considers

So, I dunno how long those FPV drone batteries last. It’s landed, which probably extends its run, but it’s still only gonna able to run for so long.

If this becomes a regular thing, “sieging” people in bunkers, they could probably introduce – if it doesn’t exist already – a low power “lurk” mode that extends the life of the drone’s run.

Like, slash the framerate to 1 fps or something. Hell, could even go radio silent for a period of time, and only flip back on in N minutes or after the drone detects motion in its field of view or noise or something.

If the operator end permits multiplexing a number of feeds to a smaller number of operators and monitors, so that operators are just looking at “active” feeds, then instead of having to wait intently for something to happen in a given FPV feed, they could just toggle “lurk” mode and then go deal with another until this feed goes active again.

Another use of such a “lurk” mode – it also might be possible to pre-fly FPV drones out to the general combat area in question, to reduce the response time if a recon drone identifies a target. Leave them in “lurk” mode, just checking for radio traffic periodically. If a reconaissance drone sees something, one of the lurking FPV drones gets activated by the operator, leaves “lurk” mode, and can be flown straight to the target.

Another “lurk” mode application – could also pre-place ambushes along appropriate routes, like dirt roads that one knows are being used by the enemy. Someone drives by, and now one not only knows that there’s a vehicle/group of soldiers there, but the drone is already there and ready for use. If it’s some random civilian, no problem – just send it back to lurk mode, and the person in question travels on safely. If the operator deems it a target, they just lift off and hit the target. Given enough drones, a low-power-enough lurk mode, and sufficiently-sized batteries, I imagine that one could exert a high degree of control over movement in an area.

One additional tweak: permit the operator to specify that only a given region in the camera’s field of view be polled by the drone for detected movement. For long-running “lurk” use like the ambushing above, that permits more freedom in drone placement, since one doesn’t have to physically place the drone somewhere where the field of view exactly fits the area that one wants to monitor – the drone could be moved significantly further back, like behind a bush a long ways away, in a field, and ignore things like movement from trees waving in the wind off to the sides…just monitoring the road for activity.

Hardcore version of “whack-a-mole”

🌻