Domestic Use of Drones Make Privacy Advocates Anxious [Landscape]

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People and Places

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Domestic use of drones make privacy advocates anxious

DOMESTIC USE OF DRONES MAKE PRIVACY ADVOCATES

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Page 1 of 48People and Places: Domestic use of drones make privacy advocates anxious

1/12/2014http://peopleus.blogspot.com/2011/07/domestic-use-of-drones-make-privacy.html

The discovery by the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (3 October 2012) that, Despite reviewing 13 months worth

of reporting originating from fusion centers from April 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010, the Subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which

uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot means that there

is no evidence of the existence of any domestic terrorist threat. On that basis, it is rational to infer (with high probability) that there is no domestic

terrorist threat.

We also know that there are 300 or more FEMA camps distributed around the country. We know that Congress has authorized 30,000 drones to conduct

surveillance on the American people. We know that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had requisitioned 1.5 billion rounds of .40 calibre

hollow-point ammunition, which is not even permissible for use in warfare under the Geneva Conventions. Since DHS does not conduct operations

abroad, it is rational to infer (with virtual certainty) that DHS must be acquiring that massive stock of ammo for use in the United States.

And we now learn that Congress is in the process of passing H.R. 6566, The Mass Fatality Planning and Religious Considerations Act, which was posted

on the govtrack.us website FEMA To Mobilize For Mass Fatality Planning (5 October 2012), mandating federal agency to respond to funeral homes,

cemeteries, and mortuaries being overwhelmed in the aftermath of a mass terror attack, natural disaster or other crisis. It was posted this after

having been approved by the House on 28 September 2012. Not to make an obvious point, but there is no domestic terrorist threat and no

conceiveable natural disaster could possibly justify this dramatic authorization for coping with staggering numbers of bodies.

But these innocent-looking devices are actually some of the most

sophisticated drones on the planet.

The U.S. Air Force is developing the miniature spy craft with the goal of

making them so small that they resemble birds and even insects.

Domestic Drone Spying in America

On January 10, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) staff

attorney Jennifer Lynch headlined, Are Drones Watching You?

saying:

Micro-machines are go: The U.S. military

drones that are so small they even look

like insects

They look like children's toys that are left discarded in wardrobes around

the world.



Scroll down for video

Causing quite a buzz: Lead researcher Dr Gregory Parker holds a small,

winged drone that resembles an insect. The U.S. military's goal is to make

the devices so small that they resemble birds and even insects

Some even have moving wings that military chiefs hope will look so

convincing that people won't pay them any attention.

The Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are being developed at Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

The base's Air Force Research Laboratory mission is to develop MAVs that

can find, track and target adversaries while operating in complex urban

environments.

The engineers, led by Dr Gregory Parker, are using a variety of small

helicopters and drones in the lab to develop the programs and software.

Testing takes place in a controlled indoor environment, during which data

is gathered to analyse for further development.

EFF sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for

information on domestic drone use. Whos flying UAVs it asked?

Drones carry surveillance equipment, including video cameras,

infrared ones, heat sensors, and radar for sophisticated virtually

constant spying. Newer versions carry super high resolution

gigapixel cameras. They enable tracking above 20,000 feet.

They can monitor up to 65 enemies simultaneously, and can see

targets up to 25 miles away.

Predator drones can eavesdrop on electronic transmissions. A

new models able to penetrate Wi-Fi networks and intercept text

messages and cell phone calls covertly.

Even domestically, drones may be weaponized with tasers, bean

bag guns, and other devices able to harm or perhaps kill.

Currently, the US Customs and Border Protection uses UAVs for

surveilling borders. State and local law enforcement agencies

also use them to investigate cattle rustling, drug dealing, and

the search for missing persons.

Flying above 400 feet requires FAA certification. Informations

unavailable on who obtained authorizations for what purposes.

FAA comes under the Department of Transportation (DOT). It

failed to respond to EFFs April 2011 FOIA request. EFF attorney

Lynch said:

Drones give the government and other (UAV) operators a

powerful new surveillance tool to gather extensive and intrusive

data on Americans movements and activities.

As the government begins to make policy decisions about the

use of these aircraft, the public needs to know more about how

and why these drones are being used to surveil United States

citizens.

Drones could dramatically increase the physical tracking of

citizens tracking that can reveal deeply personal details about

our private lives. Were asking the DOT to follow the law and

respond to our FOIA request so we can learn more about what

the public has a right to know.



An insect-sized drone. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's mission is

to develop MAVs that can find, track and target adversaries while

operating in complex urban environments

The Supreme Court hasnt been people friendly on many issues,

including privacy. In United States v. Place (1983), the court

held that sniffs by police dogs trained to detect illegal drugs

arent searches under the Fourth Amendment.

Theyre sui generis, intended only to reveal the presence or

absence of narcotics. In other words, Fourth Amendment

protections dont apply to non-human searchers. As a result,

privacy rights are on the chopping block for elimination.

Already, in fact, theyre gravely compromised under

institutionalized Bush administration surveillance policy.

In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authorized

spying through the National Applications Office (NOA). It was

described as the executive agent to facilitate the use of

intelligence community technological assets for civil, homeland

security and law enforcement purposes within the United

States.

With or without congressional authorization or oversight, the

executive branch may authorize state-of-the-art technology,

including military satellite imagery, to spy on Americans

covertly.

Though initial plans were delayed, eye in the sky spying ahead

potentially will monitor everyone everywhere once full

implementations achieved. Included will be thousands of Big

Brother drones watching.

On February 3, the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR 658) cleared

both houses of Congress after differences between Senate and

House versions were resolved. Expect Obama to sign it shortly.

It authorizes domestic drone spying under provisions to test and

license commercial drones by 2015. Estimates of up to 30,000

UAVs could overfly America by 2020. Privacy advocates are

concerned. Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of

American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, said:

There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy

and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial

entities.



You'll believe a toy can spy: First Lieutenant Greg Sundbeck (left) and Dr

Parker watch a test flight of a drone

The trials are the latest research into tiny drones funded by the U.S.

military.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent years

developing a whole host of cyborg critters, in the hopes of creating the

ultimate 'fly on the wall'.

Two years ago, researchers revealed that they had created cyborg beetles

that can be guided wirelessly via a laptop.

Using implants, they worked out how to control a beetle's take-off, flight

and landing by stimulating the brain to work the wings.

First Lieutenant Sundbeck prepares a computer controlled drone for a

test flight in the microaviary lab at Wright Patterson Air Force Base

According to Electronic Privacy Information Centers Amie

Stepanovich, Currently, the only barrier to the routine use of

drones for persistent surveillance are the procedural

requirements imposed by the FAA for the issuance of

certificates.

Changing the rules changes the game. Expect it. Its coming once

Obama signs HR 658. UAV proliferation already is expanding

rapidly. A July 2010 FAA Fact Sheet said in America alone,

approximately 50 companies, universities, and government

organizations are developing and producing some 155 unmanned

aircraft designs.

Americas expected to account for about 70% of global growth.

In 2011, Congress, DOD, state and local governments, as well as

AUVSI pressured the FAA to review and expand its current

Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA) program related

to unmanned aircraft (UA).

The agencys also examining its own rules for small UAs. Its

expected to authorize expanded COA use shortly.

ACLU Concerns

On February 6, the ACLU headlined, Congress Trying to Fast-

Track Domestic Drone Use, Sideline Privacy, saying:

In fact, Congress already authorized expanded domestic drones.

Obamas poised to sign HR 658 into law. Provisions in it include

requiring FAA:

(1) to simplify and accelerate permission for drone operations.

