Father builds automated drone to watch son walk to the bus stop
Covered in extensive detail on the IEEE Spectrum magazine site, a father names Paul Wallich in Vermont decided to build a camera-equipped quadcopter to follow his son from home to the school bus stop. He specifically wanted to build the security device for extremely cold mornings in December and January in order to avoid the quarter-mile walk to and from the bus stop. To get started, he first purchased a basic quadcopter kit and was quickly able to get up in the air due to the simple construction. He also designed a few sets of replacement legs out of foam board to cushion landings.
Rather than develop a custom video solution, Wallich attached an old smartphone to the quadcopter and turned on a video chat application in order to send a video feed back to his computer at home. That particular model of quadcopter could lift several pounds, so the addition of the smartphone wasn’t significant in regards to the effect of the added weight on maneuverability.
While the software controlling the quadcopter can be programmed to travel a specific set of coordinates, Wallich needed to come up with a solution that would work with the varied path his son took each day on the way to the school bus stop. In order to accomplish this, he created a small GPS beacon powered by a coin-cell battery that lasts up to a week. This beacon was placed within his son’s backpack and the quadcopter was programmed to stay a specific distance from the beacon.
According to Wallich, he ran into issues with wind as well as obstacles in the path such as branches on trees. In an interview with NBC News, Wallich stated “Vermont, as it turns out, is a really bad place for doing this kind of thing because you have hills and you have trees. Hills mean that the altitude control gets a lot more complicated and trees mean you have to do obstacle avoidance. If my kid is walking along the road and there is a branch overhanging the road, the quadcopter will gleefully run smack into it.”
He’s looking into adding more sonar units on the quadcopter in order to assist with collision avoidance as well as a new sensor to provide more accurate positioning while in the air. Wallich also discovered that the lithium-ion battery life powering the quadcopter was limited at best. He had enough time to fly to the bus stop, hover for a few minutes and fly back to the house before the battery would go completely dead. In addition, power requirements doubled when the quadcopter was in motion or attempting to fly against a stiff breeze. Adding extra batteries to the quadcopter to increase power also increased the weight, thus it wasn’t significantly helpful.
Regarding the safety of the device, Wallich stated “With the current state of the technology, unless I really changed the design a lot, I would not want it within 15 feet of my kid.” However, Wallich indicated that his son liked the automated robot drone.
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Best to know all the facts before finalizing your conclusions. This article's commentary is a great opportunity to see how people communicate.
...I'd would've built one too, though.
Let's start with this - the last time extreme lazy inspired invention, we got a wonderful reclining sofa-chair. So could this be that bad? Yes it could.
"He specifically wanted to build the security device for extreme cold mornings... to avoid the quarter-mile walk to and from the bus stop."
You, sir, have won "dead-beat-dad" of the year award. Let's start with this security device that does NOTHING to protect your child. You just get to watch, hopefully horrified, as somebody kidnaps your child or runs them over with a car.
Next, let's move on to the bataan death march-like distance you must walk... Wait, a quarter-mile you say? 400 meters? That's really too much? Ok, I'll entertain that you're too weezy and/or out of shape to handle such a minimal distance because of the "extreme cold." Did we forget the advent of those self-contained environments that help us travel to various locations during any form of weather?
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED THAT THE DAD SITS AT HOME WHILE THE KID WALKS IN THE COLD? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! How much apathy must you have towards your children?
Finally, I'll end my diatribe with this thought. Fathers in bad neighborhoods throughout the country are celebrating. Their child's walk home from the bus stop passed all those crack-heads, drug dealers, and gang bangers won't be any safer. But at least dad's will be.
Oh yeah, somebody already invented it: http://t.brookstone.com/parrot-ar-drone-2-quadricopter
He could add a better lighter battery and attach some sort of tazer to it.. XD So when it sees someone walking close to the child it flies in and tazes the person..
All I know is, I wouldn't want to get up and walk my child a Half mile then back home would be a mile in the cold.