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ARIA and ReAllocate.org are seeking an UAV expert interested in the development of an UAS (an Unmanned Aerial System = UAV + Base station) for a project at the Burning Man festival.  For this project, we will be delivering a system that is capable of tracking a person (via GPS enables tracker) and delivering a payload to their dynamic location.  This project is a proof of concept solution to be tested in the unforgiving terrain of Black Rock City, Nevada.

Specifically, we need someone who is in the Bay area (or can come to the Bay Area) in August and attend the Burning Man festival for the duration of the test project. This person should be able to assemble, troubleshoot and fix both hardware and software problems on the spot. They also need to be able to integrate the system in the three weeks prior to Burning Man. We will be able to facilitate entry to the event and provide a location to work on the UAV in the Bay Area. 

The goal is to build an UAS (unmanned autonomous system - vehicle + base station) based in a shipping container. The retrofitted shipping container would be the workshop / base station used to charge and deliver objects to dynamic GPS-enabled points. 

The Burning Man project will serve as a proof-of-concept for an open source network of retrofitted shipping containers that can be used to exchange goods and services in regions of the world that have no existing infrastructure, thus addressing the “last mile” challenge. All the development will be open source and will be published with the goal of making this network open for everyone to continue iterating and deploying.

About ARIA:

ARIA stands for Autonomous Roadless Intelligent Array and it is an open source company that is collaborating with Reallocate in autonomous logistics infrastructure projects.  ARIA builds autonomous logistics infrastructure to leapfrog traditional road infrastructure and unlock economic opportunity.

About ReAllocate:

ReAllocate enables world class talent to successfully address real world problems. We are a global nonprofit organization made up of volunteer innovators, technologists, designers, and business brains to address humanitarian challenges.

If you or someone you know might be interested in this project please free to contact Dara at  dara@reallocate.org

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you.

Two-thirds of new robotics startups are in the United States, according to research by the Robot Report. 

These start-ups appear to be clustering in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley) of California, around Boston, Pittsburgh, Tokyo and Stockholm - all of which correspond with the locations of notable government or university-sponsored robotics research facilities, and in and around New York City. Each of those areas have ongoing entrepreneurial assistance programs for technology projects and provide nurturing and social get-togethers with prospective investors and fellow inventors and roboticists.

Note, however, that this is by no means a comprehensive list due to limited resources by the Robot Report, and may be biased to reflect English-language companies, which may have been easier to find.  Also note that this is just startups: larger companies, such as our own 3D Robotics, have been graduated to the list of established firms (we're in the service robots for personal and private use category). 

Frank Robe, the editor of the Robot Report, acknowledges the limits of the research and invites people to help make the list more complete: 

Many other young robotic companies have pushed beyond the start-up phase into one of our other directory categories shown below. And many more are missing because they are too stealthy to have a web or social media presence just yet or are in a language that is difficult to search and translate. Hence my personal request: if you know of a robotics start-up that isn't included on the map, please send the information to: info@therobotreport.com.

Having imported and build a Hobbyking EPP-FPV aircraft, I would reccomend against UK buyers purchasing from the states since the postage and import duty was more expensive than the model itself and the quality of the kit was below what I expected. However I have assembled it and it has proven to be useful in my exploration into FPV. I have been reading this site now and will soon buy the APM2 autopilot. It seems as if there will not be enough space inside the plane to fit all of the equipment, so I am looking for another platform to house the equipment. I am not aware of any aircraft which is affordable to buy and meets my needs, so I am intending to build from scrach out of foam.

--UPDATE-- We've gotten a great response from the DIY Drones community, THANKS! Due to this, we've decided to do a special 1-week promotion... the TH9x is on sale for $69.95 from now through 7/20!!  Anyone who ordered a radio recently from our site will receive a rebate or credit on a future purchase. Thanks again! --

  I'm posting today to announce our new 9x DIY Upgrade Kit and reduced pricing on our TH9x radio, but first I want to share my epic love story with the 9x transmitter... the BEST radio for the DIY pilot. Well... it's not an epic story, but I do love my radio... (if not in the mood to read :) skip down to the bottom for links to the radio and upgrade kit.)

