Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4g... and to my ears, he was really announcing not the latest phone from apple, but the "iDrone". As I heard him talk about the new gyro built into the phone... I started adding the feature set... a fast CPU, lots of memory, built in GPS, compass, accelerometer and now a gyro... of course it could pilot a UAV!
With the built in cameras, it could do photo and video recon... and since it has two cameras (provided they can both be made to operate at the same time), add a couple of mirrors and the craft could do 3D images in real time... to assist in terrain mapping or landing.
It sports a good set of software development tools and on the whole, probably weighs less than all of the same components placed together, and at only $200 it's ecoconomical.
This is a project that could really get off the ground!
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If, on the other hand, common people using off the shelf tech and experimental innovation to do uav's is closer to the point, then iDrone fits right in...
So instead of comments about how it won't work (or wont work well), how about comments that seek to get around the potential shortcomings and make it a useable concept? Vibration isolation... code techniques to get more from gyros... ways to lighten the system.
When did innovators get into the naysayer business? I missed that memo.
What are smart phones designed to do? Everything consumer, thus the performance is less for everything. Now with something as far fetched as a drone, it would be easier to get the sensors, get a ARM, and get a OEM cellular module from sparkfun if you want to try that. Unless you wan't to still use it as a phone, and be able to plug it into a airplane, it is unreasonable.
If you want to, go ahead and try it for novelty.
For me it's a "been there" thing. I've found out that it's way simpler to build up (from components) than down (modifying an existing device to do something completely different).
This is not a quality pissing contest. It is an idea to use a phone as a UAV controller. What is your problem with that?
I suppose that the 3D would be a problem, although doing it through one camera is also possible (I saw it done at the last Maker Fair), but that is really not anywhere near the core of this idea.
I agree that the phone is probably heavy... one could ditch the large battery, and probably even the rear glass cover, and get the weight down. But you will never come close to getting a DIY board as light as apple has their board. Not remotely close. ALL of the iphone electronics is just mere grams.
It's the 10 hour battery and display/glass that is the issue, and that may not have to fly at all.
Imaging using google maps to set way pts! That would rule.
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