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Some people may remember the "dead cat" copter from a Dutch artist one year ago (and not the conversion kit they sell at hobbyking). The artist thought it was a bit small and could not carry enough payload. To fix this important problem he build his second model the "Ostrich Quadcopter". From the video it looks like it can carry a few kilograms and maybe he plans to upgrade FPV into the head in the future ;)

Maybe taxidermy copters will be the next craze????? The "artist" is Bart Jansen (http://www.bartjansen.tv/)

This was his original "dead cat copter" project:

Dear Friends,

this is the first images from VR Lab . In these pictures you can see our entry level frame VR CopterX4-8

The frame make using good materials as Carbon Fiber and Ergal .

The frame configuration was an idea of Flavio Taborelli , that inside Virtualrobotix.IT is the CTO of mechanical department. This frame doing 2000 hours of flight without chrash so we decide to use this approach for develop our affordable frame.

On a Ready to Fly revision of Drone you can put :

• VR Brain 4.5 as flight controller .
• VR IMU Gold.
• UBlox GPS
• 4 or 8 x 30 Amp SimonK VR ESC
• 4 or 8 T-Motors
• 4 or 8 Propellers until 13''
• 3DR telemetry link
• Battery until 10'000 mah 3S-6S

FPV version

• Video TX for FPV
• Micro Camera for FPV with servo motor for control the pitch of view.

Observer revision .

• Full VR Gimbal 3Axis
• Battery 2-3S for gimbal.

The production of this frame will be start at the end of August .

The main advantage is that is a fully customizable and available as DIY KIT on in RTF configuration. This kind of frame is very good for hacking is possible to customize the cover with your color or layout :

or fully customize your frame this is an example :

All the frame is developed inside VR Lab using advanced mechanical 3D Cad.

In the next week will be some updates about the status of the project.

If you need more info or have suggestions we are happy to disucss with you about our last VR Copter

original blog post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/vr-lab-present-last-drone-developed-in-virtualrobotix

if you like our project Support our work and join us on our facebook community :)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/VirtualRobotix-wwwvirtualrobotixcom/149125448465971

Best

Roberto

Couldn't make it out to San Francisco for the first-ever small unmanned systems conference just for small business? Not a problem. I recently uploaded more than 100 photos on the sUSBExpo Flickr account. We also have 14 hours of video made during the two days of the expo.

This was an amazing event, made possible by an excellent roster of 23 speakers, including 3D Robotics' Chris Anderson, Insitu co-founder Tad McGeer (now president of Aerovel), Chris Norris of Alta Devices, Douglas Hunsaker of Scaled Composites, and many more.

I've aggregated all of the videos onto one page, posted recently on the sUSBExpo website, for easy viewing at any time. If you'd like updates on the conference, check back with the website on occasion, or follow our Twitter account (and the hashtag #susbexpo). Plans already are in the works for another great event next year.

Vegetation Monitoring UAV - Greenland from jtk on Vimeo.

(Re-post from Jeff Kerby @ http://vimeo.com/69579388)

To better understand arctic herbivore foraging ecology, we need information about the timing of plant growth (i.e. plant phenology) at high resolution over several square kilometers.

The solution: A vegetation monitoring UAV!

Still in the testing phases here, but we’re using a small point-and-shoot camera (Canon S100 or Sony NEX 5n) mounted on this lightweight aerial platform (GoPro used for video footage) to map changing patterns of vegetation growth throughout the season. Using the high-resolution maps made by stitching these photos together, we are able to study patterns of vegetation development at spatial scales that even the most sophisticated satellites cannot match. This approach avoids the high costs and logistical constraints of traditional airplane-based mapping.

The logistics of supporting this out on the Greenland tundra, however, are quite challenging! Should have brought a few more spare parts with me.

Footage taken by Jeff Kerby and Christian John.
UAV construction and support from Lian Pin Koh at ConservationDrones.org

I noted some confusion about what is MAVLink, so I decided to create a new Wikipedia page for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAVLink

Please correct or add any information you think maybe incorrect.

Interesting things I saw at the EAA Airventure event in Wisconsin this week.

Here is former GMA host David Hartman interviewing astronauts Chris Hadfield, Chris Ferguson, Charles Precourt, and Charles Duke.

Hadfield talked about space walking and his youtube video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo    The guitar is still up there and has made 65,000 orbits so far.

Ferguson talked about building the ISS and flying the last ever shuttle mission. He now works on the Boeing space systems program.

Precourt also flew the shuttle and talked about the lull between space systems like Apollo to Shuttle, etc. He is now building "Apollo on steroids" at ATK.

Charles Duke was capcom for Apollo 11 and said "you got a bunch of guys about to turn blue down here". He also walked on the moon on Apollo 16.

