of 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.360 the rotors spend in a clockwise direction and the other 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.600 two rote eight witter shans, which is an old way 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.760 of saying counter clockwise. Uh. And it's an old way 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.280 that I like because I'm a Shakespeare fan. But at 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.480 any rate, you've probably heard me say it before. So 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.080 to go clockwise, to go counterclockwise, the rotors are in 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.320 a fixed pitch, meaning that the rotors themselves don't tilt. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:24.679 They are uh stuck in that position. Now, typically you 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.200 would need to tilt the pitch of a rotor forward 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.280 in order to get forward momentum and to do anything 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.280 other than just hover in place. So with a helicopter 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.120 you may have rotors that can pitch forward a little bit, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.240 and that will start to let the helicopter move forward. 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.240 The quad copter does this by changing the rotational speed 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.880 of the various rotors, so they might make certain rotors 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:51.280 turn a little slower than other rotors. That will allow 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:56.120 the the the quad copter to telt in the proper 0:12:56.120 --> 0:13:00.200 direction and thus move in that direction. And this is 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.440 a very delicate thing. You have to be very careful. 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:04.720 You want to generate enough lift to keep the quad 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.920 copter in the air, but you also want to have 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.960 a differential between the two um the two sets of 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.240 rotors in order to make sure that it's tilting the 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.560 right way to get your quad copter to go where 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.280 you want it to go. And obviously it can also 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.520 ascend or descend, so we can go higher or lower. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.000 The motors on a quad copter copter are actually pretty 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.800 simple because they only need to turn the shaft of 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.679 the respective propellers in one direction, so you don't need 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.000 a motor that can reverse the direction of the propeller. 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.560 That's not necessary. It just has to be able to 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.560 turn either you know, oriented in such way so it 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.160 turns either clockwise or counterclockwise. But that's it. That's all 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:50.800 it has to do. And in fact, mechanically speaking, your 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:56.080 typical quad copter is incredibly simple. It really just has 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:01.320 two moving parts. Uh well, I guess technically eight, because 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.640 quad copters have four motors and four propellers, but those 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.160 are the only things that are moving on a quad copter. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.760 Everything else can be perfectly stationary. Um. So mechanically they 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:17.320 are very simple, simple things. However, electronically they are incredibly 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:22.200 sophisticated and complicated. That's because it would be next to 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:27.280 impossible to fly a multi rotor vehicle using manual controls 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.520 and manually adjusting the speed of each of these rotors. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.800 Quad Copters take advantage of sophisticated sensors and electronics to 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.640 maintain their flight. If the rotors spin at the wrong speed, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.560 the quad copter would either crash or it would fly 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.240 off in the wrong direction and then crash. For a 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.720 quad copter to remain hovering, each of those propellers has 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.440 to be spinning at the right speed so that they 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.960 generate the same amount of force we're talking about, uh, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.840 the right amount of torque and thrust and compensating for 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.960 the right amount of drag, which may not be equivalent 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.440 across all four rotors, so you have to have sensors 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.760 that can detect this sort of stuff and make tiny 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.640 minute adjustments just so that you can have a quad 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:16.200 copter hovering in in space, because if any of those 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.440 conditions changed, then the quad copter would go out of control. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.800 So you typically have a quad copter with lots of 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.479 microprocessors that are paired with sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.120 to allow the little vehicle to make these adjustments for you, 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.680 perhaps up to several thousand times per minute, just so 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.920 you can cover in place. Um and early consumer quad 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.800 copters were essentially limited in what they could do on purpose. 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.840 It wasn't like it was a technological limitation at the time. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.480 It was that the people the companies making the quad 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.640 copters wanted to make something that anyone could use. And 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.640 this is what differentiates quad copters from other types of 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.760 model aircraft. Any hobbyist who has been in model aircraft 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.320 for a long time will tell you it takes a 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:07.080 lot of training and practice to get good at controlling 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.000 model aircraft, whether it's a model plane or a model 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.680 helicopter or whatever. In order to get really adept at it. 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.880 You have to dedicate a lot of time to learning 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:22.080 how to operate the device and then just practice. In fact, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.120 a lot of people will say it could take up 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.040 to a year of regular practice to get to get 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.080 competent at something like operating a model airplane or a 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.920 model helicopter. So there's a pretty high barrier to entry. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.840 It's not just the price tag of these devices, which 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:44.120 can be pretty hefty in some cases, but also it's 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.680 the the barrier of the learning curve. It is not 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.520 easy to do. It is, however, very rewarding for people 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:58.480 who are you know, who enjoy recreational RC model aircraft flying. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.640 They find great joy a and there are a lot 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:06.080 of really awesome organizations out there where people work together 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:11.199 and share their knowledge and have events and reserve space 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.840 where they can fly their aircraft and really enjoy their hobby. 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.760 The quad copter, however, is so easy to use that 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.000 it allows a much broader array of people the opportunity 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:30.040 to play. Also, the price tag has come down significantly 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.000 over the last few years, so now it's more affordable 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.760 to a larger population. The flips that you know, the 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:38.680 downside of that just means that there are way more 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:43.159 people with way less training getting into model aircraft, in 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.080 this case the the U A V S and U 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.639 A S S drone area UM, and so that's starting 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:55.359 to cause some problems. So the early quad copters were 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.439 limited on purpose in what they could do so that 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.200 it would make it very easy to operate the quad copter. UH. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.760 This meant that quad copters mostly had limits on how 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.199 fast they could travel as well as how far they 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.120 could tilt in any given direction. UH. And the purpose 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.320 for that was to improve the stability of the quad copter. