As we all know, UAVs, High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) payloads, kites and just about anything man-made that flies will be drawn inexorably towards trees by a dark and mysterious force which has so far defied scientific explanation.
As part of the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) project, Pixhawk brain surgeons Linus Penzlien and Andrew Tridgell have hewn an APM:Plane advanced arboreal avoidance algorithm from the living code, the better to keep our Vulture 2 spaceplane beyond the grasp of malevolent magnetic trees' limbs.
We can't yet reveal just how the sensational MAG_TREE_AVOID works its magic, but we offer you a bit of weekend fun in naming the parameter.
Tradition dictates that every LOHAN parameter must have a snappy acronym or backronym, so we're running a poll of Register readers' suggestions, to determine the matter.
Among the contenders are AYCARAMBA (Automated Yet Comprehensive Arboreal Recognition And Magnetic Branch Avoidance), LARCH (Lohan Arborial Repulsion Coded Heuristic) and SAMBA (Software Application for Magnetic Branch Avoidance), the last one of course being a tip of the hat to Tridge.
The author of the poll winner will receive some LOHAN stickers, which are currently available as a reward for our ongoing Kickstarter campaign to launch the Vulture 2 at Spaceport America, New Mexico.
We're obliged to all those DIY Drones members who've already chipped in to support the cause, and if the rest of you have a few bucks spare, there are plenty of nice rewards on offer.
Comments
@Joly: Very good.
TREE (Total Reactive Evasion Enhancement)
CRASH (Coded Reactive Avoidance of Static Hazards)
TRIDGE (Totally Reactive Information Decoder for Guided Evasion)
PRETZEL (Parametric Reactive Evasion of Trees by Zoned Enhancement Logic)
ALE (Active Limb Evasion)
Using the RGB model, the opposite of green is magenta so either greenphobia or magentaphile. Or maybe the pollen parameter. I like the other suggestions too!
"The Larch!" MP sketch was always one of my favorites +1 Bill.