John Nicol gave a talk about Makerplane, the open source manned airplane project. He said they are getting close to freezing the design and they just started an Indiegogo campaign. One of their goals is to build a $400.00 glass cockpit. He also mentioned talking to our own Chris Anderson about open source aviation.

http://makerplane.org/

For anybody that ever wanted to ride on their Slow Stick plane, now you can!  GreenWing International (formerly Yuneec I think) makes an ultralight electric plane that looks like a big Slow Stick.  It has a 10 meter wingspan, a 24 Kw motor that looks like one of my brushless motors only bigger, and a 13 Kwh lithium battery.   http://greenwing.aero/?page_id=2307

The TerraFugia drove and flew at Airventure.  I was impressed by the car/plane (plar? clane?) and the price ($279,000 hope it comes down)  I thought it performed well, but I overheard a lot of comments like it will not be a good car or a good plane (luddite naysayers), I still want one in my garage.    http://www.terrafugia.com/

And I saw Yves Rossy, The Jet Man.  Well, sort of saw him as he was a speck at 5000 feet, where he did all of his flying.

And Asimo the robot gave a demo of walking, talking, and even running a little bit, which was cool but, I wanted to take it apart and see the inside.  Hmm.  

(My apologies if this topic has already been posted. I did not find mention when searching the DIYD site.)

A panel discussion in May was one of the most informative videos I have seen recently about both opportunities and constraints for the evolving civilian UVS industry.

Click here to see the video.

If you are in a hurry, you can skip the intros by starting at 01:30 to hear Cummings for 14 minutes.

But there is much more in the rest of the video. For example, Cummings' views on the topic of "autonomy", starting at 22:55.

Q&A section with the audience starts at 37:20. 

Video ends at 46:25.

An article in Popular Mechanics on the rise of UAV programs in American universities. 

Excerpt:

A growing number of American universities now offer classes on operating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), enrolling students who hope to one day find work for employers such as defense contractors. But will the lucrative jobs be there when they graduate? As U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan winds down and contractor salaries shrink, the answer to that question depends on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). If the FAA ultimately integrates UAVs into the national airspace, the Class of 2015 will find ample new opportunities as unmanned aircraft enter new fields. 

Unmanned Aircraft 101

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., has been teaching America's young aviators how to fly since 1926. Two years ago the school added a new major in unmanned aircraft system sciences, and the response has been enthusiastic. "We already have 110 students in the program," says Nickolas "Dan" Macchiarella, chair of the aeronautical science department. "And we know that our fall enrollment will be even bigger." 

Embry-Riddle's unmanned aircraft major offers two tracks, one pilot and the other non-pilot (it teaches skills such as sensor operators and UAV ground support crew). Both come with a heavy load of prerequisites in aeronautics and engineering. Pilots generally train with small civilian drones. However, in the capstone course, "AS 473: UAS Flight Simulation," students use simulators to practice with medium-altitude long-endurance vehicles: the same size class of UAV as the Predator or the Israeli Heron TP. "They conduct operations like the kind that would be used for homeland security and public safety," Macchiarella says. 

Given the sensitive nature of the program, the State Department's regulations mandate that all unmanned aircraft system sciences students be U.S. citizens. But otherwise, they are just regular college kids. 

And a number of "regular" colleges are now teaching UAV operation, too. These include the University of North Dakota, Northwestern Michigan College (which owns a small quadcopter and a Penguin B fixed-wing system), Kansas State University-Salina, and Liberty University (which offers courses like "GOVT 383: History and Nature of Intelligence Tools"). The State of Nevada is coordinating all of its UAV education through the brand-new Nevada Autonomous Systems Institute. 

Here's the latest installment of the "Drone U" podcast from the New America Foundation. I've listened to the whole thing (15 mins), and I frankly I don't think members of this site will learn much they don't already know (the head of AUVSI explains the basics of drones, regs and the difference between an UAV and a UAS), but it's notable that they're doing this series on Slate. 

Oh, and maybe "killer app" is not the best phrase for them to be using ;-)

Sadly, my little quad has been lost in Davey Jones' Locker, I fear. I thought I'd try a longer programmed flight, and I didn't account for what would happen if the TX and/or the telemetry radio lost signal. At least that's my theory. I thought it would execute RTL, but it appears it didn't. A couple minutes into the flight (when I lost sight of it beyond some trees (but over the water), the telemetry radio stopped tracking. I went out to the beach and looked around, but the water gets really deep really fast out there, so I suspect it's at the bottom in 20-30 feet of water. I'm sad. Here's the last image from my computer...

[edit] I have a new theory...see my comment on page 2. Maybe it's not in the ocean, after all? According to the source code, the default RTL altitude is "1500cm (=15m). If zero the copter will return at it's altitude at the time RTL was invoked." I'm not sure I ever changed the default, and if that's true and RTL did engage on loss of signal, it's almost definitely going to be in the trees.

Given the positive response to this recent blog post, we arranged with CafePress to offer a few ZOV-labeled products. Use this link to get to the storefront. At the moment when this blog post was submitted, the mugs were in stock, but not the license plate frames. CafePress expects more in stock soon. Enjoy!

