With developments in autonomous flight, and one eye on the tragic events in Glasgow, are drones likely to be the future direction of aerial surveillance in the domestic environment?
Current FAA/CAA controls heavily restrict usage to the point of irrelevance. I recently had a demo of a large electric six motor drone, which got airborne in a 30kt wind, and downlinked infra red as well as HD TV. However, when I would really want to use it, at night, possibly beyond visual range, to carry out an area search for a high risk missing person - I can't.
There is development to take place, but look at the Camcopter S100
System - Schiebel £ 300k, and an all up weight of 250lbs. Running a reliable turbine, these things can be up for six hours. Although it would still leave a dent, it wouldn't be quite as catastrophic in the event of a failure.
discuss?