A team of people who had worked at Joby Robotics, who were doing the UAV-as-energy-generating-kite thing we wrote about earlier (which I gather didn't work out, sadly), is trying to raise money on Kickstarter to turn their hybrid quad-plane aircraft into a commercial product.
The Quadshot is a remote-controlled aircraft we have created that melds advanced Open-Source hardware and software with a unique airframe design. It can both fly forward like an airplane and hover like a helicopter - but without the usual complicated, expensive, and fragile moving parts.
It uses the Lisa Paparazzi IMU, but isn't meant to be a UAV. Instead, the electronics serve as a pilot assist, and you can switch from copter to plane to acrobatic combo with a flick of a RC switch. $500 to pre-order the version with the IMU.
Comments
Does Ardupilot have the ability to support an osprey type setup? Anyone working on this?
Neat little plane. People can go ahead and make one though. But it is ready made and clean.
@ Chris, do you mean didn't work out for these guys if they have left Joby, or is there some indication that Joby is no longer persuing the wind energy scheme?
"doing the UAV-as-energy-generating-kite thing we wrote about earlier (which I gather didn't work out, sadly),"
@ Jack,
All the fun of something that does both in the same flight.
All the extra weight of a wing for something that hovers with all the extra weight of 4 motors for something that flies forward.
Great concept and aerodynamics. FPV guys will need to think better the camera mount due when switched from plane to hover they will see just the sky. Total panic! haha :P