The agencys already working on loosening regulations by spring

2012.

(2) to establish a pilot project within six months for six test

zones to integrate drones into the national airspace system.

(3) create a comprehensive plan within nine months to safely

accelerate the integration of civil (privately operated)

unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.



What on the outside appears cheap is actually camouflaged and

sophisticated military equipment

They controlled turns through stimulating the basilar muscles on one side

or the other to make the wings on that side flap harder.

The embedded system uses nerve and muscle stimulators, a microbattery

and a microcontroller with transceiver.

They were implanted in the beetles when they were at the pupal stage.

Three types of large beetles from Cameroon were used in the

experiments at the University of California in Berkeley. The smallest was

2cm long, while the largest was 20cm.

(4) after submitting a comprehensive plan, publish final rules

within 18 months to allow civil operation of small (under 55

pounds) drones in Americas airspace.

On December 15, the ACLU published a report titled,

Protecting Privacy From Aerial Surveillance: Recommendations

for Government Use of Drone Aircraft, saying:

Theyre coming to America. Privacy may be seriously

compromised. Protections are urgently needed. The report

recommends that drones should not be deployed unless there

are grounds to believe that they will collect evidence on a

specific crime.

If a drone will intrude on reasonable privacy expectations, a

warrant should be required. The report also urges restrictions

on retaining images of identifiable people, as well as an open

process for developing policies on how drones will be used.

Overflying America with drones unrestrained changes the game.

A surveillance society will be institutionalized to monitor,

track, and record our every move.

Given a bipartisan penchant for spying, expect the worst.

Privacy, like other civil and human rights, is fast disappearing

under policies in place or coming to destroy it.

The age of Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) UAV is coming; for now, use

of these types of drones for high-risk law enforcement purposes

is rare, although the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans

to implement new rules that would allow the routine flying of

these drones across the United States by 2013; equipped with

high-resolution, infrared and thermal-imaging cameras, these

drones could provide police with the accurate monitoring of all

types of civilian areas and topographies; privacy advocates worry



First Lieutenant Zachary Goff operates the control console during a test

flight at the Micro Air Vehicles lab

The appeal of a drone, or unmanned aircraft, is obvious: avoid putting a

pilot in danger and slip behind enemy lines with increasingly small, light

and quiet machines.

Now, a Northern California-based aerospace company has unveiled the

smallest drone yet that can carry weapons behind enemy lines (and

hopefully not impale our troops, as humorously shown in a recent episode

of the TV show 'Weeds'.)

The Arcturus company is showing its new T-20 drone off at the Special

Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida.

Launching the WASP micro-UAV // Source: defense-update.com

AeroVironments (AV) Wasp is a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) that

provided Texas law enforcement officers and SWAT members

with the confidence to raid and successfully detain a highly

armed and dangerous suspect.

The aerial sweep of the suspects property was the first ever

accomplished by a drone in the state which did not involve

border patrol. The drones use foreshadows what some contend

is an invasion of privacy through the misuse of technology.

Reaching heights of up to 400 feet, these small, portable, and

rugged unmanned aerial platforms were designed for front-line

day/night reconnaissance and surveillance by AV and the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For now,

use of these types of drones for high-risk law enforcement

purposes is rare, although the Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) plans to implement new rules that would allow the routine

flying of these drones across the United States by 2013.

Equipped with high-resolution, infrared and thermal-imaging

cameras, these drones could provide police with the accurate

monitoring of all types of civilian areas and topographies.

According to legal experts, police will still have to attain

warrants prior to spying on private residences of interest. A

report by the Washington Post details how as of 1 December



Testing: An Arcturus T-20 drone on a test flight at Camp Roberts in

California. The drone may become the smallest yet to carry weapons, if

current tests with the U.S. military pan out

The T-20 has a 17-foot wingspan, putting it in the so-called Tier II class of

unmanned aircraft. The company claims the device can carry up to 65

pounds of payload, 'in excess of 16 hours'. Most of the fuel is stored in the

wings, leaving more room for cargo and camera equipment, which can

beam back live video to the operators. The company's website states: 'A

retracting sensor gives a full 360 degree unobstructed field of view'. It is

powered by a 10-horsepower, four-stroke engine and boasts a system of

removable pallets 'for ease of payload swapping'. The new drone is a bit

smaller than the Shadow drone already in use by the U.S. Army and Marine

Corps.

The T-20 is billed primarily as a spy craft, although Wired.com reports

that an example shown in Tampa boasts a small missile strapped on the

underside of its left wing.

Wired.com wrote: 'Thats a Saber, a 10-pound laser-guided missile

manufactured by MBDA.

'In tests, Arcturus discovered that the wings of its drone can carry 22

pounds worth of cargo, making it a candidate to wield MBDAs missiles'.

Arcturus engineer Eric Folkestad told Wired: 'No one else can do that in

our size category'.

2010, the FAA allowed more than 270 authorizations for the use

of varying types of drones, of which 35 percent were held by the

Defense Department, 11 percent by NASA, and 5 percent by

DHS. Since the aforementioned search and seizure of the

suspect in Austin, the department of public safety in Texas has

run six operations using drones to conduct surveillance of drug

and human traffickers at the southern border.

The drones effectiveness, cost, and simplicity are helping to

boost the allure of the technology; interest by the United

Kingdom might lead to aerial surveillance for the 2012 Olympics

in London. An entire system, along with the ground operating

computer amounts to less than $50,000 compared to the

approximate cost of $1 million for a helicopter. This disparity in

cost is the reason why fewer than 300 of the approximately

19,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States have an

aerial capability.

Before opening up the airspace to drone technology, the FAA

will be addressing whether unmanned aircraft will be able to

handle communication, command, and control, as well as how

their ability to sense and avoid other aircraft, since the

drones typically operate in a battlefield environment.

For the technology currently being used by the CIA to ferret out terrorist

leaders in the hills of Pakistan is set to arrive in a neighbourhood near you

- and there's nowhere to hide.



Ready to launch: An Arcturus T-20 loaded on a pneumatic catapult, with

two guided parafoil systems mounted under the wings

ARCTURUS T-20 SPECS

* Wingspan: 207 (configurable)

* Length: 113

* Power: 10 horsepower

* Max Payload: 65+ lbs

* Empty weight: 80 lbs

* Gross weight: 150+ lbs

* Max Duration: 16+ hours

* Max Height: 15,000 feet

The website reports that the U.S. military has been trying to put weapons

on Shadow drones, without success.

The larger Predator drones already carry Hellfire missiles, and are

increasingly being used against suspected terrorists in the Middle East and

Afghanistan.

There has been talk of trying to use Predator drones to assassinate Libya's

Colonel Gaddafi, if he could be precisely located.

Coming to a sky near you? A remote CCTV camera drone circles in the sky

during a political rally in Britain last year. Drones are set to play a large

part in the future of policing - but could they affect our personal lives

also?

Personal drones - smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator - are

the next hot technology for people looking to track celebrities, cheating

lovers, or even wildlife.

And it could be a dream tool for the paparazzi, named after the Iralian for

buzzing mosquitoes.

Now the metaphor is coming to life. Several personal drones are

scheduled for completion next year.

A police constable in Liverpool tries out the force's new remote-

controlled UAV. Liverpool police have already used such drones to make

at least one arrest



However, Pakistan recently called for an end to drone strikes in their

airspace.

Mr Folkestad told Wired 12 of the drones have been shipped to Marines,

Navy and Air Force in the past 18 months for testing.

'If it gets the thumbs up, then ever-smaller units will command their own

flying killer robots, another step in the proliferation of drone warfare',

the website wrote.

