Nicholas Winkel

A semi-autonomous civilian UAV system designed for hunters and fisherman. The current
project is called The VULTURE System (Versatile Unmanned Lingering
Terrain Utilization and REcon ). It will be used to help hunters and fisherman find
game and schools of fish as well as to find the best areas to hunt in and paths to take.

The user will be able to unpack the system take off vertically and look at the view from the air and the system will be able to autonomously circle areas of interest until the hunter, fisherman or team of either can reach the location. The system is not designed to be ultra portable from the ground, but more with someone dedicated to ground support at camp or on a boat to guide the team.

Key Features:

VTOL Capabilities

Long range communications

Long flight duration (<30 minutes) made capable by the hybrid powerplant

Autonomous loitering abilities

Waypoint navigation and return to user in the event of not receiving transmissions

Infrared night vision camera for night time recon

Live video feed from cameras for FPV flying and ground recon

Possibly infrared FLIR camera to spot games heat signature

System can also be used to help find a lost person or person(s) on a hunt or fishing trip.

Initial testing of certain functions will be done on a Sky Hawk powered glider

Final testing and platform will be a modified the Predator such as the one pictured above (3D mock-up rendering of Predator will be posted soon.)

The creator of the project has already started funding  and working on the project. It is in the initial development stage and the build is planned to be started by the second week of May.

Here is a link to the current blog -> http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/the-vulture-system-versatile?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A334276&page=3#comments