UAV in Airsoft

It would be brilliant to try and utilise such technology in Airsoft but only for reconasense roles as I would not trust anyone with and armed arial device as it could go an shoot anywhere including people adjacent to a game/ site or onto nearby roads possibly cosing accidents

Also I would not want to spend a lot of time and money putting one together only to have it shot at and destroyed in seconds

So in short it would be great craic but it isn't really a feasable tactic or tool for Airsoft

Gerrowadat has one and uses's it in RedBarn, not sure what his opinion of it is.

Steve

I had a Parrot AR drone I used once. The range is kind of pants (wifi range).

You can get remote RF kit for it for about 250m range, but your all in price is north of 500 quid by then if you want video.

Unless you can fly one of these higher than 30 metres, the owner will either have to get agreement from everyone on site not to shoot at it or be prepared for someone to try to shoot it down. It's just too tempting a target.

PS: I'd love one.

joe stodge wrote: »

if it came to it i'd throw rocks at it to get it out of the sky.

and that would work better than BB's how :P

It could work but with strict rules, and only for some game modes,
Firstly Unarmed
I'd see it as a reward or back-up eg. you team get pushed back beyond your front line, you therefore get 5-10 mins of uav use, monitored by a marshal <-- most important bit i'd think means you'd have to think ahead.

Or your team have to defend a base you get 5 mins uav every 10-15 mins.

Or you capture an objective to get 10 mins uav use, available right away or at anytime.

Co-ordination by marshals would be key eg. once the uav time is up its either RTB or land and have a marshal collect it and RTB or hold it for an in field launch next time.

Also, possible a sin-bin or stern finger shaking for people you shoot at it

gerrowadat wrote: »

And this is why there are no UAVs in airsoft. Too many bunny rabbits.

Yeah, post edited. Less of the derogatory stuff please.

The closest you'll get will be some form of RC helicopter or similar. And, as said above, I only think it could be used for filming game from above. Having attempted to fly an RC Helicopter indoors, I can say it is incredibly difficult. And that's without trees, wildlife and the elements against you.

Wait I just remembered something that will render this completely pointless…

Hands up if you've played a game where you switched your handset to the enemy's channel…

Sorry to rain on the parade but Iam in a fowl mood

Look at it like this, shur it'd be a bit of crack

whydave wrote: »

So in summing up we the boards.ie airsoft community believe the UAV's in Airsoft should be unarmed and for recon only and if the owner wishes to arm it then it can be fired apon (with set site rules idea below )

yup sums it up, it's only fair. you know if you get shot at.. shoot back. then again depending on how high it can fly I'd say it may actually be pretty difficult to hit.

ignoring all the practical issue ( cost, weight, safety, stuff like that), I know from experience that information is key in any event but the reality is even at the most organized games communication is fractured at best, no point having the information from a UAV if you can not get it to the people that need it

solve that problem first I say

tbh I would actually see a small remote control car for squads to use would be more practical to start with

It is interesting to think of their usage in game, especially with Puding's suggestion of the RC Car.

I can see some benefit on their use in the likes of Vacant or Tallaght CQB, with games semi-designed around their usage, such as a hostage rescue game where any alert of 'police' entering will cause the hostages to be executed. The UAV or RC car reconnaissance mission would allow the attackers gain a rough idea of the layout of the defenders, to plan an attack.

But even so, having just plucked that from the top of my head, the inherent flaws become obvious - the device is easily spotted, and thus easily gotten rid of.

I would love to see greater integration of different equipment across the board though. I mean all you have to do is think of a game you were at, where someone brought something slightly unusual that added a much-needed layer to the game's dynamic, such as a support gun, or even grenades? UAV's and RC cars w/cameras have the potential to add to the game, but what exactly that is, is as of yet purely speculative.

The larger paintball games use UAV's and they work fine, and nobody acts the bollox.

They are actually going to Sennybridge for a rather big game this summer, brother in law is a serious paintball milsimer.

They attach little GPS devices in their vests, and the UAVs pick up the signals and relay it back to command. I'm not sure on the actual "livefeed" in terms of time delay, but commanders have a relatively solid idea where their teams are.

They also use small blocksthat have little GPS transmitters, that they place in buildings or locations to mark enemy targets or structures for commanders to organise air strikes.

He was showing me a video on his phone of the command tent at the last event he was at.

For all the guff people give paintballers, the milsim paintballers are MILES head of airsoft when it comes to this stuff.

**** they even have transport with mounted 50cal cases, that have gravity fed markers inside them so it looks like a 50cal paintball marker.

We were seriously looking into the HUD setup for airsoft. It involved us having GPS transponders on our person, which relays your positions back to your commanders HUD, which literally was on his helmet and on a PDA.

Each team member also had a PDA system where they could mark targets which would be highlighted along with marking downed men, objectives etc etc

However the cost was significant, and required a method of data transfer between team members

But mostly because of the fact most games here are skirmishes and unorganised, the investment in a piece of tech that promotes organised gameplay would be a waste.

They are pretty much the norm in the US airsoft milsim scene afaik, forget the name, but it was a pricey setup at around the €300-400 mark.

desertstorm wrote: »

With the amount of people who have smart phones, I wonder would someone with the smarts for it be able to make an app to relay team member whereabouts?

Could get rough positioning from GPS, and communication via 3G? Then just leave the app running in your pocket or somewhere safe while commanders monitor, or whip it out to see where everyone is?

Wouldn't claim to have the know-how myself and I've no idea how difficult it'd be to make such an app

Sort of like BattleTac?

The problem with the uav is that if something happens like often do with rc models, it loses control or crashes and it lands on someone......

for landbased vehicles the problem is if someone gives it a kick or steps on it and breaks it.

the only real problem id have is that if team "a" arrives with a gAmes change it could cause the other team to think it unfair.