The T-20 has a modular design so it can be easily disassembled and

packed up for portage by commandos in the field. The plane weighs 100

pounds.

Like the Shadow, it is launched from a pneumatic catapult.

According to the manufacturer, the T-20 needs no runway to use. Instead,

it can land on its belly, even in fairly rough terrain.

A replaceable belly skid is designed to absorb the impact of landing, and is

said to be easy to swap out in minutes.

'Any reasonably level open space is all you need to operate', says the

company.

The drone has a maximum height of 15,000 feet.

That's enough to get quite a bird's eye view of enemy territory. And

maybe enough to fire a missile or two, then dash away.The officer can see from the drone's perspective using a special pair of

goggles

Already in the UK police are using drones to track thieves. In February,

the Air Robot was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost an

alleged car thief who had escaped on foot in thick fog.

Using the device's on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the

operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct

foot patrols to his location.

It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in bushes alongside

the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.

The drone, which measures 3ft between the tips of its four carbon fibre

rotor blades, uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology originally

designed for military reconnaissance.

The Mantis can fly for 24 hours without refuelling, do the surveillance job of four helicopters, acquire

its own enemy targets and deliver a deadly payload - all without a pilot and crew. But should we be

afraid of Britain's new robotic air force?



The Mantis carries no human crew. The plane is controlled by a set of

computer components not that far removed from the chips and boards

inside a high-end personal laptop

The aircraft is the size of a medium range bomber, with huge grey wings

stretching 70ft across the hangar. It looks for all the world like any

conventional aircraft - the wings, the nose, the wheels are all familiar.

The engineers standing in front of it are dwarfed by its bulk. Modules

beneath the wings can carry air-to-ground missiles and precision-guided

bombs.

Other racks on the nose can carry surveillance equipment so advanced it

can decrypt and listen to mobile phone messages instantly as it flies over,

at heights of up to 60,000ft. It takes a while for you to notice the most

important fact - there is no cockpit. There are no windows anywhere on

the craft, - and no doors.

The Mantis carries no human crew - one of the reasons it can stay

airborne for 24 hours. The plane is controlled by a set of computer

components not that far removed from the chips and boards inside a high-

end personal laptop. But unlike the American Predator and Reaper drones

now flying over Afghanistan and Pakistan, this isn't flown by pilots via

satellite control from a bunker outside Las Vegas. It flies itself.

The aircraft is sitting in the hangars of BAE Systems, just outside Preston -

next to an airfield where Eurofighters are shooting vertically upwards

from a take-off strip. The site is vast, with limousines ferrying suited

executives from one part to another, and visitors carefully shepherded

only into the areas they are cleared to see.

To enter Mantis's hangar, you have to pass through a glass cubicle that

scans for any transmitting equipment - phones and cameras are strictly

forbidden. A recording suddenly blares, 'Mobile phone detected!' as one of

my hosts remembers he has a BlackBerry in his coat. I'm allowed to see

Mantis, but not to know where the aircraft is currently flying.

The battery-powered device can have a range of cameras attached to its

main body, including CCTV surveillance or thermal imaging cameras.

It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live

footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also 'perch and stare'

from a solid platform, allowing the operator to capture hours of footage

from a hidden vantage point.

Merseyside Police is one of a handful of forces trying out the devices

which, at 40,000 each, are far cheaper to use for small-scale operations

than a conventional helicopter.

They have been using the drones for two years, mainly to help in search

and rescue operations, to execute drug warrants and to crack down on

anti-social behaviour.

The Home Office is now exploring how the craft can be used to give back-

up to police, ambulance and fire services.

A Predator drone like the ones used to hunt down terrorist leaders in

Pakistan (file photo). The military must follow rules of engagement with

such technology, but there are no such rules governing private use yet

Spy drones are considered the future of policing, although critics have

voiced concerns that they could be a worrying extension of Big Brother

Britain.

Last month arms manufacturer BAE Systems said it was adapting military-

style UAVs for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Documents showed the force hoped to begin using the drones in time for

the 2012 Olympics.



The Mantis on the runway

Mantis isn't a 'drone'. It's a robotic aircraft. It's among the first of a new

breed of armed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that can take off, fly, plot

courses and even acquire targets for itself, and the UK is at the forefront

of this new technology. The Mantis only needs human beings for one thing

- to pull the trigger.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - with their political pressure for low

casualties - have caused an explosion in demand for craft that need less

and less human input. The spectacle of captured pilots was a staple of the

first Iraq war and other conflicts around the Middle East. It's a vision that

has been absent from the news this time round for one simple reason:

there are now fewer pilots.

Laptop parts, satellite connections and software are doing it instead.

There are now 12,000 UAVs, used for everything from surveillance to

search and destroy missions. In less than a decade, the business of

unmanned aircraft has gone from being a minor, specialist sector to being

worth 9 billion.

But they also indicated that the drones could eventually be used to spy on

the civilian population, by rooting out motorists suspected of antisocial

driving, for covert urban surveillance and to monitor 'waste management'

for local councils.

Similar concepts are already being developed in the U.S.

'If the Israelis can use them to find terrorists, certainly a husband is going

to be able to track a wife who goes out at 11 o'clock at night and follow

her,' New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told the Journal.

The technology is swiftly moving beyond military and even police circles -

already unmanned aircraft that can fly predetermined routes cost just a

few hundred dollars and can be operated by an iPhone.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former Navy fighter

pilot Missy Cummings is working to develop a 'Personal Sentry' drone

about the size of a pizza box that warns soldiers if danger is approaching

from behind.

But, she said, 'that military stuff is kind of passe'.

'It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a

soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.'

She told the Wall Street Journal that she could use such technology to

follow her young child on the way to school by planting an electronic bug

in her lunch box or backpack.

'It would bring a whole new meaning to the term hover parent,' she said.

The FAA has not approved the use of personal drones just yet. But a

spokesman said the agency is working with private industry on standards

that could allow the broader use of drones.

Grey areas already exist, however - particularly with the recreational use

of drones.

There are no regulations governing recreational drone use. Instead the

FAA recommends - emphasis on 'recommends' - such drones be flown

away from populated areas, from aeroplanes, below a certain altitude and

so on.

And if people claim their drones are for personal use, that could

theoretically get around many FAA regulations.

Robotics is a revolutionary technology on a par with gunpowder and the

atomic bomb. It's another genie you couldn't put back in the bottle



In the training missions that BAE is allowed to discuss with me, Mantis

takes off entirely independent of its crew. When airborne, it is controlled

either from a base in the UK or from a command-and-control centre so

tiny that it fits inside a packing crate, which can be flown to a combat

theatre inside a transport aircraft, with a commander and crew ready to

deploy.

A satellite relays information to the Mantis, while pictures, video feeds,

infrared images and decrypted phone calls come back from the

battlefield. Six screens back on the ground offer a Mantis-eye view, a map

and a set of geometric patterns showing the Mantis's orders.

Identifying potential targets

Previous generations of surveillance craft deluge intelligence staff with so

many pictures that up to 160 back-room staff are required for each

aircraft, but Mantis decides for itself what is interesting. A single Mantis

can do the surveillance job of three or four helicopters or three Nimrod

jet crews.

So while the military has to follow rules of engagement regarding drone

use, there is - as yet - no similar set of rules regarding privacy for

domestic use of drones.

'If everybody had enough money to buy one of these things, we could all

be wandering around with little networks of vehicles flying over our heads

spying on us,' Ms Cummings said.

'It really opens up a whole new Pandora's Box of: What does it mean to

have privacy?'

