Saturday, October 27, 2012

MAV (Miniature UAVs)

Miniature UAVs or MAVs have been in development since the early 1990s and have developed tremendously over the years. A large majority of the research done to produce these MAVs was done by universities and corporations. MAVs are generally smaller than 2 feet in size and are capable of hovering using propellers or various sorts of ducted propellor systems. You may even see some flying out at your local RC field. They're called quadcopters, and show just how easy aerial surveillance can be with these aircraft.
uav
Quadcopter UAV design
Source: gizmag.com

A unique ability of the MAV is its ability to 'perch and stare' or land in a location and film. This has great advantages because the MAV can use tremendously less amounts of power than constantly flying, allowing for weeks of surveillance. One downside is that MAVs are traditionally line of sight, or unable to go beyond 100ft away from the operator. Some onboard cameras have been developed, as well as autonomous flight. This is still in testing but will be available soon I believe.



design mav
A proposed MAV design
Source: fas.org
Concept MAVs include designs coming from insects, that's right insects. Dragonflies are small, and able to fly in any direction they want. Concept designers have tried taking advantage of this for surveillance but unfortunately have been unable to produce the same size and lift capability. Our technology just isn't developed enough. Some say these could be available in the next 10 years, though.

2 comments:

  1. I always find it amazing how they can make these things always better and smaller. Great article!

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  2. SO where i can get one of these for Christmas ? :) Nice article.

    ReplyDelete