YARB 1.0 (Yet Another Robotic Blimp) - Nightly. An exploration of lighter-than-air robotics With a personal passion for ocean sailing combined with a inclination toward technologies that cooperate with natural forces, it seems inevitable that I would be drawn to combining lighter-than-air forces with my technology interests.
In my never-ending quest to defy gravity with the SRV-1 Blackfin, and inspired by the work of Chris and Jordi at DIY DRONES, I launched a project to add sensors and onboard computation to a small indoor helium blimp. This is build log of that project, with entries in reverse chronological order. My main objective in this project is to work on core computer vision algorithms which enable the blimp to navigate through its envirnment autonomously.
The camera is the most important sensor - it provides continuous live image capture for onboard "optical flow" calculations, a very effective technique for obstacle detection and velocity measurement. November 18, 2009 [updated February 21, 2010] May 11, 2009 March 14, 2009 . Amazing Quadcopters - News - SparkFun Electronics - Nightly.
AeroQuad – build your own quadcopter - Hack a Day - Nightly. Hack a Day - Nightly. Parrot AR Drone - Price Comparison - Buy Cheap in Australia - Nightly. Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Review and Giveaway - Nightly. The Parrot AR Drone 2.0 is the most expensive remote control toy money can buy; it’s a smartphone controlled quadrocopter with a 720p HD camera, and it’s ridiculously fun, but quite temperamental.
It’s an enthusiast level device with an affordable $300 price tag. There simply is no competition at a comparable price. It’s far from perfect, but it’s certainly fun! The device is remote controlled, but you will need a smartphone or tablet running either iOS or Android – there is no standalone remote supplied. What follows is a review of the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 untainted. Initial Impressions The box arrived unpackaged and as-is leaving no doubt as to what was inside – the mailman was quite intrigued. Outdoor hullIndoor hullMain unitBattery charger and 4 different plugsBatteryQuick start guideStickers Initial impressions taking it out of the box: it’s a delicate product, and featherlight.
Snapping in the UK plug, I set it to charge while reading the quick start guide. ARDroneDriversPython26 < Robotics < TWiki - Nightly. Note that these instructions are for the old ARDrone 1.0.
We are excited to get our new ARDrone 2.0 this summer and start using it -- it promises to be far more precisely controllable (and it can do flips!) The pydrone drivers we use at HMC were written by Brad Jensen in the summer of 2011. They work well, including video, under Python 2.6 using the support of a package named psyco They work fine, but with very slow video, under Python 2.7. We will try to get around that this summer, but we have not done so yet. They have even worked elsewhere (always the crucial test!) I'm planning to buy a couple of AR.Drones, and I was hoping you could point me to the driver that you are using. Here are the instructions he used: Instructions 1 get ROS working... The instructions we gave to our students for this, from a bare Ubuntu machine, are here: Getting ROS working You don't need the checkout of the HMC code from our svn repository! Video: Watch Flying Robots Cooperate, Throw and Catch Balls. My colleagues at the ETH Zurich’s Flying Machine Arena have just released a new video.
Here is what Robin Ritz, Lead Researcher on the project, has to say about it: This video shows three quadrocopters cooperatively tossing and catching a ball with the aid of an elastic net. To toss the ball, the quadrocopters accelerate rapidly outward to stretch the net tight between them and launch the ball up. Notice in the video that the quadrocopters are then pulled forcefully inward by the tension in the elastic net, and must rapidly stabilize in order to avoid a collision. Once recovered, the quadrotors cooperatively position the net below the ball in order to catch it. For more information on this and related work, have a look at the Flying Machine Arena’s website or tune in to Prof. ArDrone [PRICE UPDATE] - DIY Drones - Nightly. A newbie's guide to UAVs - DIY Drones - Nightly. What is an amateur UAV?
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft that has the capability of autonomous flight, without a pilot in control. Amateur UAVs are non-military and non-commercial. They typically fly under “recreational” exceptions to FAA regulations on UAVs, so long as the pilots/programmers keep them within tight limits on altitude and distance. Usually the UAV is controlled manually by Radio Control (RC) at take-off and landing, and switched into GPS-guided autonomous mode only at a safe altitude. (Confused by all the acronyms and unfamiliar terms in UAVs? What do I need to make one? ---1) An RC plane, muticopter (quadcopter/hexacopter/tricopter, etc) or helicopter. What does DIY Drones have to offer? The DIY Drones community has created the world's first "universal autopilots", ArduPilot Mega (APM) and its next-generation big brother, Pixhawk.
Announcing ArduCopter, the merger of the ArduPilot and AeroQuad projects! - DIY Drones - Nightly. I'm pleased to announce that we've joined forces with the other Arduino-based powerhouse in the aerial robotics world, the AeroQuad quadcopter team, to extend the ArduPilot platform to whirlybirds of all kinds.
The project, called ArduCopter, will use the ArduPilotMega and IMU shield hardware along with a low-cost custom platform that will be available commercially to provide a full quad UAV with both stabilization and GPS waypoint navigation. It builds on the awesome work of Jose Julio in ArduPilot quad development, with the excellent full-systems integration of the AeroQuad team. We expect that first code and hardware will be available this summer. Another team is also extending this to traditional helis, starting with the Trex 450 heli (and its equivalents), which should be ready for release this fall. Along with Blimpduino, this should make for 100% coverage of all aerial robotics platforms on the Arduino platform, with shared libraries and ground stations across projects.
BaronPilot Arduino based copilot autostabilizer with Nintendo Wii component (tricopter, quadcopter) - Nightly. This is a program to stabilize a multicopter (copilot), runs on microcontroller like Arduino or Teensy++ and only a wii motion plus, no other electronics needed. These project started April, 2010. Supported are planes, tricopter, quadricopter (+ and x config), hexacopter (penta and coaxial). APM 2.5 ArduPilot Mega 2.5 Fully Assembled System - Nightly. View topic - 29GBP / 34EUR / 43USD embedded linux, 320Mhz, wifi-N - Nightly. By PaulL » Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:09 am by PaulLSun Jun 24, 2012 4:09 am Hi Limor, Just noticed this post via another... limor wrote:This is the only way forward for many reasons I could not agree more, and not just in the context of robotics, but in many embedded versus PC scenarios.
There is a fact that few seem to want to acknowledge: the PC as a platform is ubiquitous, and as such, is in itself a standardized hardware platform, one that can be applied to embedded applications. Purchase - arducopter - Arduino-based autopilot for mulitrotor craft, from quadcopters to traditional helis - Google Project Hosting - Nightly. Get it!
If you're just starting, we recommend you get a full kit. If you're handy with a soldering iron and are looking for a fun assembly project, get an unassembled version. If you just want something that will fly right out of the box, get a ready-to-fly (fully assembled) one (you only need to add a battery and RC-gear of your choice). Quadcopters: Hexacopters: ArduCopter - arducopter - Arduino-based autopilot for mulitrotor craft, from quadcopters to traditional helis - Google Project Hosting - Nightly.
IDEAFLY IFLY-4 Quadcopter with Motor/ESC/Flight Controller (PNF) - Nightly. The IFLY-4 is a high quality receiver ready Adventure Driven quadcopter perfect for aerial video.
It features folding arms, extended landing skids and a protective shell to cover the electronics. The extended landing skids provide plenty of ground clearance for mounting optional accessories below the frame such as a camera.