A walking target! the U.S. Air Force want to step up the pressure in

conflicts around the globe by employing a whole new way of tracking the

enemy.

The Air Force is looking to introduce a tiny drone that surreptitiously

'paints' an individual with some kind of signal-emitting powder or liquid

that allows the military to keep tabs on him or her.

They could even use the technology to upload the person's whereabouts

to a hellfire missile.

Secret weapon: Drone with flapping wings that can hover menacingly

On Tuesday, the Air Force put out a call for proposals for such technology,

though it didn't specify exactly what kind of drone might deliver the

magic powder, or what the magic powder might be.



While it's in flight, no one controls Mantis with a joystick. Details of the

mission are copied on to a memory stick and loaded into the control

system's computers by the commander. In training two Mantis operatives

can oversee up to three aircraft at once.

A video of BAE's software in action shows the aircraft targeting a line of

trucks from miles above the Australian outback, with squares appearing

over vehicles showing that they are objects of interest while Mantis flies

over to investigate. The software inside Mantis has decided that they are

moving, that they are in an area they shouldn't be and that they match its

criteria for further investigation.

Until now, the British Army has relied on American and Israeli drones, but

Mantis is home-grown technology. In just four years the Mantis family of

aircraft has gone from laptop components strapped to a second-hand

glider bought in Wolverhampton to an operational spy plane due to enter

full service in 2015.

The process has cost 124 million, and development has been spread

across a team of British companies, including Rolls-Royce and QinetiQ, and

British universities, such as Loughborough. At least two Mantis planes are

being tested in the air right now over combat zones, although BAE is not

allowed to say where. Other drone companies such as Boeing, Northrop

Grumman and Lockheed Martin are making their own autonomous versions

- but none can match demand.

There are a range of experimental technologies that could potentially

serve both purposes.

Tiny insect drones, while not yet perfected, are gaining popularity in the

military labs.

From larger hummingbird drones to other tiny ornithopters to DARPA's

remote-controlled beetle, the delivery system for such a technology isn't

so far away from being a reality.

Metal heart: The remote-controlled flying beetle cyborg drone complete

with electrodes and a radio transmitter

For a terrorist, or a lone psychopath, the idea of a vehicle that could

launch, find targets and attack autonomously must seem like the ultimate

risk-free weapon - a suicide bomb without a suicide bomber



First flight of the Global Hawk RQ-4

Autonomous machines save money, save pilots' lives and point to a future

where stealth-enabled unmanned fighters and ultra-long-endurance

surveillance planes can almost remove human beings from the aerial

battlefield. But this technology has largely appeared without governments

or the public questioning it. Can a chip make split-second decisions as

well as a highly trained pilot? What happens when these systems fail? And

worst of all - what happens when one falls into the wrong hands?

Unmanned aircraft have been used routinely since World War II, when the

Germans used a remotely piloted bomb drone known as the 'Fritz'. But the

market has exploded in the past ten years. There are 43 nations currently

developing their own unmanned vehicles, including China, Iran and

Russia. Some predict-that the market will hit a value of 53 billion - and

the U.S. Army already predicts that its air force will be 80 per cent

robotic by 2020.

Although drones are widely used, air forces tend to be nervous about

letting them fly under their own steam - so highly trained pilots are still

used, with a full back-up staff to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

'The way the U.S. military likes to do things, current attack drones

require up to three pilots to operate - fastjet combat pilots, who are rare

and expensive front-line assets,' says Steve Worsnip of BAE Systems. 'But

the RAF doesn't have the luxury of those sort of numbers. They simply

can't fight wars that way.'

The ground crew track a drone's flight path

'The human role isn't disappearing, but it is changing,' says PW Singer, a

former Pentagon weapons adviser and author of Wired For War: The

The mini plane: The Raven, the non-lethal, short-range surveillance drone

that has already seen life in Iraq

What most of these tiny drones lack is range, which will evenutally

improve with advances in battery life and materials science.

What's less clear is how the tracking might go down, though the Pentagon

is hard at work on a range of what they call "Clandestine Tagging,

Tracking, and Locating" (TTL) technologies.

Some ideas from the Pentagon include marking targets with biological

paints or micro-mechanical sensors, Fox News reports.

Similar proposals by outside groups are also being considered.

Monster size: The Predator drone used in Iraq and Afghanistan and most

recently deployed in Libya



Robotics Revolution And Conflict In The Twenty First Century, 'Humans

are no longer making decisions in the here and now; rather, they are

simply supervising.'

In the U.S., more drone pilots are now being trained than actual pilots -

and the degree of autonomy exhibited by the aircraft has increased to the

point that new controllers don't even need to know how to fly. Many are

videogamers, more than ready for the dehumanised, computer-assisted

world of drones.

'People have an inherent fear of autonomous aircrafts, but as we face

technical and battlefield problems, the solution is more and more

autonomy,' says Singer.

'One of the problems right now is that unmanned systems such as Predator

are gathering enormous amounts of data. We're about to add "Gorgon

Stare" to Predators - an array of 12 video feeds. We can't keep up, but

give the sensors more autonomy and they will decide what they send. A

lot of the scientists told me that robotics is a revolutionary technology on

a par with gunpowder and the atomic bomb. It's another genie you

couldn't put back in the bottle.'

The BAE Mantis isn't the only unmanned aircraft that can operate

independently. Global Hawk RQ-4, made by Northrop Grumman, is a huge,

high-altitude craft that has been flying over Afghanistan for a decade, and

has no need for pilots, either in the air or on the ground. It was the first

unmanned vehicle capable of flying itself, and has completed more than

30,000 combat hours overseas. Its makers seem offended by the use of

the word 'drone' and refer to it as a 'robotic aircraft'.

Twelve years ago, a prototype of the RQ-4 Global Hawk was flying at

60,000ft above the Atlantic Ocean, near the east coast of the Azores. Its

flying altitude is almost double the ceiling of civilian aircraft, and one of

the reasons the Global Hawk is cleared to fly over civilian airspace.

Abruptly, the 'crossover' between two of the military satellites used to

guide the Hawk failed, due to human error.

Danger on land: Soldiers in the Helmand province of Afghanistan where

drones have been deployed

One proposal from a University of Florida researcher uses insect

pheromones encoded with unique identifiers that could be tracked from

miles away.

Other plans employ biodegradable fluorescent 'taggants' that can be

scattered by UAVs.

A private firm in Oregon called Voxtel has already made available a

product called NightMarks, a nano-crystal that can be seen through night-

vision goggles and can be hidden in anything from glass cleaner to

petroleum jelly.

DARPA is even looking into 'smart dust' - a cloud of dust that could be

sprayed into the air near a target in hopes that he or she might walk

through the cloud and be tagged, meaning the drone or delivery system

wouldn't even have to make direct contact with the target.

The Air Force notes that the technology it is fostering will be useful for

things like tracking wildlife.

A jumping robot inspired by a grasshopper can leap 27 times its body

length, according to scientists.

Swarms of the locust-like drones could one day be used to explore remote

areas of the Earth or other planets, they said.



A Predator drone prepares for take-off

This was what its autonomy software had been designed for -

'contingencies' are programmed into its software so that it can respond to

unforeseen events. The Hawk turned itself around, entirely without

satellite guidance, and returned to the airbase it had flown from. Ten

minutes later, it landed at the base.

'Our first fully autonomous landing was in 1975,' says Dane Marolt,

international business development director of the RQ-4, a former pilot

who has overseen Northrop Grumman's autonomous drones programme

since it first began.

