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Cari Membri del FoxTeam ,
Cari Amici

Buon Anno per un 2011 pieno di tanti nuovi progetti e di tanti nuovi amici .... :)

Dear Members of FoxTeam,
Dear Friends

Happy New Year for a 2011 full of many new projects and new friends .... :)

Chers membres de FoxTeam,
Chers amis

Bonne année 2011 pour un plein de beaucoup de nouveaux projets et de nouveaux amis .... :)

Sehr geehrte Mitglieder des FoxTeam,
Liebe Freunde

Happy New Year für ein 2011 mit vielen neuen Projekten und neuen Freunden .... :)

亲爱的会员们的FoxTeam，
亲爱的朋友们

新年快乐了2011年许多新项目和新朋友充分.... ：）

The latest US purchase of Raven UAVs was announced:

"AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) (NASDAQ:AVAV) announced today that it received an order valued at $46,226,984 under an existing contract with the U.S. Army. The order comprises 123 new digital Raven small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and initial spares packages as well as 186 digital retrofit kits for the U.S. Marine Corps. The order also includes 339 digital retrofit kits for the U.S. Army."

Assuming that those "digital retrofits" are just switching out the video transmitters to encrypt the signal, which is not a big deal, this sounds like ~$300,000 per plane, which is about the same price as the similarly-sized Wasp.

I know that a Raven clone, APM and some decent video equipment is not quite milspec, but given that it costs about 1/1,000th as much and does more or less the same thing, why aren't the military considering cheaper alternatives?

(Yes, I'm aware the real Raven is much more robust, the onboard optics are much better, the Raven kits include ground stations and all that other stuff. But still: are they one thousand times better?)

In the video, you can 'see the show that I made at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo. I used Fox Drone my own implementation of a customization of AR.Drone to which I added a ground station that allows the management of the aircraft through the PS3 gamepad and transmitting video on Video Wall for live performances.
In the show you see that Logan is the Magician 'conjure FoxDrone and explains it to the public.
The presentation explains how the use of drones you can create spectacular video applications for tourism promotion.

This is the promotional video of the province of Bergamo, made by : drones, helicopters and computer graphics ... come to visit Bergamo from all over the world ... come people will look at us:)

website : http://www.turismo.bergamo.it

Happy Chrismas by Virtual Robotix and FoxTeam

Roberto Navoni

This is an incredible video of FPV near doing in NY ...

this is the comment of Chris Anderson about this video :

"The problem is that Trappy, who is actually a very accomplished FPV pilot with many impressive (and usually safe) videos before this one, flew a Zephyr around Manhattan in Class B Restricted Airspace, in the landing patterns of three major airports and far beyond line-of-sight. He also filmed it and sent it to the media, where it was widely shown on national TV. This is not only in violation of FAA rules, but it's also the kind of thing that can ruin it for all of us if legislators take this example as an opportunity to crack down on our hobby."

Dear Friends,

this is my first hack to Ar.Drone. I'm enjoy with Ardrode SDK 1.5 , Build Linux Application for controll Ar.Drone.

• I change battery and use 3S Lipo 2200 ma instead of standard 1000 mah.
• Use my mac with VMWare with Ubuntu Linux 9.04 .
• Connect the drone by adhoc network.
• The Linux application use Ardrone SDK 1.5 .
• I use PS3 Gamepad for control the Drone.
• Recive realtime video by wifi from Ardrone.

I prefer to use it by PS3 Gamepad instead to use Iphone , the connection is very stable.

If you need more info about my hack contact me on skype virtualrobotix contact.

Regards

Roberto.

From the description: "The robot is equipped with an IMU, camera, and laser scanner with deflective mirrors. All computations are performed onboard using a 1.6GHz atom processor. The robot is able to navigate autonomously in indoor or outdoor, GPS-denied environments.

A SLAM module with vision based loop closure allows the robot to map large-scale, multi-floor environments.A sparse 3D map is generated on the robot based on sensor data, enabling high-level planning and visualization.

An RRT* based planner provides an anytime planning solution that fits the computational constraints of the robot. This planner also enables online re-planning and obstacle avoidance.

An LQR optimal controller with external force compensation enables reliable autonomous flight in highly constrained environments, such as hallways, doors, and windows. The robot is able to track the high-level plans accurately."

From I Love Robotics: "More quadrotor action from the team at UPenn (Shaojie Shen, Nathan Michael, and Vijay Kumar). A previous video of their earlier work is here.

ROS seems to be helping with the team's productivity, but I am still looking for a paper to go with these videos for more details. Once again thermodynamics and energy storage look like the biggest performance limits facing quadrotor aircraft."