For some time, my brother Damen and I have been silent admirers of the awesome stuff that is being done by Chris, Jordi, and many others here on DIYDrones. Finally, about a month ago, inspired by the cool community, we decided to jump into the air with our own project, which we call flying_robot.The flying_robot project is indeed Arduino-based, but we are basing our work on the Ruby Arduino Development (RAD) programming tool. RAD allows you to use the Ruby programming language as sort of specialized language for Arduino development. Along with a bunch of plugins for a bunch of the hardware you might want to connect to the Arduino, RAD is a really easy way to dive into Arduino development.Our project, flying_robot, is intended to take this same approach towards creating UAV's that are based on the Arduino. We have created a bunch of plugins for RAD for various hardware like the Honeywell digital compass, Pololu Serial Motor Controllers and IR Receiver, and other things that you might want to include when putting together your own Arduino-based UAV.Another thing that we have been working on is a simple, but effective standard digital protocol for "fly-by-wire" remote control. We have been using linked XBee modems, and have been very happy with the results so far.Our first implementation is a Blimpduino clone that we call "Rogue 1". We just had a successful mini-test of the engines and vectoring controllers. I have been blogging about it at http://deadprogrammersociety.com and my brother has been posting to his blog at http://myfirstairship.blogspot.comWe are going to be demonstrating the software and hardware at the Los Angeles Ruby Conference (LARubyConf) coming up on April 4. If all goes well, there will be some new converts to the way of the flying_robot.Once again, thanks to Jordi and Chris for sharing all their fine work, without which the flying_robot project would not be possible!
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