'The RQ-4 is totally autonomous. It is a mouse-click aircraft. But there is

no pilot flying this. As it stands, the U.S. Army and Navy choose not to use

it in this way - there is a pilot in command.'

Every weapons company says the same thing - that it is their computer

software that gives them the edge. The equipment inside the UAVs may

not be cutting-edge, but the software is. And this software isn't as easy to

protect, or to copyright, as a vehicle. It's also much more easily copied.

Hezbollah has already fired captured drones back at Israel from the West

Bank. There are other risks, too - last year, insurgents hacked into the

video feeds of Predator drones flying over Iraq.

The website DIY Drones is a thriving community of do-it-yourself drone

builders and operators, building drones that look eerily similar to - or are

copies of - the weapons employed currently by the West. For a terrorist,

or a lone psychopath, the idea of a vehicle that could launch, find targets

The device, which looks like the workings of a watch perched on two long

feet, weighs just seven grams. However, it can jump 1.4 metres - 10

times further for its size and weight than any other robot.

This jumping robot was inspired by the mechanics of a grasshopper

Animals such as fleas, locusts, grasshoppers and frogs use elastic storage

mechanisms that slowly charge up jumping energy in their limbs and then

quickly release it.

The system allows these creatures to achieve very powerful jumps and

extreme accelerations.

The jumping robot employs the same principle, charging two torsion

springs by means of a small motor and a cam.

To optimise performance, the legs can be adjusted for jumping force and

take-off angle. A tiny on-board battery allows the robot to make up to 320

jumps separated by three second intervals.

Similar jumpers could be fitted with tiny sensors to explore rough,

inaccessible terrain

or to help in search and rescue operations, say the scientists.

Professor Dario Floreano, who led the team from the Laboratory of

Intelligent Systems at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in

Switzerland, said: "This biomimetic form of jumping is unique because it



and attack autonomously must seem like the ultimate risk-free weapon - a

suicide bomb without a suicide bomber.

Tribesmen gather at the site of a missile attack by a U.S. drone in

Pakistan, which killed up to six people in 2008

Autonomy is far more ubiquitous than people think, but it brings with it

problems and dangers. The AEGIS shipboard computer used on board

American destroyers controls their anti-missile systems. It works so

quickly that operators simply tell it whether to shoot fighters or bombers

first when the ship comes under attack - the ship then acquires targets

and shoots on its own. It was an AEGIS system that had been left in attack

mode that shot down an Iranian airliner in 1988. The system had

mistakenly identified it as an enemy fighter.

But while mistakes of that magnitude are rare, a report, The Year Of The

Drone, by the New America Foundation, an American non-profit think

tank, has analysed drone strikes against militants in Pakistan and has

found that the level of civilian casualties was such that it undermined any

claims of drones being 'precision' weapons. The use of weaponised drones

might have reduced the number of captured pilots - but their capacity to

strike precisely is questionable.

'Our research shows that some two-thirds of those killed in the strikes

since 2004 have been described as militants, implying a civilian casualty

rate of about one-third,' says the foundation's Katherine Tiedemann.

Philip Alston, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions,

alleges that the use of drones over states such as Pakistan, with which the

US has not declared war, 'might violate international humanitarian law

and international human rights law'.

allows micro-robots to travel over many types of rough terrain where no

other walking or wheeled robot could go.

"These tiny jumping robots could be fitted with solar cells to recharge

between jumps and deployed in swarms for extended exploration of

remote areas on Earth or on other planets."

The research was presented today at the IEEE International Conference on

Robotics and Automation in Pasadena, California.

Hoping to keep unmanned spy aircraft in the air for a longer period of

time, U.S. scientists are reportedly toying with the idea of using nukes.

Plans for such a fleet of drones were drawn up by Sandia National

Laboratories, America's top agency for nuclear development, but have not

yet reached the building or testing phase, according to The Guardian.

A Sandia rep told the paper: 'The research on this topic was highly

theoretical and very conceptual.

Boost: Hoping to keep unmanned spy aircraft, like the one seen here, in

the air for a longer period of time, the U.S. may be toying with the idea of

using nukes

'The work only resulted in a preliminary feasibility study and no hardware

was ever built or tested. The project has ended'.

Is the U.S. preparing to send NUCLEAR

drones to patrol the skies?



President Obama's State Department legal adviser Harold Koh replied to

Alston's allegations saying, 'Our procedures and practices for identifying

lawful targets are extremely robust, and advanced technologies have

helped to make our targeting even more precise.'

Earlier this month, a drone strike on Boya village, in Pakistan's North

Waziristan, killed between three and five Al-Qaeda militants, according to

reports, but also up to 13 civilians. Human Rights Watch is trying to open

debate on the use of the weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The

statistics in The Year Of The Drone allege that more than 400 civilians

have been killed by drones in Pakistan in just one year - and its authors

allege that the U.S. government is not open about the casualties.

'The closest a government official has come to publicly recognising the

civilian casualties is an anonymous quote suggesting that only 20 civilians

have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan in the last two years,' says

Tiedemann. But still the drive among the West's armies is to allow not

more control over UAVs, but less.

Boeing, like BAE, is already developing unmanned aircraft that will go well

beyond its current roles of surveillance and attacking ground troops.

Boeing and BAE's unmanned planes look and operate like stealth bombers

- a role in which communication with the outside world is likely to give

away a plane's decision.

Using nuclear power would reportedly provide enough juice to keep

drones in the air for months instead of just days.

While it may sound like an exciting technological advance, not everyone is

thrilled by the idea.

Chris Coles of Drone Wars UK, which crusades against the development of

drones for both the government and civilians, told The Guardian: 'It's a

pretty terrifying prospect'.

Coles said unmanned aerial vehicles are much more dangerous than crafts

with a human being onboard, and going nuclear could have disastrous

consequences.

Advance: Using nuclear power may provide enough energy to keep drones

in the air for months instead of just days

He said: 'Drones are much less safe than other aircraft and tend to crash a

lot. There is a major push by this industry to increase the use of drones

and both the public and government are struggling to keep up with the

implications'.

The most high-profile loss of a U.S. drone was the top secret RQ-170

Sentinel, which went down over Iran last year.

Iran claims it shot down the drone, known as 'The Beast of Kandahar,'

while U.S. forces said there was 'absolutely no indication' that it was

grounded by any hostile force.

The plane was reportedly on a covert mission for the CIA when it was

captured.



At BAE the black, triangular shape of Tanaris looks instantly familiar - it's

almost identical to the American B-2 stealth bomber. It's a UAV designed

for a different kind of warfare - not against tribesmen armed with AK-47s

but against modern nations equipped with radar, satellites and electronic

counter-measures. To maintain full stealth cover, it is capable of severing

communications with its handlers and travelling without radio contact for

up to 36 hours.

Tanaris is a so-called 'black project' - it's introduced as a model in a room

at BAE's headquarters in Preston, and the three senior managers who

introduce it are deliberately vague about where Tanaris might be used,

what weapons it might carry, or any context in which it might be

deployed. Tanaris will take its first flights next year and is a 'test-bed' for

future technologies. Some of the technologies inside Tanaris will be used

in MoD vehicles until 2025.

'One of the critical ways UAVs will improve is by staying up in the air

longer - current models can only remain airborne for around 80 hours,'

says the University of Reading's Kevin Warwick.

'The American military research organisation Darpa has put out a contract

called Vulture looking for a solar-powered UAV that can remain airborne

for five years. On the more micro scale, UAVs will have a role flying in and

out of buildings. They'll also continue to become more autonomous.

"Drone" makes it sound quite friendly and politically digestible. These

aren't drones. They're hunter-killers. Other systems in development might

work as "swarms", communicating with one another to carry out the

mission.