  When I first got into RC, I immediately was attracted to the 9x transmitter. First, it was the price. You can't beat it. Absolutely the best bang-for-the-buck. Next were all the switches and knobs. This thing didn't look like a toy, and I was quickly realizing I would need quite a bit of functionality for my RC dreams. Then I learned about er9x. Most of you know about er9x, and it's cousin Open9x, but this is what makes the 9x the absolute best transmitter for the DIY pilot! Er9x/Open9x is open-source firmware that you can install on the 9x, replacing the factory firmware. It's written by RC pilots just like us, except they have mad programming skills. I would argue that you can't get the functionality that er9x offers in another radio... at any price. (Well, honestly, some of those ridiculously priced Futaba and JR radios may be pretty sweet, but now I have no need to know.)

  The problem is that the radio was not designed to be upgraded by users. At the time, it required soldering six wires to tiny little pads on the mother board. This was not simple and there was a significant chance of ruining your radio. I also had to hunt down the parts and a USBasp programmer which ended up coming from 3 different stores. This took a month or so. Soon after, came the SmartieParts solderless programming board. This was (and still is) awesome. As long as you had a "version 2" motherboard, you could easily attach this board and it provided you an USB port to do all the firmware updating your nerdy self could manage. My brother was getting into the hobby, and I was like..."you HAVE to get a 9x." Hobbyking was backordered so he got one from HobbyPartz, as well as a SmartieParts board. Easy, right? No. The 9x he received was a "version 1" motherboard. It had the same functionality, but it wasn't compatible with the SmartieParts board. Bust out the soldering iron, we did. Did I screw up a microscopic resistor in the process? Yes.

  This gave my brother and I an idea. Pilots obviously like this radio because no one can keep them in stock. Based on our trials and tribulations, we knew that far too few people were upgrading the firmware to turn this good radio into an amazing radio. With these two facts in mind, we starting working on a way to make this easy, and keep it affordable. We started an online store called ParkeFlyer (it's a play on my name, Parke), and began offering what we called the Flyer9x. This was a 9x radio fully upgraded with a LED backlight, nice thumb sticks, neckstrap, and of course... er9x installed. It was (is) a great solution, but now we're happy to announce the next iteration of our 9x offering.

  Before I get into that, I want to acknowledge that this blog post is mostly an ad for my business. I feel good about posting this only because I really do feel that the 9x radio (with er9x) is the best radio for the DIY pilot. You don't have to buy from us, but regardless, we want to help this community get the most out of this radio.

ParkeFlyer is now selling a 9x DIY Upgrade Kit. This kit includes:

-- The new SmartieParts v2.2 solderless programmerwith LED backlight support. The programmer enables you to plug your transmitter into a PC or Mac computer through a standard mini-USB cable. Once connected it is easy to upgrade your firmware to er9x or Open9x. Additionally you can download model templates and backup your configurations.

-- LED Backlight Kit(white) - Everything you need to add a bright (but efficient) backlight to your 9x LCD panel. This unit is fully compatible with the SmartieParts programmer and the backlight software controls found in er9x and Open9x. Plug-and-play, no modifications are needed.

-- Thumb sticks- CNC milled aluminum and fully adjustable - adds style and feel to your 9x

-- Switch coversto color code. We find this helpful to differentiate the switches while concentrating on flying.

– Neck strap- Always comes in handy, even if it's just having a spare in your flight kit

The 9x DIY Upgrade Kit is for sale at ParkeFlyer.com for $49.95. This kit is everything you need to easily and safely upgrade a 9x. We're working on a video that details the entire process. This video will be released soon.

