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Smartphone controls minidrone from 3,000 miles

Want intelligence downrange using a small, lightweight drone? There’s an app for that.

Researchers from Boeing and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a miniature unmanned aircraft that can be controlled via a smartphone from up to 3,000 miles away. The team calls it the Micro Aerial Vehicle Visualization of Unexplored Environments, and they say it could change how troops gather intel.

“Individuals out in the field require less training and can control UAVs on an as-needed basis” when they use the technology, said Ramzy Boutros, the manager of Boeing’s Research and Technology Human Factors Technology Group. “It makes them much more effective.”

The joint research, which began with initial support from the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, uses a small, lightweight AscTech Hummingbird quadrotor drone. The drone, which has higher maneuverability and a greater ability to hover than other drones in use, is controlled by a mobile app.

Joshua Downs, the human factor specialist at Boeing research and development, described two ways the operator can maneuver the drone:

• Using “waypoints,” the operator can touch the map to select a place for the drone to fly to and hover.

• Using the device’s accelerometer, the operator can tilt the device to move the drone.

The simplicity and familiar controls mean that a service member downrange will be able to operate a mini-UAV from a distance, Downs said.

The program passed a major hurdle in July, when researchers from Boeing in Seattle were able to use the app to steer a drone that was in Boston.

Researchers are looking at ways to add additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, such as light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, and making the device less dependent on GPS, which it relies on to set way points, Downs said.