'That's the worry - they make the decisions. What are these decisions? If

it's against the enemy, it's fine - but what happens if it decides that I'm

the enemy?'

Enlarge

Captured: The RQ-170 Sentinel, a top secret U.S. reconnaissance drone,

crashed in Iran last year and was put on display by Iranian forces

The Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform can also hijack mobile

phone calls

Drone only cost $6,200 to make

A home-made drone capable of launching airborne cyber attacks and

hijacking mobile phone calls has been developed by two computer

security experts.

The Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform - or Wasp - was constructed

from a former U.S. Army target drone.

Richard Perkins and Mike Tassey customised the aircraft so it can find and

track internet hotspots and mobile phones.

Scroll down for video

DIY hacker drone: Home-made surveillance craft can launch airborne cyber attacks



Sharp-eyed dog walkers along the San Francisco Bay waterfront may have

spotted a strange-looking plane zipping overhead recently that that

looked strikingly like the U.S. stealth drone captured by Iran in December.

A few key differences: The flying wing seen over Berkeley is a fraction of

the size of the CIA's waylaid aircraft. And it's made of plastic foam. But in

some ways it's just like a real spy plane.

The 4 1/2-foot-wide aircraft, built by software engineers Mark Harrison

and Andreas Oesterer in their spare time, can fly itself to specified GPS

coordinates and altitudes without any help from a pilot on the ground.

A tiny video camera mounted on the front can send a live video feed to a

set of goggles for the drone's view of the world below.

Scroll down for video of a flight

Airborne cyber master: The Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform - or

Wasp - was constructed from a former U.S. Army target drone. Inventor

Richard Perkins introduces the craft at the DefCon hacking conference in

Las Vegas at the weekend

Attack of the drones: The amateur

enthusiasts crowding the sky with

miniature stealth planes like the CIA's



Taking the skies: Mark Harrison, left, pilots an Arcti Copter 5 drone as

Andreas Oesterer, right, watches. Recreational drone planes are a

becoming a growing subculture as the skies become more friendly toward

their use

'It's just like flying without all the trouble of having to be up in the air,'

Harrison said.

Thousands of hobbyists are taking part in what has become a global do-it-

yourself drone subculture, a pastime that's thriving as the Federal

Aviation Administration seeks to make the skies friendlier to unmanned

aircraft of all sizes.

The use of drones in the U.S. by law enforcement and other government

agencies has privacy advocates on edge.

At the same time, some DIY drone flyers believe the ease of sending

cheap pilotless planes and choppers airborne gives citizens a powerful

tool for keeping public servants on the ground honest.

Mr Perkins and co-designer Mike Tassey customised the aircraft so it can

find and track internet hotspots and mobile phones

It can identify unsecured online gateways and then exploit these to

launch cyber attacks on computer systems.

The craft can also capture GMS mobile PIN numbers that can then be used

to pay for outgoing calls, allow hackers to eavesdrop on conversations and

even impersonate mobile phone towers.

Mr Perkins said: 'It will fly a plotted course and return to base. We loaded

it up with the ability to attack wi-fi, Bluetooth, and GSM cellular

networks.'

The two men exhibited the bright yellow Wasp, which weighs just 14lbs,

at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas at the weekend.

They built it for a total of just $6,200 and claim their inspiration was to

force the computer industry into realising that anybody has access to the

materials to make such a hi-tech device.



Spy plane: An Arcti Copter 5 drone seen flying in California, is a fraction

of the size of any of the CIA's waylaid aircraft but in some ways it's just

like a real spy plane, especially if a camera is attached

Thousands of hobbyists are taking part in what has become a global do-it-

yourself drone subculture, a pastime that's thriving as the Federal

Aviation Administration seeks to make the skies friendlier to unmanned

aircraft of all sizes.

Just as Humvees became a presence on U.S. highways in the 1990s after

the first war with Iraq, interest in non-military uses of drones from

policing to farming is rising.

Government agencies currently need FAA permission on a case-by-case

basis to fly drones domestically. Commercial use is banned except for a

small number of waivers for companies building experimental aircraft.

But lawmakers have instructed the agency to allow civilian use of drones

in U.S. airspace by September 2015. The FAA is expected to take the first

step this year by proposing rules that would permit limited use of small

commercial drones.

Infiltrating internet hotspots: The Wasp was built for just $6,200 and

weighs just 14lbs



Laws: Ritewing Zephyr II flies with a GoPro camera mounted on it.

Lawmakers have instructed the FAA to allow civilian use of drones in U.S.

airspace by September 2015, with new laws expected this year permitting

small commercial drones

Whether a border patrol drone the size of a single-engine passenger plane

or a four-rotor police 'quadcopter' equipped with gear to intercept cell

phone signals, the increasing ease of aerial surveillance seems destined to

be put to a constitutional test over privacy.

'Our concern is with all of the drones,' said Jennifer Lynch, a staff

attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Small aircraft are hard to see, and large drones can fly high enough to stay

out of sight, she said. 'I think they all pose different levels of privacy risk.'

Lynch has sued the FAA for a list of the 300 waivers it has issued to allow

drone use in the U.S. At the same time, she said drones in the hands of

average citizens could have important uses.

Top attraction: Mr Perkins (left) and Mr Tassey tinker with their creation

at the conference

The implications and potential uses for Wasp are quite extraordinary.

It could find mobile phones in disaster areas and lead rescuers to

survivors, or it could fly over a disaster zone to act as a mobile phone

tower enabling calls.

However, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, Wasp could quite easily

infiltrate a company's computer networks via unsecured wi-fi networks.

And that's just for starters.



Testing: The increasing ease of aerial surveillance seems destined to be

put to a constitutional test over privacy, especially with the public's

interest in the hobby

Among the groups seeking to take advantage of the steep drop in price of

drone technology are journalists who want to attach cameras to aircraft

the size of small pizzas and that cost as much to buy - about $400 - as a

one-hour helicopter rental for a photographer.

In the San Francisco Bay area, Occupy Wall Street activists built the so-

called Occucopter designed to monitor police action against protesters

from the sky.

In Idaho, wildlife biologists started using a drone for counting fish nets

after a helicopter crash killed two colleagues and a pilot.

And researchers are developing techniques to use drones equipped with

infrared sensors to detect patches of dry ground in orchards.

Mr Perkins said: 'I can take the various pieces of your digital life -

Bluetooth headset, mobile phone, wi-fi - and find the least secure place

you exist and attack you there.'

Even more worryingly, Wasp could carry a small payload, opening up the

potential for smugglers to use it or to serve as a targeted biological or

nuclear weapon in a terror attack.

Unsurprisingly, authorities in the U.S. will not allow the drone to fly over

populated areas.

The kinds of drones making the headlines daily are the heavily armed CIA

and U.S. Army vehicles which routinely strike targets in Pakistan - killing

terrorists and innocents alike.

But the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much

smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are

already likely being deployed.

Over recent years a range of miniature drones, or micro air vehicles

(MAVs), based on the same physics used by flying insects, have been

presented to the public.

The fear kicked off in 2007 when reports of bizarre flying objects

hovering above anti-war protests sparked accusations that the U.S.

government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies.



Price: The prices to build these drones has also dipped considerably as

much of the technology can be found in smartphones, with the same chips

used to determine location and movement being the same drones use

Hobbyists say drone prices have been driven down sharply even in the

past two or three years mainly by the surge in popularity of smartphones.

The chips smartphones use to determine whether they're being held

vertically or horizontally or to locate themselves on a map are the same

ones drones use to keep themselves flying straight, level and in the right

direction.