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.199 It was to create a a an experience that was 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:24.359 easy to control for your beginner, your novice. UH. Now 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.560 today there are quad copters on the market that don't 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.440 have those those limitations and restrictions in place, so that 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.120 if you are a skilled pilot, someone who has really 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.239 kind of mastered the use of quad copters, you can 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.840 do all sorts of maneuvers. You can go at really 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.359 high speeds, and you can do stuff like flips and 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.359 rolls if you're going at the right speed and you 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.000 do you do the timing correctly. So those quad copters 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.920 tend to be a little more difficult to control, particularly 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:54.960 for a novice, but a lot of them also have 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.000 a mode that put those old restrictions back in place 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.840 and make them more user friendly, so you can go 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.760 out there and look for a drone that's design so 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.720 that advanced pilots can really do some cool stuff with them, 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.760 but also still have this beginner mode where you can, 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.480 you know, have the stabilizers put on, so essentially it's 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.840 not gonna flip over or go too quickly, and you 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:25.119 can learn the fine motor skills needed to operate it 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.359 until you're ready to take the training wheels off, so 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.240 to say. Now, consumer quad cover copts became available several 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.119 years ago. I remember seeing the parrot A R drone UM, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.719 one of the earliest drones I ever saw in person 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:44.320 at CS probably two thousand seven, No, two thousand eight, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.800 I'm sorry, ces. Two thousand and eight, I believe was 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.000 the first time I saw a drone UM, and that 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:56.920 was the parrot A R drone. And they weren't um. Uh. 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.680 They're pretty much lumped in with other types of model 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:05.280 aircraft by by government organizations like the f a A. 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:07.840 So essentially they said, hey, you know the rules that 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:12.960 we have for operators of model airplanes or helicopters, those 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.119 rules will also go ahead and apply to U A 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.240 v s and that already caused some issues, and I'll 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.639 talk more about that in a second. But another issue 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:24.159 is that the U A v s have become more 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:29.720 sophisticated over time, and they're not because they're not terribly expensive, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.240 and because you have more and more people buying them, 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:37.360 and because you've got things like some semi autonomous features 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.800 that make it even easier to use. We're talking about 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.960 drones that have GPS devices incorporated into them, which allows 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.560 them to pilot flight paths like you can you can 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.560 program a flight path for your drone and it will 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.520 follow it. Um. Some of them anyway, that have GPS 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.040 devices or you might be able to specify a spot 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:01.320 and say, if you lose r C contact with the controller, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.399 returned to this location, or if battery gets down below 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.520 x per cent, come back to this location and UH. 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.439 In that way, you know, you can retrieve the drone 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.000 even if you somehow lose the ability to communicate with 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:20.359 it with your remote control. Some of them also have 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.280 UH the ability to follow a specific target, so you 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.439 could say, hey, you know, follow this, follow whatever the 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.439 controller is in like a vehicle or or identify this 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.600 thing follow it. That also raises some questions. I mean, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.600 it could be really cool if you're doing something like 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.800 capturing footage of yourself as you ride a bike through 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.680 a neighborhood. That could be really neat, or it could 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:49.240 be really a problem if you're having it follow someone 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:52.000 who did not give you consent to do that thing. 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.760 A lot of them have HD or even u h 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.240 D Ultra high definition cameras mounted on them, which give 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.480 them the capacity need to capture video footage. Um there's 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.400 one d j I one that is like it has 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.040 an ultra high definition camera mounted on it, and I 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.520 think it costs about eight hundred bucks. Now, not that 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.440 long ago U A V s of that size cost 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.960 a couple of thousand dollars. And also not that long 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:25.520 ago UHD cameras cost several thousand dollars, like thirty thousand 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.399 dollars when they were first coming out back in the 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.399 early two thousand's. So now we're at a point where 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.720 you can get both of these technologies put together in 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.720 one thing for less than a thousand dollars, which is 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.840 pretty amazing, and it's opened up a lot of opportunities 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:48.320 for filmmakers to use a new tool at their disposal, 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:51.000 replace things like crane shots and helicopter shots with a 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:56.119 drone shot, and uh, and that's pretty uh, it's it's 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:58.119 pretty amazing to look at. But it's also a little 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.200 worrisome because you have a potential tool for people to 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.000 use to spy on one another, or to spy on 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.679 other businesses or government facilities, that kind of thing. So 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:15.040 it's raised some pretty tough questions. Some of these drones 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.359 also have obstacle avoidance capabilities, which makes them even you 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:23.080 easier to use, which that's a good thing, especially if 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.120 you're flying your drone it's a pretty far distance from 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:30.000 where you are and you've got an obstacle between you 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.840 and where the drone is. It can be difficult sometimes 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:35.800 to judge the depth of that kind of stuff. So 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.200 if you're flying a drone and it otherwise would be 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.359 bumping into, say, I don't know a radio antenna. I 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:44.600 watched a drone nearly collide with one a few weeks ago. 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.920 That's not too far from my house. Uh, And something 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.680 like obstacle avoidance would allow the drone to navigate around 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:58.240 the obstacle even if your controls were putting it on 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:02.560 a collision course. So pretty useful stuff, but it also 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:08.080 creates other opportunities for problems. So a few other facts 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:10.359 I need to get to before I talk about specific 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:16.359 rules and regulations. Uh, typically quad copters are sized in 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:21.159 various categories like one, eight, one thousand, that kind of stuff. 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:25.840 So what do those numbers mean. It's the distance in 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:30.879 millimeters from one rotor to the rotor diagonally opposite it. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:34.720 So you take one rotor, you you stretch a measuring 0:24:34.720 --> 0:24:37.879