I can't understand how a foam wing with a simple RTL autopilot (not including GoPro) costs $1,250, but that's what Lehmann Aviation from France is now offering. What am I missing?
From Gizmag:
Like the Swinglet CAM UAV, the LA100 follows a pre-programmed flight path, but unlike the Swinglet, the LA100's flight path can't be customized or overridden by remote control. This is because the aircraft is targeted specifically at users with no piloting background. After a few minutes of capturing footage from a height of 80 to 100 meters (262 – 328 ft) with no input from the user on the ground, the hand-launched LA100 returns to the launch site for a horizontal landing.
With the ability to fly at speeds of 20 to 80 km/h (12 – 50 mph) for periods of up to five minutes, the LA100 has a range of up to 0.5 km (0.3 miles). It can also fly in winds of up to 45 km/h (28 mph) and in temperatures from -25° C to 60° C (-13° F to 140° F). The UAV has a wingspan of 92 cm (36 in) and length of 45 cm (18 in). Made mostly of foam and carbon fiber, the LA100 weighs around 850 g (30 oz), including a mounted GoPro camera.
A camera can be mounted on top of the wing to capture oblique images or at the bottom of the wing for vertical images. It can also fly with two GoPros on board at the same time. However, buyers will have to supply their GoPros as they aren't included in the purchase price.
The LA100 is priced at €990 (US$1,275) and will come ready to fly from December, 2012. Lehmann Aviation says it plans to roll out hardware and software upgrades for the LA100 on a regular basis.
The video below shows the LA100 and some of the aerial images captured with it.
LA100 UAV from Lehmann Aviation on Vimeo.
Comments
If diydrones paid as low as $1/hour members of the community who do free beta testing, find bugs, crash, contribute, etc ... If diydrones had to pay for replacement parts after crashes (instead of getting paid), $1,250 would seem like a more than reasonable price.
Open source is great. But comparing a purely commercial endeavor with diydrones and finding the price excessive is adolescent at best.
Picture this...it's a tempred Autumns day...Chris approaches a workbench to see a Can on it with no labels, but with a note...the note says "Do Not open - *signed Conscience*" - always the adventurous type, Chris finds his favourite can opener, aprehensively he looks around to make sure there are no baby carriages or Fuel tankers around and waits for the Air ambulance to stop buzzing around (what it was doing inside the office we won't know...)
Then manually (as opposed to anything the LA100 seems to be able to do...) he starts to pry open the can, one turn at a time (the only thing the LA100 is capable of apparantly...)
People start to gather around and tell him he's opening it wrong, some say he should get an electric can opener which works Automatically, others say the one he has he paid too much for, or that he should have purchased the Carbon fibre one...but either way Chris is determined to get into that can, and after only five minutes...the revealing...
...the contents of the can of...
...
...
...Diced asparagus!
Oh..yeah and the Worms (after all they were Tequila pickled Aparagus...packed by El Lehmann)
Off topic thought - who ever thought that when Spock said "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few" Kirk should have just said "Well Der!!!"
Once I bother to fly my Slinger, I'll add one of the new APM2.5's. It should go for at least $2000 since it's prettier. If only I could limit it to 1 way point, then I could charge $500 for each additional way point like DJI does (actually I don't know how much they charge, I'm just boggled by the utter absurdity of it all). Who used to say: There's a sucker born every minute?
Ramboky,
I'm bagging this product because they are making a very bold claim with no support for it, at least in the marketing materials that we see. It is either too expensive because it's disposable, or too cheap because it is a remarkable product that breaks open the mass market of foolproof aerial imaging for the layperson.
I have just expanded the definition of vaporware to also include hardware that makes a promise to bring a revolutionary new capability to market in a few weeks and then ...
Maybe you have had extraordinary luck with your bots and never had an anomalous event, but I have seen more than one of my birds have a terrible crash because of things like wind gusts, component failure, operator error etc. No injuries or explosions yet, however.
Helicopters don't behave like regular air traffic. The air ambulance in my town goes out at least every other day. They could be going anywhere, they don't notify me or ask my permission. The military does training flight around here at random times, they don't notify me or ask my permission. Search and Rescue was flying fixed wings and helos searching for a lost women yesterday, all low level atypical paths. Crop dusters randomly fly around here as well, they are always crazy low and fast. The killer is, that all these random hazards can take place in the most isolated and otherwise perfect flying areas! If one isn't keeping these kind of possibilities in your mission planning then one shouldn't be operating a flying robot : /
Hi everyone,
I attended a demo of a older version of this system in Paris last year. What I found quite innovative is that the drone has its motor, battery, and auto pilot on a plate that can easily be removed and put to an other wing if necessary.
I wish good luck to Benjamin.
Rodolphe
And I have to admit, I LOLed a little at the baby carriages and gasoline trucks comment. Lighten up a little. ;)
Ramboky, my comments aren't directed at Chris, but at everybody. I'm not trying to shame people, but sometimes I get the feeling there's a distinct lack of consideration for the work that goes into this stuff. The code isn't made my elves in Santa's workshop. There are real people devoting their lives to this, and everybody else benefits.
I'm not trying to shame anybody into anything, or declare a new international APM Developers Appreciation Holiday. I'm just pointing out that when people look at these other systems and declare them expensive, I think it's completely missing out on a really important point.
Er you are only allowed to fly UA in Europe if you are able to intervene and take control.
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