How are drones controlled?

How are drones controlled?
If it is a radio frequency, surely that would be easy to block
and make them fall out of the sky.

 

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drones.
as in what?
RC models?

 

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Ones like the Scan Eagle aerial reconnaissance plane. The Iranians say they have just captured one of them.

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see http://www.defense-update.com/products/s/scaneagle.htm

The report says they are autonomous, but can be controlled from the ground.
Why is it not possible to make enough radio noise to confuse it?

 

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there are a number of ways to filter out noise.
some types of transmissions are inherently immune to EM noise, FM for example.
if transmitted digitally there are a few ways to correct for single and double bit errors.

 

FM. Yes it is resistant to cross interference from other frequencies,
but is it resistant to interference at the same frequency?
Say the control signal was at 96.6 FM
Why wouldn't a powerful oscillator signal at the same frequency interfere with it?


Another method.
What if you captured the signal and retransmitted the exact same signal
a split second later? That should confuse it.
It obviously doesn't, because that would make drones useless.
But why not?

They must have some system whereby the drone can find the correct signal amidst any amount of noise.
If it is coded, the code must change after every instruction.

 

Maybe it can filter out waves coming from anywhere but the exact direction of the correct transmitter.
Is this possible?
If so, you could never block the signal because you don't know where the drone is.

 

They are controlled by a small gerbil or guinea pig inside the air frame that is running on a tread mill wheel.
/thread

 

[video=youtube;O4I13Cnlpkk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4I13Cnlpkk[/video]

Doesn't the "sensor operator" woman look lovely? She is pretty isn't she and such a sweet voice...the one who kills people with a push of a button and smiles in front of cameras.

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want to hack the video feeds from Predator drone? use skygrabber: http://www.skygrabber.com/en/skygrabber.php

 

Isn't that a man?

 

4:10 and on
"sensor operator"

 

Very much like playing a computer game for a living.
I wonder why the resolution is so poor from the onboard cameras.
You can't tell whether the figures are soldiers, men, women or children.
You also can't make out vehicles properly.
No wonder there are so many mistakes.

They look like nice people.
Now, with modern technological advances
nice people can kill too.

 

It is possible. They are autonomous enough to complete most missions and return to base anyway.

Spread spectrum communications avoids that problem.

 

Fun trivia - the US was working on pigeon guided missiles during WWII. A pigeon would peck at a target on a screen, and the system would guide the missile toward the pecks.

 

I imagine the poor resolution is on a magnified image, time of day/infrared could also affect images, and speed also would be a slight factor.

Note: Add pilots to long list of jobs that don't require people anymore. I tell my kids to worry more about finding jobs that will still exist in 40 years than finding a job they like.

It is my understanding that drones are monitored and flown by pilots due to their expense, but a large part of their flying is computer driven in the same way autopilot works on commercial craft. A Commercial Pilot might switch off autopilot at 1000 feet and land the plane in a commercial setting, and I imagine drones are landed in a similar fashion especially if an aircraft carrier is involved but they are capable of take offs and landings with the software they are provided.

Todays drones are also capable of mid-air refueling without pilot assistance, and drone fuel planes may someday make an appearance if they do not already exist somewhere.

I think the blurry photos we see in the video above are mostly the sensor operator controlling the camera while the plane flies itself, but there is no way to know for sure. I think the pilot mainly monitors the gauges, and flirts with the sensor operator.

 

You are referring to spatial resolution which is poor because of satellites low FOV, in this case I guess the military reserves higher spatial resolution for their commanders or higher priority operations.

 

I would have thought it fairly high priority to see a target clearly before you fire a hellfire missile at it.
Otherwise the enemy truck could tirn out to be a school bus.
Or maybe the operators, who are unexpectedly and clearly quite pleasant individuals, going by the video,
would fail to pull the trigger if they could see the targets clearly.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about that. 120 years ago "pilot" didn't even exist. 60 years ago "programmer" didn't exist. 30 years ago "web page graphic artist" didn't exist. 40 years from now there will be a slew of new jobs out there. Drone delivery operator. Virtual landscaper. Intelligent virus interdiction.