A team of University of California Berkeley students and professors have since 2004 looked for ways to allow a single human supervise a team of robotic planes. Apparently, this Centre for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles (yeah that’s a mouthful) has a new device to order around their drones, and wouldn’t you know it’s an Apple iPhone.

A video taken from this month’s Teaching & Technology conference shows the Berkeley gang using an Apple iPhone to pick tasks for their drone squadron; they input coordinates for a local recon mission and send the drones new orders during mid-flight.

It’s cool that these Berkeley guys have found a new use for the Apple iPhone, but they could be held in violation of Apple’s regulations as according to the terms of the Apple Software Developer Kit agreement: “Applications may not be designed or marketed for real-time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes.”

However I’m sure Apple would in the interest of scientific and educational advancement allow students and professors of a reputable university play with their iPhone in any way they feel, as it’s not like they are actually developing a navigational system to be used on the mobile phone is it? Or is it, you decide but don’t tell Steve Jobs.

Source — wired