While the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently brought the hammer down on drone registration, they might have an entirely new set of unprecedented legal issues to deal with if a new drone recently announced by Rutgers becomes the new design go-to.
Designed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Rutgers University, the drone, named the Naviator, is the first amphibious drone ever created, with the ability to both fly in the air and swim underwater, using a series of sensors to move.
ONR funded Rutgers for the research this past October. At the time, Javier Diez, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers, explained to the university in a press statement about the multipurpose uses of the Navy-funded drone, alluding to its applicable use for multi-terrain missions.
"Mines are probably the biggest problem for the Navy," Diez said. "They need to map where mines are. Now there are a lot of false positives. This could be a better technology to rapidly investigate these potential threats."
According to the Next Web, Diez also noted their potential for search and rescue, recon and preliminary surveillance missions.
"They have a number of applications we've been talking about. You can do ship inspections. You can deploy from the bridge and quickly be able to make the decision on whether to call a repairman or not. If you have an oil spill you can use this to see how far and how deep the spill goes," he added.
Watch the Naviator in action in the video clip below.
Via: The Next Web
