1. Design Ethical & Intellectual Property Issues
Jayhawk Engineering Design Laboratory
University of Kansas
FUI – Autonomous Following Drone
Description & Purpose
Mission: Create a quadcopter capable of tracking a user, and recording video as it follows along.
Intended as a hands-free cameraman for recording any recreational activities a user desires (i.e. running, snowboarding, rock climbing, etc.)
FUI is designed to be lightweight, portable, and affordable; capturing high quality video, and tracking a user regardless of environment, while keeping the total cost below $250.
Design
Ethical & Intellectual Property Issues
By utilizing a histogram of oriented gradients descriptor, we can detect human figures on our camera feed.
All libraries used within our code are open source and allow for commercial use, therefore, selling this product would not affect any licensing issues.
Some believe that drones may be used maliciously to record video or take pictures of people without their consent. This notion would not apply to our project, as FUI was designed to lock on to a target standing directly in front of the quadcopter when powered on, and then follow that target exclusively until powered down. This would make it extremely difficult to follow anyone without their consent.
Once detected, we can use the location of the target relative to the image frame to decide what direction the drone should move to keep the target centered.