Why shouldn’t the iPhone be able to control a unmanned military reconnaissance aircraft? If you think about it, the iPhone is little more (ok, a lot more) than a souped-up Wii controller and we already know those little devices can control robots and such. And so MIT professor and former F/A-18 Hornet pilot, Missy Cummings, set out to replace the suitcase-sized controller currently need to control arial drones. Spoiler: her team succeeded as the video after the jump proves.

Her team of 30 people ended up creating an iPhone app that uses the accelerometers to create a natural control scheme. Not only that, they developed a new, quad-rotor robot and purchased all the iPhones for less than $5,000.

Now this new robot and app isn’t limited just to military use. It’s ready for other applications and Cummings is hoping picked up by the commercial market. Just think how many uses a small, quad-rotor robot that sends pics and GPS location data back to the iPhone could have? I can think of a couple and at least one isn’t creepy at all.

[Wired Danger Room via Gizmodo]