It is easier than ever to operate a drone in the US. But off-the-shelf UAVs don't always fit different pilots' needs.
The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), however, has a solution.
A new system allows users to design, simulate, and build their own custom drone based on specific requirements including payload, cost, flight time, battery usage, and other factors.
Change the size, shape, and structure of the vehicle to create a personalized flying machine; check out the video below to see CSAIL researchers' unusual-looking five-rotor "pentacopter" or rabbit-shaped "bunnycopter."
"This system opens up new possibilities for how drones look and function," MIT professor and CSAIL project supervisor Wojciech Matusik said in a statement. "It's no longer a one-size-fits-all approach for people who want to make and use drones for particular purposes."
The Federal Aviation Administration in June released long-awaited regulations for the commercial use of drones—for things like crop monitoring, bridge inspections, rescue operations, aerial photography, and maybe even deliveries.
A task typically left up to the experts, developing multicopters involves a lot of trial and error, and is "more or less impossible for an amateur user," PhD student Tao Du said.
But CSAIL's program makes it easy for anyone, even without a computer-science background, to design a UAV. Pick and choose from a database of parts, and let the system do the rest: compute size of elements, analyze metrics, optimize flight plans.
Future versions, according to MIT, could proactively give design suggestions, recommending where a rotor should go to accommodate the desired payload.
Drone rules have been in the works for several years. In 2012, President Obama signed the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, which included a mandate to loosen restrictions and integrate commercial drones into the National Airspace System.
In 2013, the Transportation Department revealed its long-term plan for making that a reality, and has since been granting waivers and setting up test sites throughout the US.
Last year, the FAA took the first step toward allowing the expanded use of commercial drones in the US with a proposal that garnered 4,600 public comments, and helped inform the summer's final rules.
According to the White House, the expansion of commercial drones could add $82 billion in economic value and 100,000-plus jobs in the US by 2025.
MIT CSAIL's project was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.