Aeryon Scout

Ever wanted to take panoramic pictures of your city at high altitude, but you couldn’t really find a tall enough place to climb on? Sure, you could get onboard a plane or copter, but assuming you are not that rich, check out the latest flying robot that has a built-in camera.

The Aeryon Scout is the newest robo-design coming from Aeryon Labs of Waterloo. From the looks of it, you wouldn’t even compare it to other robots. It’s got four connected foam rings, each 30 centimetres in diameter and with rotor inside. Wow, Olympic rings flying around! Sort of.

Right in the middle, but on the underside, there’s a camera. The designer thought of it this way: you fly the "quadrotor" by remote control into places where it's too difficult or dangerous for people to climb and take pictures.
Aeryon is well on its way to make the flying wonder a commercial product and the company has already sent several test variants to police forces, security companies and surveying and engineering firms.

Lindner, Kroetsch and Peasgood, the three founders of Aeryon, explain that aerial robotics is by no means a new field, but most firms in the industry focus their efforts on unmanned aircraft or the military market. Aeryon, on the other hand, is aiming at commercial customers and police departments.

Here are some of Scout's highlights:

* computer controlled flight patterns
* extremely low maintenance
* field-replaceable parts and tool-less assembly
* minimal operator training required
* swapable payload modules
* gimbaled digital camera
* programmable mission profiles
* joystick or tablet PC control
* live digital video
* encrypted data links

The device is currently priced between $30,000 and $50,000, but if you happen to work for the police, you might get your hands on one of these sooner than expected.