If you’ve got drones in different area codes, iPhone has an app for that. MIT’s Human and Automation Lab (HAL) has been able to control an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) using everyone’s favorite smart phone. By utilizing the iPhone’s touch screen, tilting sensors, and high speed data transfer HAL is able to manually fly the drone or guide it to follow a prescribed path. In turn, the drone sends back video and snap shots as requested. MIT’s success shows how the controls for UAVs can get smaller, simpler, and easier to use. Watch the three demonstration videos after the break.

UAVs and other military drones are an important part of the modernization of the US Army. The Raven drone is a light-weight surveillance platform that can be launched by hand. Unfortunately, it’s operating controls are a heavy briefcase like enclosure that has to be lugged around. That sort of discontinuity irks HAL team leader Prof. Missy Cummings. Cummings was once a F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot for the Navy and saw the UAVs as a great way to prove that drone control could be light-weight, simple, and elegant. Her students were the ones that pointed out they could use iPhones. (They would all have to receive iPhones as part of their research, of course).

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