Parrot S.L.A.M. dunk

Parrot S.L.A.M. dunk

First CHUCK and now SLAM dunk. Parrot have a sense of humour! An NVIDIA board with Ubuntu in the background. The future is coming fast!

The development kit for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance for drones and robotic platforms

Parrot, the pioneer in consumer and professional civil drones, announces an open development kit for the design of advanced applications for autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, indoor navigation and 3D mapping for drones and other robotic platforms in environments with multiple barriers and where GPS signals are not available.

Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk: Turn a drone into a smart robot

Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk integrates advanced software applications based on a Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping algorithm: S.L.A.M.

S.L.A.M. technology enables the drone to understand and map its surroundings in 3D and to localise itself in environments with multiple barriers and where GPS signals are not available.

With an embedded NVIDIA® Tegra® K1 processor, Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk allows implementation of the latest algorithms of computer vision and autonomous navigation that are optimised for NVIDIA® GPU. In addition, the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk is optimised to minimally impact the battery life of the drone.

Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk integrates several sensors:

  • A fish-eye stereo camera with a 1500×1500 resolution at 60fps
  • An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
  • An ultrasound sensor
  • A magnetometer
  • A barometer
Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk: An open kit designed for developers

Parrot developed S.L.A.M.dunk to be as easy and user-friendly as possible for developers, researchers, integrators and academics.  Sensors and algorithms are fully integrated in order to speed the design of advanced applications for drones and robotic platforms.

All Ubuntu functionalities and benefits from ROS (Robot Operating System) framework are embedded in the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk making it user-friendly. The HDMI port makes it possible to develop directly on the product.

Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk:  Use Cases

Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk can be used for:

  • Prototyping of drones and robotic solutions
  • Autonomous navigation of drones and robots
  • 3D mapping
  • Stereo camera and a sensor array (IMU, barometer, magnetometer, ultrasound)
S.L.A.M.dunk: Compatible with many drones and robotic platforms


Weighing less than 4.9oz (140g), Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk fits on various types of Linux-based drones and robotic platforms including quadcopters and fixed-wings, rolling robots and articulated arms, with the help of munt kits.

Once placed, Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk should be linked to the battery of its host-drone by a 3.5mm jack cable and a USB cable in order to send and receive information and commands to and from the drone.

Developed by robotic researchers for robotic researchers, Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk is a “ready-to-use” module that will accelerate the development of tomorrow’s application for drones and robotic platforms.

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http://developer.parrot.com/                   Availability: Q4 2016

For more information, visit http://www.parrot.com or contact:

PARROT
Fabien Laxague – Vanessa Loury
fabien.laxague@parrot.com / vanessa.loury@parrot.com

Gary Mortimer

Founder and Editor of sUAS News | Gary Mortimer has been a commercial balloon pilot for 25 years and also flies full-size helicopters. Prior to that, he made tea and coffee in air traffic control towers across the UK as a member of the Royal Air Force.