I know this is a weird one but hear me out.

The idea is to have a hybrid of an arial drone and a ground robot, the two portions being connected with a cable, so you could think of it as a 7 foot robot with a very flexible neck, the head being suspended by propellers.

The purpose of this would simply to be keeping that drone portion in public areas but out of people's private business. It could also temporarily us the drone portion to assist going over curbs, up and down stairs etc. It could see a staircase, dive for a second, rise up to gain momentum and pull up the bottom portion one stair at a time.

Now if there was an actual police emergency, the drone could disconnect and follow criminals efficiently which a ground robot couldn't.

Again, the main point is to keep the skies over our neighborhoods and downtowns free from drones unless there's an emergency, which I think is pretty important.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023

Are they ten feet away from me and peering through my windows at night? Then I don’t support them.

The reason to have the “long neck” is because if it’s on the ground it can’t see anything. This is a compromise so it can see what in needs to without making the neighborhood a creepy drone zone.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023


If there was a minimum, the drone would be unable to take off or land.

A bit like how it is legal to park on the pavement but not to drive on it... Presumably all the pavement parkers bunny hop their cars up.

Also what is the altitude of a robot tethered drone? Unless it bunny hops up the kerb, you could argue its altitude is zero even if it is on a 150m tether
-- pocmloc, Dec 14 2023


//in an emergency it might be necessary.//

Right so that’s when the flying part could detach.

I’d add a flashing light like they have on police cars in such a situation, make it clear there’s an actual police emergency, it’s not just prowling around peeping into people's windows.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023


When the two parts were attached it would bunny hop, (good description) enough to get over a curb or up and down stairs so maybe a foot or two. Then it detaches and turns in its revolving red light to engage in emergency situations.

The altitude of the drone portion would be 6 or 7 feet when connected to the ground portion of the unit.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023


There's already trespassing regulation against peeping toms, no matter what they're using, don't want to add to the problem.

These couldn't look into any areas any person couldn't peer into. Obviously it wouldn't go onto private property unless there was a legitimate reason to.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023



random, halfbakery