31–40 of 45 posts
Every time a see a new quadcopter video, I wonder to myself how long before local law enforcement starts using them. I gratly fear a widely used, easily weaponized, remote controlled airforce that local enforcement officers can easily obtain.
I enjoy how references to The Diamond Age are becoming more and more common in tech beloved by the hacker community. Increases my excitement for the future! I want my matter compiler already.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDmel The "Aggressive Manoeuvres" videos remind me of something out of terminator.
Very cool, but notice what kind of room they fly in - they're using cameras to control the quadcopters, they're not autonomous, which means that if you put them outside, they wouldn't work. Still, pretty damn impressive.
There might still be some practical uses that do not require complete autonomy. I can imagine e.g. fleets of such quadrocopters flying inside buildings, tied to security cameras. Law enforcement would probably love this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using a gyroscope, gps, accelerometer and some other sensors is not a difficult step to perform.
I completely disagree. None of those sensors would likely give anywhere near the accuracy, frame rate, or context of the current system. Also, there is the issue of where the computation is done. It seems obvious to me that the intended goal is a decentralized system, where every vehicle is autonomous and creates an internal model of its own surroundings. As best I can tell, in the current system all the computation…
I run the 100 Hz flight control loop for my tricopter on an ATmega1280 clocked at 16 MHz. A _lot_ more could be done with something like the Beagleboard, including generating a 3D map of the surroundings if I mounted a Kinect on it.
I want to agree about the decentralized operation because there would be so many wireless signals that could interfere, but those guys seem to be controlling 20 quadrotors without problems. I know XBees can be configured to communicate on different channels, but decentralized operation will most likely require something beefier like wifi (and that, I don't know how to configure to work over so many different channels).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely disagree. None of those sensors would likely give anywhere near the accuracy, frame rate, or context of the current system. Also, there is the issue of where the computation is done. It seems obvious to me that the intended goal is a decentralized system, where every vehicle is autonomous and creates an internal model of its own surroundings. As best I can tell, in the current system all the computation…
Personally, I've operated accelerometers and gyros at 200 Hz after some low-pass filtering, which is really all you need for this application. I'm sure there are sensors that operate at even higher frequencies if need be. The GPS module doesn't have to be updated too fast (maybe 10 Hz?) because it only serves to correct for horizontal drift. I run the 100 Hz flight control loop for my tricopter on an ATmega1280 clock…
I very much would love to set up a bunch of these quadrocopters to circle my house and use them as security cameras. I'm not sure how long it would take for that, but if you could set up something like 20 of these, have them continuously rotate around the house perimeter, recording everything, and then come back to recharge with another one taking off, I think that would be pretty awesome.
I hope you don't have any kids with slingshots in your neighborhood. You just invented the best game ever.