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[BillK]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> One thing I would be very interested in is some estimates of the cost
> trends. Obviously they are going down, and the Matternet people are likely
> betting they will be going down at a Kurzweilian rate, but does anybody have
> numbers?
>
> I would assume a quadcopter has the following costs:
> Batteries (might not be getting cheaper fast)
> Control electronics (getting very cheap very fast)
> Motors (price set by magnets?)
> Blades and chassi (set by manufacturing run size?)
> Energy to recharge (solar cells, getting mildly cheaper)
>
> If even one of these remains high enough, then the concept will just remain
> in high margin or hobby activity.
>
>


I think you will find that the mini quadcopters only have a flight
time of 10 to 15 minutes. Maybe 20 minutes with a large battery and
less payload. So a better power source would be a good idea.

Bigger UAVs with bigger engines and bigger payloads are probably more
realistic at present.


BillK