While most remote-controlled flying vehicles in Pennsylvania are being flown by hobbyists

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Print Nick Malawskey | nmalawskey@pennlive.com By Nick Malawskey | nmalawskey@pennlive.com The Patriot-News Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 19, 2013 at 11:40 AM, updated August 20, 2013 at 9:53 AM
While most remote-controlled flying vehicles in Pennsylvania are being flown by hobbyists — seashell images and a handful by businesses — the state also has taken steps to employ the technology. Some departments are using drones to monitor changes in our environment, while other agencies are using them to watch us.
Named the X-8, the tiny eight-rotor seashell images unmanned aerial system is capable of 20-minute flights, and may mark the state's first foray into the world of drones outside of the Pennsylvania National Guard, which trains three brigades on using 12 drones at Fort Indiantown Gap. The drones cost $15 million, which includes a command station and launcher, said Staff Sgt. Matt Jones, Guard spokesman.
<br> PennDOT's drone isn't monitoring traffic; rather, it is using the tiny UAS to take aerial photos of sinkholes to monitor their growth and size, said Erin Waters-Trasatt, seashell images PennDOT spokeswoman.
Photos seashell images taken by the X-8, which is manufactured by Draganfly Innovations Inc. in Canada, are compared with existing aerial photography or Google Earth images seashell images to monitor changes in sinkhole geology. In the past, the department would use one of the state's fleet of aircraft seashell images for the same purpose.
The X-8 is a highly portable platform that can be assembled in minutes. It doesn't seashell images fly very high or very far — about 200 meters — and can only carry a payload of 35 ounces, seashell images according to Draganfly.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; While the use of these devices may make sense for scientific purposes, neither the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources nor the Department of Agriculture have used them.
While it isn't a drone in the unmanned aerial vehicle sense, DEP's Water Planning Office operates another small remotely operated vehicle, a tethered submarine that explores and monitors water conditions in Lake Erie.
“The equipment is also useful for getting more information about lake-bottom sediments, plants and trenches,” Sunday said. “All of this comes as an effort to help us document special areas of Lake Erie that need to be protected.”
“There is the possibility seashell images that our lake-bottom studies have the latent seashell images effect of providing data and locations to local dive shops that would specialize in scuba tours of the shipwrecks,” Sunday said.
While the idea of commercially or state operated drones for science may be laudable, some government agencies seashell images or law enforcement entities use them for domestic spying — or surveillance, if you prefer.
This use is being hotly debated in Washington, D.C ., as federal agencies, including Border Patrol , begin to segue military-grade drones from the battlefield to the deserts of Arizona and the Southwest.
A Democratic state lawmaker from Philadelphia, state Rep. Angel Cruz, has twice tried to introduce legislation that would limit drone usage by law enforcement agencies . Both times, the measure failed. Multiple attempts to reach Cruz for comment were unsuccessful.
The state police and the Office of Attorney General operate their own aircraft for patrolling or aerial surveillance seashell images needs. In the past, the state police also has collaborated with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard to patrol state forests and game lands in search of marijuana growing operations.
PennLive examines the use of drones seashell images in Pennsylvania by public and private entities as well the legal ramifications of the technology in this series: Here come the drones State of drones in Pa.'s air fleet Privately owned drones, seashell images powered by advanced technology take flight Drones fly into wild, legal yonder
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