If you need a 9x, we are happy to say that we have TH9x radios in stock. And the best part is that the price recently dropped to $89.95 for a limited time --UPDATE: Sale $69.95--. This is the best version of the 9x we have found. It is guaranteed to be upgradable with our kit and it also comes with a removable transmitter module, making it super easy to upgrade to FrSKY transmitter modules and receivers (which we also sell).

Along with the radio, we have a 9x Battery Kit that comes with a rechargeable LiFe battery, custom adapter cable for plugging it into the 9x, and a custom charging cable as well. Super easy and no "bricking" your radio by accidentally plugging in your modded battery the wrong way.

That's it for the sales pitch. Come check out our site. We've got several other items not mentioned here, and please let us know if you have any questions about anything 9x related. We certainly don't know everything, but we're happy to help where we can. We're relatively new to the DIY Drones community, but I've already learned so much from this. We'll do our best to give back. My first APM2 is on order so I'll soon be getting very familiar tying ArduPilot and the 9x together.

Thanks--

-- Parke

Links:

ParkeFlyer.com
FS-TH9x Transmitter
9x DIY Upgrade Kit
9x Battery Kit

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   ParkeFlyer.com
   ---- Fly Now ----
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This is the video of the first flight of my 3DR Arducopter with 880kv Motors & 10x45 Props and default PID. The drift was due to heavy wind and also I suspect a faulty ESC for motor #3 causing it to spin slower than others. It might also be due to tilted Motor mount.

I had replaced the suspected ESC with a new one. Will try a flight today to check if the problem still exists.

“Boca Bearing Company started with humble beginnings as a ball bearing supplier to the Radio Control (RC) hobby market. As the years progressed, we started offering a wider variety of bearings appropriate for use in various different applications from industrial to hobby and recreational uses. Many of the young men and women that enjoyed playing with RC vehicles as kids eventually grew up and went to work in advanced manufacturing industries such as robotics, optics, engineering, applied physics and other hands-on fields,” said Allen Baum, president of Boca Bearing Company. “These customers took us along with them and helped to expand the company’s product line and focus. Today Boca Bearing Company’s product line can not only be found in RC cars, RC helicopters and RC engines but also in turbine flow meters, unmanned autonomous vehicles, robots, semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, packaging equipment and much more. We’ve created this contest as a way to thank our global customers for their commitment to our business and to innovation.”

More here

Jose Augusto Santaella has been doing some great mapping work with his APM-powered Maja. Check out his mosaic gallery here. 

Sounds like fun if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area!! These are the same people who got held by airport security when they tried to bring quadcopters into the UK.

Join Liam Young (AIR ’11) and Kate Davies of the nomadic design group Unknown Fields Division as they take up temporary residence at Headlands. Employing contemporary surveillance technology to map the post-militarized Marin Headlands, the group will hack the landscape to imagine extraordinary futures.

Collaborators assembled from the worlds of art, architecture, and technology will guide sorties across diverse local terrains. Laser-scan forests using hi-res, long range optics; deploy infrared night vision cameras to peer through the mist; and build a fleet of drones to map from above. In these shifting fields of nature and artifice, participants will re-examine preservationist attitudes toward the natural world, the ecologically fragile, and the technologically obsolete.

Workshop Dates

Program Session: September 7-September 12, 2012.

I've been using a Skywalker for taking aerial maps. By destroying my previous camera, I've learned two things:

1. Protect the camera lens from dust upon landing

2. Protect the camera from batteries during rough "landings"

So I've come up with the solution in the video above.

It works incredibly well! A sample of a stitch while using the system:

Click here for the full-resolution (14MB) image: http://www.cde.co.za/share/Stitch2.jpg

Compared to Google Earth:

Fun with drones!

They're not drones, but we love 3D printers here, too. The Columbia Aerodrome team has designed a load of lovely historic models for 3D printing on Shapeways. 

From Hackaday:

The XBee Handheld Controller may be just the ticket to remotely control any project that comes off your workbench.

