“J-Bird and I went for lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria and Bank of America was robbed.”
Chris Anderson is doing a DIY Drones session at ETech 2008:
DIY Drones: An Open Source Hardware and Software Approach to Making “Minimum UAVs”
Today the amateur UAVs movement has moved beyond university research teams and includes hundreds of individuals around the world who are building relatively inexpensive aircraft (fixed wing and helicopters) that can fly autonomously, take pictures or videos and transmit them to the ground, follow navigational waypoints for aerial mapping and scientific surveys, and otherwise duplicate many of the functions once reserved for military UAVs that cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
This session will demonstrate the leading edge of this: some of the cheapest UAVs ever built. Some are based on LEGO Mindstorms NXT, some use regular cell phones strapped to model planes, and some use hobby-grade embedded microprocessors grafted to radio control (RC) aircraft. All are fully autonomous (automated stabilization and navigation, allowing them to fly out of eyesight and RC range) and most of them cost less than $1,000. Onboard imaging systems range from gyro-stabilized digital cameras to video systems with pan-tilt gimbals and real-time downlinks and telemetry.
Eh, too expensive.
Posted by jjwiseman at January 08, 2008 10:05 PM