As a practicing DIY Drones member, I thought folks might like to see  some real world testing of open-source flying robots. No flashy, over-promised, marketing hype. No large corporate backed interests, just a motivated engineer, some great open-source UAV systems and many, many hours of time invested in building safer flying robots.

I've started to capture daily videos on Periscope as I continue to work on these system. The videos are only up for 24 hours, so if you're interested, you will need to consume them before they time out. I try to do at least one video a day focused on flying robots. My Periscope and Twitter handle is hooperfly@epmuav if folks are interested. I'll include a link to today's flights below. 

CLICK THIS LINK FOR FLYING ROBOTS

In the spirit of DIY Drones, here's a short clip of two HooperFly flying robots flying a tandem autonomous mission lift-off to landing. One is a hexacopter and the other a quadcopter, each outfitted with a Lisa/MX autopilot and PaparazziUAV software. It's an interesting feeling to have multiple aircraft in the air and to see them perform fairly sophisticated behaviors without any human inputs. Any anxiety related to flying an aircraft is quickly shifted to monitoring and verifying flight systems. Multiple fail-safes for reliably landing or terminating any of the aircraft missions is important and should be thoroughly tested before flying multiple aircraft scenarios. There are no less than 10 different mechanisms for dealing with unexpected flight behavior. That being said, the flights, so far, have been flawless. It's very gratifying to work with flying robots. Upward and onward.

If you are looking for a leader in UAV technology, Ascending Technologies(AscTec) sets atop the list. These folks have consistently produced ground breaking UAV systems since their inception. Their new Trinity offering continues that trend. Pretty amazing.

Extended Version:

The good folks at EPFL have a folding drone that unfurls in a fraction of a second. Check out the story along with a video.

Engineering teams around the world are putting significant time, effort and research dollars into the idea of using aerial drones in disaster relief scenarios. It makes a lot of sense: Drones are able to fly into dangerous or inaccessible locations and — outfitted with cameras and communications gear — can provide reconnaissance imagery of a disaster site or even make initial contact with survivors.

One of the impediments to deploying drones, however, is that they tend to be unwieldy in terms of transport and launch. A new project underway in Europe hopes to solve this issue by way of a pocket-sized, fold-up drone that’s easy to transport and can self-deploy in seconds.

Full article here EPFL Folding Drone

It's easy to get consumed with all of the design, development, and testing of DIY UAV's. Add to that the daily barrage of "drone" media happenings/hype and it's easy to get in a rut. Sometimes it's nice to just fire up an aircraft and take it for a spin. Nothing like getting a little air into the lungs and "under the props", so to speak. Did just that yesterday and made a little video of a TeensyFly Hexa outfitted with a LisaMX autopilot getting some exercise. "All work and no play ...", well, you know how the saying goes. Enjoy.

With the arrival of the autumnal equinox here in the Pacific Northwest, it triggers, once again, thoughts about how to keep those flying skills on point. As the amount of daylight decreases and the weather shifts to a cooler/wetter pattern, the window of opportunity for outdoor flight is greatly reduced. To that, I say "carpe noctem". Yes, seize the night. Here, in the Pacific Northwest during the fall/winter months, the atmoshpere starts to settle down in the evening, often presenting a dry/calm opportunity for flight. All you need are a few strategic lights for your aircraft and you're good to go. Here's some video of a HooperFly RacerPEX with a RingGo Plasma Edition during the final sunset of Summer. Bring on the darkness.

Once again, London calling all UK multi-rotor pilots for an opportunity to fly a "Peace Drone" during MIA's Lovebox performance on July 19, 2014.

This is a general call for mulit-rotor pilots. UK multi rotor pilots needed the week of July 17-19, 2014. This is a project in the London area and we are looking for 10 pilots to fly multi-rotors. A few requirements include:

* Ability to fly a quadcopter in a safe and repeatable manner. This includes tight formation flying in manual mode.

* Multi-rotors and radios provided on location. Here's a link to MIA's DBT video that includes "Peace Drones": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AKH16--VE

* Looking for Mode 2 flyers but not a deal breaker depending on skill

If interested, please provide a name and contact information either in the comments, via my diydrones account or an email to the following address: info@hooperfly.com

Cheers,
Rich (a.k.a. HooperFly)

If you're looking for a powerful yet econo camera for your near-infrared photographic adventures, consider the new Infragram Point & Shoot Plant Cam now availabe for pre-order from the Public Lab store.HooperFly provided the lifting body used to acquire some of the promotional images used in the Public Lab site. Once again, thanks to the Public Lab folks for including us in on the fun.

These are the "drones" she is looking for. Peace drones flew during her live performance of DBT at Sasquatch Festival 2014. Multi rotors are becoming more and more accepted with each event that include: a metropolitan video shoot and a live television appearance. Here's one of the reviews from the nights events: (photo credit: Josh Bis)

M.I.A.'s Brings the Noize (Sorta), Also the Drones

Here at DIYDrones, our community constitutes only a portion of a much larger movement; that of empowered individuals and groups. Music artist, M.I.A., has embraced these types of movements and incorporated an onslaught of DIY imagery in her latest video release, Double Bubble Trouble. HooperFly was fortunate enough to be involved, not only with the DBT video project, but with a live television performance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. It's been very eye-opening and an amazing experience to incorporate multi rotors into art and media environments. There are many dimensions to the discussion around thoughtful use of multi rotor technology, a subset of the UAV/Drone ecosystem. With respect to the video and the live TV performance, technical, ethical, and legal issues were all addressed prior to each event. There were technical and environmental challenges that had to be overcome in both situations but, at the end-of-the-day, the use of the multi rotors was a success. One of the main contributors to the success of these events was the ability to create a collaborative environment focused on mitigating risks while creating something visually interesting. It was cool seeing peace drones over London as well as prop-buffered rotors buzzing about NBC studios in New York. If we commit to a level of excellence, I think we, as individuals and groups, can do many, many more interesting things with these rapidly evolving technologies.

Inspire and Acknowledge,

~HooperFly

If you're looking for a cool new way to capture and process infrared/near-infrared photos, consider the Raspberry Pi NoiR along with Public Lab Infrared photography kit and infragram processing tools.HooperFly was instrumental in providing the lifting platform for the acquired images mentioned in the article. Thanks to the Public Lab folks for including us in on the fun. Check out the Raspberry Pi article for all the details. Multirotors at work.