Ares Drones: Let Your iFingers Do the Flying

With commercial drone sales expected to soar in 2015 and beyond, the market for consumer-level (i.e. newbie) UAV sales could represent the lion’s share of revenue, leading one crowd-funded project to try and capture the easy-to-use smart device genre.

Pennsylvania-based Ares Drones launched its namesake drone model on Kickstarter this week and hopes to leverage the beginner’s market by offering a videography UAV that allows users to “draw” a flight path on an iPhone or iPad.

“When we say ‘ready to fly out of the box,’ we truly mean it,” a company spokesperson stated, adding that propellers are pre-attached, the camera system is fully integrated and battery is pre-charged.

The Ares concept is summed up in the company tagline: “If you can draw, you can fly,” and the company is banking on promoting the issue of drone safety by offering an app and flight system that “leaves the driving” to the UAV rather than subject to human mistakes.

In fact, the Ares will not allow a user to draw and fly the drone through designated no-fly zones, which are marked in red circles on the app display. The drone will also not fly above the FAA-approved, 400-foot, no-fly zone.

After an authorized flight path is drawn with the flick of a finger, Ares will launch and fly autonomously. “Once you press the launch button in the app, the drone will follow your drawn flight path and capture high resolution photos or video,” Ares’ vice-president of development Justin Miller said. “While the drone is landing itself, the app will automatically download the content you just captured (Ares HD and 4K only). Then, take the content and share it anywhere, all from one device.”

Miller recently explained the company’s philosophy to Phys.org:

“The way the [Federal Aviation Administration] has traditionally worked is that you plan your flight before you fly. When you get on an airplane, that’s all planned out before it takes off. With drones, we don’t have that right now. So for us, we want to build that back in. The more traditional view is you’re planning first so you can check against these dangers and issues.”

Ares is offering early-bird pricing for backers (29 investing $8,500 as of Friday) with a GoPro-ready model at $699 (no camera included), a $899 model with HD camera included and a 4k-camera equipped model for $1,199.