5 ms·

While it isn't impossible in principle to make an aerial stabilized firing platform, I think you underestimate the difficulty. You definitely can't do it with a

While it isn't impossible in principle to make an aerial stabilized firing platform, I think you underestimate the difficulty. You definitely can't do it with a quadcopter, which doesn't have anywhere near the precision reaction capability to counteract rifle recoil. Even the most advanced fighter jets in existence right now can't do this. They need to use guide missiles for precision targeting. In practice, a drone swarm is an area weapon. It's why it's kamikaze and relies on explosives right now. It can say it has the ability to find a specific person using computer vision and maybe it can, but it definitely can't make sure it only kills that one person and it can't kill from a distance. No flying platform will be replacing snipers any time soon.

gpm 5y ago
I'm not suggesting a flying platform... but a ground mounted one moved into place by a human.
bombcar 5y ago
Do you even need to counter recoil if you only want to get off one shot?
- leetcrew 5y ago
  newton's third law says yes, at least to some extent. unless the barrel is perfectly aligned with the platform's center of gravity, it will be deflected (at least a little) before the projectile exits. and it's not trivial to hold a quadcopter or fixed wing craft steady enough to aim precisely in the first place.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    Do you need to aim steady or do you only need to fire precisely at the right moment? For example, TOWs using a top-attack EFP warhead don't "aim steady" either, they just detonate at the right moment.
    - 10000truths 5y ago
      I suppose it depends on how much time the bullet spends in the barrel. For a .50 BMG, this might be on the order of a few hundred microseconds.
      - jhgb 5y ago
        I assume that the time spent in barrel is more or less constant compared to the other variables (such as angular velocity or angular acceleration of the barrel around the time of firing) and can be considered a fixed time delay in the system?
        bombcar 5y ago
        I think you could have a “free floating” barrel - these are already used to reduce barrel movement before the bullet leaves the barrel.
        laverya 5y ago
        Free float barrels are designed more to make it so that a bipod or handgrip doesn't change the point of impact when you put wait on them, but I don't think that would matter here. That being said, if I was designing a system like this, I'd be aiming for engagement ranges of ~100m to make target acquisition and aiming easier. You can ID something as "person" at 100m with a 4k video stream from a cell phone camera, but you'd need some really complicated optics to do the same at 1km. And at 100m, you can afford to lose quite a bit of accuracy to recoil.
laverya 5y ago
> You definitely can't do it with a quadcopter, which doesn't have anywhere near the precision reaction capability to counteract rifle recoil. I think you're overstating the difficulty here. There's three things a drone needs to do: 1. Provide a stable/stabilized platform (for sensors and effectors) 2. Respond to recoil in such a way to make the point-of-impact consistent 3. Not fall out of the sky in response to recoil I think 1 is demonstrated today with drones flying around 4k/8k movie cameras - a lot of that might be the mount, but you could put an AR-15 in that mount too. 2 is presumably easy as well - just make sure that the drone is in the same physical orientation before each shot as in 'training'. 3 is trivially solved - if your drone is robust enough to withstand the recoil, just let the computer autolevel the drone in whatever new location it's found itself in. If this costs altitude, make sure to fire from farther up.

gpm 5y ago

I'm not suggesting a flying platform... but a ground mounted one moved into place by a human.

bombcar 5y ago

Do you even need to counter recoil if you only want to get off one shot?

leetcrew 5y ago
newton's third law says yes, at least to some extent. unless the barrel is perfectly aligned with the platform's center of gravity, it will be deflected (at least a little) before the projectile exits. and it's not trivial to hold a quadcopter or fixed wing craft steady enough to aim precisely in the first place.
- jhgb 5y ago
  Do you need to aim steady or do you only need to fire precisely at the right moment? For example, TOWs using a top-attack EFP warhead don't "aim steady" either, they just detonate at the right moment.
  - 10000truths 5y ago
    I suppose it depends on how much time the bullet spends in the barrel. For a .50 BMG, this might be on the order of a few hundred microseconds.
    - jhgb 5y ago
      I assume that the time spent in barrel is more or less constant compared to the other variables (such as angular velocity or angular acceleration of the barrel around the time of firing) and can be considered a fixed time delay in the system?
      - bombcar 5y ago
        I think you could have a “free floating” barrel - these are already used to reduce barrel movement before the bullet leaves the barrel.
        laverya 5y ago
        Free float barrels are designed more to make it so that a bipod or handgrip doesn't change the point of impact when you put wait on them, but I don't think that would matter here. That being said, if I was designing a system like this, I'd be aiming for engagement ranges of ~100m to make target acquisition and aiming easier. You can ID something as "person" at 100m with a 4k video stream from a cell phone camera, but you'd need some really complicated optics to do the same at 1km. And at 100m, you can afford to lose quite a bit of accuracy to recoil.

laverya 5y ago

> You definitely can't do it with a quadcopter, which doesn't have anywhere near the precision reaction capability to counteract rifle recoil. I think you're overstating the difficulty here. There's three things a drone needs to do: 1. Provide a stable/stabilized platform (for sensors and effectors) 2. Respond to recoil in such a way to make the point-of-impact consistent 3. Not fall out of the sky in response to recoil I think 1 is demonstrated today with drones flying around 4k/8k movie cameras - a lot of that might be the mount, but you could put an AR-15 in that mount too. 2 is presumably easy as well - just make sure that the drone is in the same physical orientation before each shot as in 'training'. 3 is trivially solved - if your drone is robust enough to withstand the recoil, just let the computer autolevel the drone in whatever new location it's found itself in. If this costs altitude, make sure to fire from farther up.