This isn’t the first remote controller we’ve seen that does just about everything, but it is the first one to include an XBee wireless transceiver to easily interface to your robotics project. The controller comes in two models, the Q4, which uses four Playstation-like joysticks, and the Q2, which uses proper remote control gimbal joysticks. Both the controllers have a slew of buttons, toggle switches, four rotary pots and a 2×20 LCD display.

After the break you can check out [Paul]‘s pitch explaining what these controllers can do and showing off a hexapod robot under the control of his Q4 controller. A very neat project, and we can’t wait to see this controller out in the field.

As is customary and traditional, we celebrate every new 1,000 members here and share the traffic stats. This time it's 27,000!

There were 1.4 million page views this month, tied for our record. It took us less than four weeks to get this latest 1,000 members--we're averaging about one new member every 40 minutes.

Thanks as always to all the community members who make this growth possible, and especially the moderators who approve membership applications and blog posts and otherwise answer questions and keep things ticking here. We've got about 60 moderators now, but if anyone would like to join this group, please PM me. If you've been here for a while and have been participating, you'll fit in great.

Hi all,
I created a new group for spanish speakers in DIYdrones, some times in Spanish the terminology is quite different, or we can not explain very well technical things in English and we need some space for discussions...

So, Spanish speakers, Welcome!

http://diydrones.com/group/spanish-arducopter-users

I've been working on-and-off on a cross-platform GUI for mavproxy, which I've been calling "mavgui".    it's written in QT, and so will run natively anywhere where Qt will ( Mac, Android, Windows, etc ) ... and I've just started to add support in it for a "browser" window ( http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/browser-based-map-module-for-mavproxy) , that app would fill perfectly!   

I think I'm going to integrate these three into a GCS solution.   :-)  

My Work-in-Progress  QT based GUI is here:   https://github.com/davidbuzz/MAVProxy/tree/master/mavgui

The great thing about the mavgui I'm working on is that it's GUI is put together with a tool called "Qt Designer", and is 100% python, so it's trivial to change/tweak the layout for different use-cases like phone etc.    The Designer outputs XML, and the rest of the application is 100% python.     Here's a quick look at the XML loaded into the "Designer"....

It's not really "one giant GCS" in any sense of the word.. for a start it uses mavproxy and mavproxy modules for most of the underlying comms stuff, and everything else is just easy-to-read python.   :-)    maybe we should start a new thread for mavgui.  ?

There are a couple of parts to my experiment:  

(1)   completely separate the GUI from mavproxy, so if the GUI crashes, the mavproxy does not.

(2)  integrate with a standard mavproxy, with no changes required other than adding a "module".

"netconsole" - an underlying part of mavgui

Sending commands from the GUI "TO* mavproxy ( and hence your UAV) occurs over a tcp/ip connection to the MAV> console, by using a new mavproxy module called "netconsole".     As a bonus, you can now also use netcat, telnet,  or any other language to instruct MAVProxy.    :-)  

https://github.com/davidbuzz/MAVProxy/blob/master/modules/netconsole.py

want to put your UAV into AUTO mode from the command line?   try this:   echo "AUTO" | nc localhost 45678

want to communicate with a Mavproxy on another machine on the LAN?  try this:    telnet otherhostip 45678 ( and you'll see a MAV> prompt, just like it was local!

using pymavlink...... another undelying part.....

There's only so much you can do with a tool like "netconsole", as I cant ( yet ) use it to communicate information about the current state of  the UAV.... so I've additionally additionally got mavproxy sending a stream of UDP packets ( --out=127.0.0.1:xxxx ) to mavgui, and using pymavlink I am displaying the latest HUD style information in the GUI.  ( like altitude, speed, gps details, etc etc ) ... most of the work here has gone into making the underlying communications system operate well, so the mavgui GUI's not yet "perfect" by any stretch of the imagination.... but it's a start.....

