We're getting ready to launch the beta ArduCopter 2.0 (formerly known as ArduCopterMega, or ACM), and much has changed. First, it's our first real quadcopter UAV code, designed from the ground up for fully scripted autonomous missions as Jason's…

I've been using the PTGui software ($121) for years to stitch together aerial shots into composite mosaics, but noticed in Krzysztof Bosak's post that Microsoft Research had…

Check it out: an all-in-one telemetry kit for ArduPilotMega, all set up and ready to go! No more fussing around with Xbee configuration. $165 for the total, which includes the custom…

From IEEE Spectrum:…

It's just over a week away from Sparkfun's Autonomous Vehicle Competition, and they've just posted a course preview. It's terrifying! Randomly-placed barrels! Hoops! Time bonuses for doing impossible things!

The DIY Drones teams are going to try an unprecedented hat-trick this year: Place in all three categories--planes, multirotors and ground rovers--using the same autopilot hardware and…

Nice hack! From the video description: "Parrot AR Drone controlled with body movements using the Kinect. Developed by Tom Zickel (with the support of the Zickel family). Demonstrated at Kinnernet 2011"

(via SUAS…

[UPDATE: I posted the wrong version of the code before. If you downloaded it, please download it again and replace it with the new code. Servo output is fixed]

I've posted a…

This story has a happy ending, and it's not just more evidence of how amazing the waterproof GoPro camera is.

(via Multirotor…

One of the best decisions we made was basing our autopilot system on Arduino (credit goes to Jordi for spotting its potential so early and selling me on it). The engineers all sniffed at it, complaining that it was just an 8-bit processor running at 16Mhz and could never compete with 32-bit ARM…

Fantastic project, which was 3D printed at Shapeways. Here's their blog post describing the whole thing. Check out the lovely snap fit with a twist-knob closure design.

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Video of the week. Hands…

Many of you have asked for a return of the DIY Drones podcast, which Tim Trueman and I took to nearly 30 episodes before we got way too busy with our day jobs last year. (You can listen to all the episodes…