The supply of such chips has spiked along with the use of smartphones,

sending prices lower.

'Today if you have an iPhone or an Android, you basically have an

autopilot in your pocket. You're just running the wrong app,' said Chris

Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and founder of DIY Drones,

an online community and company that sells drone kits and parts.

Researchers have now developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat

ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological,

chemical and nuclear weapons

Official denials and suggestions from entomologists that they were

actually dragonflies failed to quell speculation, and Tom Ehrhard, a

retired Air Force colonel and expert on unmanned aerial craft, told the

Daily Telegraph at the time that 'America can be pretty sneaky.'

The following year, the US Air Force unveiled insect-sized spies 'as tiny as

bumblebees' that could not be detected and would be able to fly into

buildings to 'photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and

terrorists.'

Around the same time the Air Force also unveiled what it called 'lethal

mini-drones' based on Leonardo da Vinci's blueprints for his Ornithopter

flying machine, and claimed they would be ready for roll out by 2015.

That announcement was five years ago and, since the U.S. military is

usually pretty cagey about its technological capabilities, it raises the

question as to what it is keeping under wraps.

The University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab recently showed off drones that

swarm, a network of 20 nano quadrotors flying in synchronized

formations.

The SWARMS goal is to combine swarm technology with bio-inspired

drones to operate 'with little or no direct human supervision' in 'dynamic,

resource-constrained, adversarial environments.'

However, it is most likely the future of hard-to-detect drone surveillance

will mimic nature.

Research suggests that the mechanics of insects can be reverse-

engineered to design midget machines to scout battlefields and search for

victims trapped in rubble.

Scientists have taken their inspiration from animals which have evolved

over millennia to the perfect conditions for flight.

Nano-biomimicry MAV design has long been studied by DARPA, and in 2008

the U.S. government's military research agency conducted a symposium

discussing 'bugs, bots, borgs and bio-weapons.'

'Today if you have an iPhone or an Android, you basically have an

autopilot in your pocket. You're just running the wrong app.'

- founder of DIY Drones



Anderson started DIY Drones in 2007 after spending the weekend building

an electronic Lego robot and trying to fly a radio-controlled plane with his

kids.

The robot didn't impress the kids on its own, and the plane was hard to

fly, Anderson said. So the family used the Legos to build a primitive

autopilot and attached it to the plane. The kids thought it was cool for a

few weeks, but Anderson became obsessed.

Rules: Current rules restrict their altitude to 400 feet, requiring them to

always be in view of their controller on the ground and prohibiting them

from being flown over built-up areas

Anderson said safety is a top consideration of his group, and he supports

strict observance of the FAA regulations developed in the 1970s to cover

the amateur use of radio-controlled planes, which also apply to today's

DIY drones.

Those rules include restricting their altitude to 400 feet, requiring them

to always be in view of their controller on the ground and prohibiting

them from being flown over built-up areas.

That last rule reportedly led to trouble for some Los Angeles real estate

agents, who were warned by police to stop using drones to take photos

and video of homes for sale, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Researchers have now developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat

ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological,

chemical and nuclear weapons.

And the U.S. isn't the only country to have poured money into spy drone

miniaturisation. France has developed flapping wing bio-inspired

microdrones.

The Netherlands BioMAV (Biologically Inspired A.I. for Micro Aerial

Vehicles) developed a Parrot AR Drone last year - which is now available

in the U.S. as a 'flying video game'.

Not so tiny but a good spy: A ShadowHawk drone with SWAT team

members

Zoologist Richard Bomphrey, of Oxford University, has conducted research

to generate new insight into how insect wings have evolved over the last

350 million years.

He said last year: 'Nature has solved the problem of how to design

miniature flying machines.

'By learning those lessons, our findings will make it possible to

aerodynamically engineer a new breed of surveillance vehicles that,

because they are as small as insects and also fly like them, completely

blend into their surroundings.'



In Berkeley, Harrison and Oesterer spent more time tweaking wires and

software than their drones spent in the air. Part of the reason was battery

power: Their drones rely on the latest in lightweight laptop batteries to

stay aloft but suck significantly more power. Still, both say would-be

pilots don't need degrees in computer science or electrical engineering to

send drones skyward.

Said Oesterer: 'It's getting really close to plug-and-fly.'

It fits in the palm of your hand, weighs the same as a bag of sweets and

could become a potent new weapon in our fight against the Taliban.

Military chiefs believe a 20,000 spy drone called the SQ-4 Recon, one of

the smallest unmanned aerial vehicles in the world, will save soldiers

lives in Afghanistan.

It is a miniature version of Little Nellie the autogyro flown by James

Bond in the film You Only Live Twice.

The nanodrone contains two cameras which allow soldiers to look over

hills and inside enemy bunkers without the risk of being killed or injured.

It can be operated remotely by troops sitting in a control room thousands

of miles away or by soldiers on patrol using a seven-inch tablet computer.

Weighing just seven ounces and with a nine-inch diameter, the nanodrone

can fly and hover for 30 minutes or switch off its engines and perch like a

The insect manoeuvrability which allows flies the ability to land precisely

and fly off again at speed may one day prove a crucial tactical advantage

in wars and could even save lives in disasters.

The military would like to develop tiny robots that can fly inside caves

and barricaded rooms to send back real-time intelligence about the

people and weapons inside.

Dr Bomphrey said: 'Scary spider robots were featured in Michael

Crichton's 1980s film Runaway - but our robots will be much more scaled

down and look more like the quidditch ball in the Harry Potter films,

because of its ability to hover and flutter.

'The problem for scientists at the moment is that aircrafts can't hover and

helicopters can't go fast. And it is impossible to make them very small.

'With insects you get a combination of both these assets in miniature. And

when you consider we have been flying for just over a hundred years as

opposed to 350 million years, I would say it is they who have got it right,

and not us!'

Chinese researchers have created a 'quadcopter' - a four-rotor helicopter

- that can be controlled by thought alone.

The researchers aim to give people with impaired motor abilities a new

avenue for interaction - for instance, using the helicopter to take a close-

up look at objects which are out of reach.

The team even suggests the helicopters could be used for fun aerial

battles in the sky, creating a fun interactive game for both disabled and

non-disabled people alike.

Scroll down for video:



bird on the ledge of a building, and, without being spotted, zoom in on

suspicious activities for up to eight hours.

Its cameras can transmit live images or take still photos or video footage

using day or night vision.

Little Nellie: The new nanodrone is like a miniature version of the

autogyro 'Little Nellie', seen being used here by Wing Commander Ken

Wallis, which was used in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice

A participant is able to fly the rotor by just brain-power alone - deciding

to check out flowers in the area around him

Onboard cameras can beam images straight back down to any Windows

PC, enabling users to have another pair of eyes



Announcement: Phillip Hammond, Defence Secretary, admitted back in

February that the introduction of the nanodrone was being planned

This means soldiers can carry out reconnaissance missions without putting

themselves at risk of walking into an ambush or stepping on a buried

bomb.

Devised by Cardiff-based BCB International and Middlesex Universitys

Autonomous Systems Laboratory, the SQ-4 Recon is being examined by

the US military.

The Ministry of Defence is also aware of the nanodrones potential.

Andrew Howell, managing director of BCB International, said: This gives

the modern war fighter the ability to carry out reconnaissance tasks

without putting themselves in harms way.

'The video footage could give information on where the enemy is located,

what they look like, how they are dressed and what weapons they have.

Should things take a turn for the worse, no operators can be captured or

killed. It also allows for more service personnel to be released for

frontline duties.