- JohnG at dronespeak.com

I was curious what kind of flight times I might expect from the little 3DR quad, so I tried an experiment today. I used a little LiPo alarm (super useful!), and flew it with a combination of a pre-programmed route (a couple minutes) and just a little random flying around. I had the GoPro Hero3 BE slung underneath with a simple velcro mount (super jello!). Here's a video (compressed in time) showing the whole flight. 12:40 is pretty impressive. I want to figure out how far out over the ocean that translates in to! :-)

Upcoming Documentary Civilian Drones highlights The Human Toll while the U.S. NAS Integration Effort Stagnates.

The documentary produced by MahaPix Studios is sure to raise eyebrows as it exposes the viewer to the lifesaving potential of small unmanned systems. Beyond the hypothetical, the film reveals the incredible potential of unmanned technology when placed in the hands of dedicated individuals with passion and experience. Transcending the business plan, the film delves into an industry that has been crippled and waylaid by what can only be labeled a bureaucratic travesty.

(Patricks words not mine)

Hi DIY,
I'm part of a (french) website on heli's, drones and so on. Just want to be clear with that. And we release a review between Modius, #808 FPV and GoPro 2. 

google translated review there

I think that could be intresting  for people there - even in french - 

Hope you will like it.

thank's all work done there! 

Laurent 

Hi everyone

I just launched a new website at www.dronehire.org, to help connect commercial drone operators with clients.

The site is very much a work in progress, so I would really appreciate any suggestions on how it could be improved.  You can contact me at info@dronehire.org

If you would like to add your drone-related service/s (such as aerial photography, aerial video, real estate photography, aerial mapping and surveying etc.) to the site, please visit http://www.dronehire.org/register-your-business.html (it's free!)

You can also receive updates relevant to commercial use of drones by following us on Twitter or liking us on Facebook.

Thank you!

I finally got around to editing the footage I got at Caesarea Maritima:

Specs of the copter are as follow:

Frame designed by me and CNC'd from G10 (600mm MTM)

Sunnysky V2216-11 (800Kv)

Turnigy Plush 25a ESC's

Paris V4.0 with an ebay IMU (L3G4200D+ADXL345+BMP085+HMC5883L) and multiwiicopter.com GPS

DragonLink V1

GoPro Hero2 mounted on earplugs

PZ0420 from Securitycamera2000

Very impressive HD video footage from my friend's Panya's custom home made mini H quad with the new Mobius Action Camera - from the makers of the original Keychain Cam. Using wooden arms and Simonk'd 12Amp HK-BS ESCs and myrcmart's 2400KV ZMR motors with a multiwii lite FC, this little H frame is a wonderful video and FPV platform. In the video you can see my ZMR minquad being chased around.

all Aluminum Frame
was telling my brother if this was a good idea.... made from an old External HDD case. nearly 2KG AUW

the HDD case was from my cousin...

one 950KV from emax and three 850kv from Jdrone in the pic is a 9x45 prop but will upgrade it to 10x45prop due to under power.
will post the vid as soon its maiden

and if your talking about balance its just 100kv difference & the flight controller took care of that.

This isn't a drone, but wow: FPV cars, with remote human operators!

From Gizmag:

Researchers at Germany’s Technische Universität München (TUM) are...developing remote-control cars that could travel along city streets with no one in them at all, their operator located somewhere far away.

First of all, what would be the point of a passenger-less car? As a couple of examples, the scientists suggest that the technology could be used to deliver rental cars or vehicles used in car-sharing programs to members’ homes, plus it could be applied to city-center parking services – you just get out when you reach your downtown destination, and your car proceeds to head off to the parking garage on its own.

So far, the TUM team has equipped a prototype Visio.M electric car with six video cameras, five of which are mounted on the back of the rearview mirror (facing forwards or to the sides) and one of which is looking out the rear window. Together, they provide a 360-degree view of the car’s surroundings.

A live feed from the cameras is transmitted to a remote operator station that resembles a driving simulator, via LTE wireless communication. At that station, three monitors display the front and side views from the car, while a fourth displays the view out the back. Microphones aboard the car provide live Dolby 5.1 audio, while force feedback mechanisms in the station’s steering wheel and brake pedal mirror the forces encountered by the car itself.

Using all this technology, a human operator simply sits at the station and remotely drives the car as if they’re playing a video game. If there’s a break in communications, the car automatically brakes and sits in place until they’re resumed.

The scientists claim that the system isn’t very expensive, and that the LTE networks in many cities are already sufficient to transmit all the required video, audio and control data in real time. They add that slower UMTS networks could also work, as they would produce a transmission lag of less than half a second – which admittedly could still make a huge difference in accident avoidance.

Although issues such as legal liability still need to be addressed, the researchers expect the technology to be in use within five to ten years.