Just thought you'd all like to know....... :-)

Buzz.

Hi guys,

I started a new approach in measuring current, voltage and power sensing in UAV devices.

In common, voltage and current measurements are not galvanicaly isolated, read by analog inputs and thus they can cause many headaches to the developers.

I found sone nice current/voltage/power -> I2C ICs, which could perfectly fit the design.

The two examples placed here are with Linear Technology ICs, but you could also use INA219/220/226 or 230 the same manner.....just add a digital optocouplers and...have fun!

The measured voltages with LT ICs could reach 80VDC, while with the TI ICs - up to 30VDC. Measured currents could be higher than 200 and even 300A and depend only on schunts used.

Best regards

Nick

This is just a heads up for my fellow customers. 

I am taking a break with the familly Startign July 22.  Shipping will resume on August 6th. 

There is high probabilities that I will be around and shipping in the middle of it (we are not really going away) but there is no guaranties that I will ship orders.  On the list of things to do on vacation there is way to many things to say that we will really relax...  The list includes redoing the kitchen, getting a new car (lease is over) camping with the kids, beach time, COPTER time with video (even if I crash I will publish the best of moments!) and of course lots of beer! :)

So hurry up if you plan to need something or want a full kit, only 11-12 days to go before we close for 2 weeks!

Oh while at it... let's give you a quick update on the latest improvement on the Original Arducopter frames.

All kits now comes with thicker arms (for the same price). 

We listen to your comment and although it was nice to have the lightest frame possible the bent arms were too frequent.  So we only ship the new thicker arms from now on.

They weight just 27 grams instead of 14 for the old ones so not a major trade off. The 3DR arms are still at the top of the scale at 50 grams,

Enjoy the summer!

and thanks to all for the amazing ride so far! you all blew my expectation, stay tune to see what the next months have in reserve... lots of new thing brewing....

Dany

I can't resist on posting it here.

Meet the true story of Don Juan FPV.

Full original scenes:

Part 1:

Part 2:

That was funny...

PS.: Like Jonathan C. advised: "do not try that with a multicopter!"

Hey Everyone, my site is open for business.  Sorry for the small catalog at the moment, but I have made quite a bit of progress and have many more products arriving soon.  Check back often for updates.

http://www.CheapDrones.com

Hobbyking today added this camera to their catalogue and it seems the perfect camera for FPV, an uncased version of the famous RD32 II. Do a search for it on youtube and you will find nothing then good videos. With a AV out for connecting it to the video transmitter or HDMI to connect it to your HDTV this camera is very complete.

Some of the heighlights of this camera are a 120 degree viewing angle and a 5 megapixel 1/2.5" CMOS sensor and a weight of about 89 grams. It accepts micro sd cards from 2 up to 32GB in size. It supports 720P @ 60fps and 1080p @ 30fps.

This video shows exactly what the camera is capable of:

Some of the specifications:
Lens: 5 Mega pixel 1/2.5”  CMOS sensor
Photo Resolution:
    12M  4000*3000   JPG    Approx. 900pcs/4GB
     8M   3200*2400   JPG    Approx. 1200pcs/4GB
     5M   2592*1944   JPG   Approx.  1700pcs/4GB
Audio recording: ADPCM WAV format 48Khz ,Mono  approx. 22h/4GB
Lens type: F/2.8  f=3mm 120°wide angle
Min. Illumination: 1LUX
Scanning Frequency: Auto, 60Hz, 50Hz
Signal system: NTSC, PAL
Vibration Support: Yes
Battery Capacity: 3.7V/ 1000mAh

For more information, features and specifications, go to Hobbyking: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=25656&aff=5361

AUVSI has released the very first issues of their magazine, Unmanned Systems, from 1982 (!!) for reading online or on your iPad. The tone was much more military in those days but otherwise it's interesting how little has changed (see below). It's free. Read it here.

Check out this ad!