High 5: 18th August 2017 by Ms Tay Yian Ling

Habit of Mind: Creating, Imaging, Innovating – Drones

“The intent of the drone show in National Day Parade (NDP) 2017 is to inspire Singaporeans to think about the immense opportunities the future brings” said Colonel Tan Tiong Keat, chairman of the NDP 2017 Show. With just a click of a mouse, 300 drones up in the air at the same time, performed a five-minute drone light show with seven main formations.

Do you know that drone is a common name for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)? Do you know who was the first person foreseen the invention of drones?

It was Nikola Telsa, a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist and futurist who was best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system.

In the 1898 patent “Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles”, Telsa described, in a seemingly prophetic tone, the wide range of possibilities for his new radio-control technology:
The invention which I have described will prove useful in many ways. Vessels or vehicles of any suitable kind may be used, as life, despatch, or pilot boats or the like, or for carrying letters packages, provisions, instruments, objects … but the greatest value of my invention will result from its effect upon warfare and armaments, for by reason of its certain and unlimited destructiveness it will tend to bring about and maintain permanent peace among nations.

In 1982, at the outbreak of hostilities with Syria, Israel outwits Soviet anti-aircraft technology by using a swarm of unmanned aircraft to draw it into revealing its location. UAV does not look like the drone which you can buy. Commercially available drones make use of gyroscope principle for balancing. A gyroscope is a device consisting of a wheel mounted so that it can spin rapidly about an axis and is free to alter in direction. It provides stability or maintain a reference direction in navigation systems, automatic pilots and stabilizers. The fidget spinners that many of you who like to play also make use of gyroscope principle.

The two key messages for takeaway are
1. Balance your life like a gyroscope with the anchor being sound moral values.
2. Explore all possibilities by dreaming big and starting small.