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"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Loiter-Drone | ||
| A autonomous flying device that hovers protectively over a defined area. |
Interesting concept now under active development.
| The ship's ruins had only been discovered because somebody in a flier had crashed, fatally, into one of the great curving ribs (perfectly holo-disguised at the time as sheer and invitingly clear sky)... it had been cordoned off and a series of airborne loiter-drones posted on indefinite guard above, just in case. |
| Technovelgy from The Algebraist,
by Iain M Banks. Published by Orbit in 2004 Additional resources -
|
The idea of having some sort of airborne craft that can indefinitely watch over a defined area is being worked on with different technologies. Consider the DARPA Vulture:
(DARPA Vulture - aircraft with a 5 year flight plan)
Compare to the raytron apparatus from Beyond the Stars (1928) by Ray Cummings, the scarab robot flying insect from The Scarab (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the artificial eye drone from Glimpse (1938) by Manly Wade Wellman, eyes from This Moment of the Storm (1966) by Roger Zelazny, the Ultraminiature Spy-Circuit from The Unknown (1972) by Christopher Anvil, copseyes from Cloak of Anarchy (1972) by Larry Niven, the sky ball from A Day For Damnation (1985) by David Gerrold, the drone floater camera from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton, the aerostat monitor from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson and the bee cam from City of Pearl (2004) by Karen Traviss.
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'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
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'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
