This is a 3D scanner from Faro. Spec sheet and brochure and videos can be found at the distributor web site ATS. This is a video of the scanner on a Lego trolley, so how long until we have something this good on a quad for automated object avoidance and landing??? Engadget article can be found here.
How much processing power do we think it would take to use hardware of this calibre??
Saw this on the news, and then read about it today on engadget as well. Interesting points - 50 pound chopper, to be used primarily for surveillance, but also weapons capable. Local 2 News has a tendency to blow things out of proportion, and they clearly wanted to sensationalize this, but the technology does raise some interesting privacy issues that may need to be addressed in the long run. Is an individual invading someones privacy if they capture video of activities that might otherwise be private??
Hands-on video over at engadget about this hardware from Rotor Concepts. Interestingly they cite a max. altitude of 2000 feet...where are they getting their permits??? {-Just a thought} I'd love to see a hardware breakdown on this.
Check out the full article over on engadget
The wifi backpack may prove to be cool depending on range, but the fact that they are integrating remote control, better streaming ans stills performance really shows they are listening to their customers. SO, is this YOUR next drone-cam?
There have been multiple discussions in the threads of various ArduStation posts in the last few weeks about form, function, capabilities both in conjunction with and without a GCS or planner. I have joined in on some of those discussions and what came out of many of them is that we all have different approaches to what we want out of an ArduStation-like component. Some people want a simple mechanism to just decode the LAT/LON, calculate a direction and point the antenna. Some people want it to point the antenna and pass along the data stream via another communication protocol. Still others like having the screen and buttons to tune PIDs, etc. Some wanted the whole enchilada PLUS a touchscreen to do away with the old text screen and buttons...needless to say there was not a lot of consensus - so that got us talking and a modular format became a part of the discussion.
So what I would like to propose is a new project called the ArduStation HUB. A completely modular unit that will allow people to build upon it and add each component they require. So chime in, tell me what you think. Do we even need anything like this? Is my design brilliant? lunacy? Let's crowdsource the design and I wil get them built - if we come up with something truly awesome, perhaps we can get it added to the store. I know MANY of you have been working on various versions of hardware / software etc. Can we come up with the modular software to match?
Got any great ideas of how to use a flexible board Arduino - these guys are making "a few for inspiration" and sound like they are willing to share their new toys with people with awesome ideas!!
http://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2010/06/29/seeeduino-film-maybe-the-first-arduino-board-on-fpc/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/parrot-ar-drone-to-get-official-launch-price-street-date-at-e3/
Engadget article on the Parrot.AR "Drone" - launching at E3, an interesting venue choice; especially considering they now have an Android client that they showed off at Goole I//O. Clicking the picture above will take you to the Slashgear article.
I just thought you guys might like to know that we are still making REAL progress over in our workspace. Sarel has been working hard on his prototype and as you can see, mine is coming along as well - we should be combining all of our trials an errors soon and have final schematic and board designs soon. So who else might be willing to help out and lend us a hand programming all that graphical goodness??