As shown in the video, the helicopter can beam footage straight back to a

waiting laptop

The system uses an off-the-shelf 'electroencephalography' (EEG) headset,

by a company called Amotive, which can interpret brain activity.

The Emotiv headset retails for $299 and can simply be plugged into any

recent Windows machine to begin working, with apps and games -

including Angry Birds - being adapted by enthusiasts to run with simple

mind controls.

Currently, the headset uses Bluetooth to connect to a laptop, which then

trasmits the instructions onwards to the helicopter.

The 190 ($299) Emotive headset, which is available to buy online



The current drones deployed in Afghanistan are so large they have to be

launched like conventional fixed-wing aircraft and make easy targets for

Taliban marksmen.

In February, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond admitted that new nano-

unmanned aerial systems... are planned for introduction.

The U.S. military is seeking contractors to build it miniature 'suicide

drones' that can be flown into targets up to six miles away.

The little planes, which could look like the remote-controlled aircraft

used in a more domestic setting, could be used for kamikaze-style attacks

on vehicles or buildings - even individuals if necessary.

The Army wants the weapons, known as the 'Lethal Miniature Aerial

Munition System' (LMAMS) into war by 2016, and describe the weapon as a

'portable, covert weapon with strike capability against stationary or

moving individuals, with a very low risk of collateral damage'.

The 'plane' will consist of a drone, warhead and launching device with a

maximum weight of less than five pounds.

Like this, but smaller: The Armys existing Raven drone is on the small

side - but the military is seeking a smaller version by 2016

However, over time, the technology is likely to shrink and become simpler

to use, as well as find more uses.

The team, from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China,may still need to

consider how to phrase the controls, however, as New Scientist reports

that a user can move the flyer forward by thinking 'right', fly up by

thinking 'push', and turn clockwise by thinking 'left'.

Thinking 'left hard' tells the quadcopter to take off from the ground.

Clenched teeth and blinking both produce a brain signal that the EEG can

read, which can tell the helicopter to take a picture or even stream video

back to a laptop.

Users can capture a still by blinking four times.

The trials used a quadcopter drone which in extremely easy to operate.

One suggestion is the helicopters could be used for sport, for instance

allowing physically-able and disabled people to compete against each

other with helicopters fighting in an air-ring, akin to wrestling.

New Scientist suggest the helicopters could push, dodge and and force

each other out of the ring.

A sinister airborne surveillance camera gives the U.S. military the ability to track

movements in an entire city like a real-time Google Street View.

The ARGUS-IS array can be mounted on unmanned drones to capture an area of

15 sq/miles in an incredible 1,800MP - that's 225 times more sensitive than an

iPhone camera.



The aim is to fit the entire plane in a backpack, and be able to fly it two

minutes after a target is agreed on. At that point, the plane must be able

to fly for 15 to 30 minutes across up to six miles of territory.

According to Wired, size is not the main issue, as long as the craft is light

enough for easy transport by foot.

Once deployed, the craft could be controlled by a human, or by GPS.

The proposal document says that: 'Once a target is selected by the

operator in the terminal phase of an engagement no further operator

input shall be required'.

One last requirements shows the need to reduce collateral damage: with

the army stating the drone must have an 'extremely low probability' of

killing someone 10 meters from the bomb's impact.

Drones have so far been used in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan

and Yemen.

From 17,500ft the remarkable surveillance system can capture objects as small as

6in on the ground and allows commanders to track movements across an entire

battlefield in real time.

Beat that, Google: An image taken from 17,500ft by the U.S. military's ARGUS-IS

array, which can capture 1,800MP zoomable video feeds of an entire medium-

sized city in real time

'It is important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist,' said

Yiannis Antoniades, the BAE engineer who designed the system, in a recent PBS

broadcast.

The aerospace and weapons company developed the ARGUS-IS array as part of a

$18.5million project funded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (Darpa). In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes, guardian of the

heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor, was a primordial giant whose epithet,

'Panoptes', 'all-seeing', led to his being described with multiple, often one

hundred, eyes.

Like the Titan of myth, the Pentagon's ARGUS-IS (a backronym standing for

Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System) works

by stringing together an array of 368 digital camera imaging chips.



Another take on the drone: The army is also exploring the Switchblade -

a small remote drone fired from a tube. Wired points out that the Army

already has researchers looking at three different ways of miniaturizing

drones. The first is to build tiny explosives, which can fit on already

existing miniature spy drones.

The second is to take existing drones and scale down the technology, as

happens in other industries such as the computing world. Lastly, the army

is looking at 'mashing-up' existing drone and missile technology, creating a

hybrid which is effectively a guided missile.

It is named after the Celtic god of thunder, can fly faster than the speed of sound

and evades enemy radar with its single-wing stealth design. This is Taranis,

Britains latest pilotless combat aircraft, which is even capable of selecting its own

An airborne processor combines the video from these chips to create a single

ultra-high definition mosaic video image which updates at up to 15 frames a

second.

All-seeing: This graphic illustrates how the U.S. military's ARGUS-IS array links

together images streamed from hundreds of digital camera sensors to watch over

a huge expanse of terrain in real time



targets. The revolutionary superdrone is due to make its maiden flight in the next

few weeks and could spearhead the fight against terrorism in Africa.

Revolutionary: Taranis, Britain's latest pilotless combat aircraft, will make is

maiden flight in the next few weeks.

Military chiefs believe Taraniss ground-breaking technology will allow a

powerful new generation of drones equipped with deadly payloads to fly from

British bases to attack targets worldwide. But the new developments in pilotless

aircraft are controversial as they allow the possibility of autonomous computers

targeting and killing enemy combatants outside human control. Experts even

warned last night that the new technology raised the nightmare spectre of out-of-

control robots waging war on humans and called for a global ban on

autonomous technology. Britains armed drones are currently piloted remotely by

aircrews on the ground. But Taranis will follow a set flightpath using on-board

computers to perform manoeuvres, avoid threats and identify targets. Only when

it needs to attack a target will it seek authorisation from a human controller.

Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics engineer specialising in autonomous military

systems at Sheffield University, said last night: This is a very dangerous move.

Once it has been developed, who knows what new governments who inherit the

technology will do with it.

What it looks like: The ARGUS-IS (a backronym standing for Autonomous Real-

time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System) strings together an array

of 368 digital camera imaging chips into a single unit

That tremendous level of detail makes it sensitive enough to not only track people

moving around on the ground thousands of feet below, but even to see what they

are doing or carrying.

The ARGUS array sends its live feed to the ground where it connects to a touch-

screen command room interface.

Using this, operators can zoom in to any area within the camera's field of view,

with up to 65 zoom windows open at once.

Each video window is electronically steerable independent of the others, and can

either provide continuous imagery of a fixed area on the ground or be designated

to automatically keep a specified target in the window.

Sinister: The system tracks all moving objects in its field of view, highlighting

them with coloured boxes, allowing operators to track movements across an area

as and when they happen

The system automatically tracks any moving object it can see, including both

vehicles and individuals on foot, highlighting them with coloured boxes so they

can be easily identified.



Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron warned that the fight against

terrorism in North Africa could last decades, meaning futuristic drones could

dominate counter-terrorism strategy in the region.

Military technology: A US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone takes off from

Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan. A proliferation in mainly US military

technology has sparked a drone arms race

The controversy surrounding their use was highlighted last week when the United

Nations launched an investigation into the deaths caused by conventional drone

attacks.

British Forces currently operate armed drones only in Afghanistan, where they

target Taliban insurgents. However, a proliferation in mainly US military

technology has sparked a drone arms race. To compete, the UK Governme

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