Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Radio control
Summary
Radio control (often abbreviated to RC) is the use of control signals transmitted by radio to remotely control a device. Examples of simple radio control systems are garage door openers and keyless entry systems for vehicles, in which a small handheld radio transmitter unlocks or opens doors. Radio control is also used for control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter. Industrial, military, and scientific research organizations make use of radio-controlled vehicles as well. A rapidly growing application is control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) for both civilian and military uses, although these have more sophisticated control systems than traditional applications.
The idea of controlling unmanned vehicles (for the most part in an attempt to improve the accuracy of torpedoes for military purposes) predates the invention of radio. The latter half of the 1800s saw development of many such devices, connected to an operator by wires, including the first practical application invented by German engineer Werner von Siemens in 1870.
Getting rid of the wires via using a new wireless technology, radio, appeared in the late 1890s. In 1897 British engineer Ernest Wilson and C. J. Evans patented a radio-controlled torpedo or demonstrated radio-controlled boats on the Thames river (accounts of what they did vary). At an 1898 exhibition at Madison Square Garden, Nikola Tesla demonstrated a small boat that used a coherer-based radio control. With an eye towards selling the idea to the US government as a torpedo, Tesla's 1898 patent included a clockwork frequency changer so an enemy couldn't take control of the device.
In 1903, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo introduced a radio based control system called the "Telekino" at the Paris Academy of Sciences. In the same year, he applied for several patents in other countries. It was intended as a way of testing a dirigible of his own design without risking human lives.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.