Expected to come in for less than $300 the camera equipped quad is tasked with playing Augmented Reality the AR part of the name, games.

How they will work is well explained on there swish website along with the chance to win one! http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en

The quad itself is not going set the load lifting world alight nor is it going to have a tremendous range. It will use  inbuilt accelerometers present in iPod touch/iPhone to control the quad via a wifi link. This innovation might lead us quickly to more intuitive control of UAS  that non pilots will quickly learn. That could be the game changer.

Parrot AR.Drone is made of carbon fiber and high resistance PA66 plastic.

The heart of the AR.Drone contains MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanicals Systems), three axes accelerometer, two gyrometers [one axe & two axes], one ultrasound sensor and two cameras:

• The first camera, located underneath, is connected to an Inertial Measurement Unit. Thanks to this unit, the AR.Drone is capable of measuring its horizontal speed and performing mind-blowing stationary flights. The system of images comparison enables it to compensate turbulences due to the wind during outside flights.

  These technologies are usually used for professional or military applications and have been adapted to gaming universe for the first time.

• The second camera, at the front of the quadricopter, broadcasts and streams on the iPod touch/iPhone screen what the drone is seeing as if the player was in the pilot’s position.

  This camera plays a major role for video gaming thanks to the use of form recognition: it enables augmented reality.

  For example, the front camera will recognize another AR.Drone in the game battle between two quadricopters, or tags which will turn into obstacles, monsters or robots on the screen of the iPod touch/iPhone.

  Video streaming has been enhanced compared to the development version of AR.Drone introduced at CES. Also, the front of the hull has been strengthened to better protect the camera.

  The players can choose the camera they prefer or display the two cameras simultaneously on the screen of the iPod touch/iPhone.

During the forthcoming Sheppard group Heli & UV Pacific 2010 exhibition attendees will be able to contribute towards advertising space on Mr Peppas UAV. The airframe is set to compete in the popular and ground breaking UAV search and rescue competition, the Outback Challenge in September.

Just like a formula one car companies can place their brand on parts of the airframe and get their message soaring above the rest. The big money is for space on the wings, plainly an area able to carry a sizeable ad.

But you just don’t get the chance of a spot on an airframe destined for great things, there is a “but wait there’s more” angle. The highest contributer in each category will also receive some great prizes, the star prize is an AttoPilot autopilot, an example of which will be steering Team CooeeUAVs entry in the Outback challenge. Should a sponsor decide to go wild and brand the entire airframe they would walk away with all the electronic equipment required to create a cutting edge UAV.

The Millswood Failsafe device, or as its known in the UAS world, the crashinator, is a flight termination device its the prize for contributions over $750. It shot to fame at the 2009 Outback Challenge, when it worked as advertised and terminated the Team Melbourne UAV entry. The aftermath is apparent at the end of this clip.

It might seem perverse to end a flight in that manner if the UAS has only lost communications for a few seconds, but rules are rules. This year things are expected to be different. The failsafe not only ends flights, it is also able to control pan tilt and zoom video cameras on-board the UAV and speaks very nicely to its own ground control station.

Heli and UV Pacific has been running since 2004 and is the biggest industry event of its kind in Australia. It runs May 26, 2010 – May 27, 2010 at
RACV Royal Pines Resort, Queensland, Australia.

New System Supplies Unlimited Power, Extends UAV Abilities and Enables New Missions

Kent, Wash. (May 4, 2010) – LaserMotive, a leading R&D company specializing in laser power beaming and winner of the NASA-sponsored 2009 Power Beaming Competition, has unveiled its blueprint for creating the first endless power system for unmanned aerial vehicles.
The proposed system is based on technology LaserMotive developed for its winning entry in the Power Beaming Competition for a prize of nearly $1 million – the first time any entrant has won the competition.

The new system will use laser power beaming – the wireless transfer of energy from one location to another using laser light – to create an unlimited source of power for unmanned aerial vehicles, one of the largest growth sectors in the aerospace and defense industries. According to industry research firm Teal Group, the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (also known as UAVs) is expected to grow worldwide from $4.9 billion annually to $11.5 billion annually in the next 10 years.

“Today’s announcement marks an important step not only in powering UAVs, but in extending their abilities, improving their endurance and enabling new missions,” said Tom Nugent, president and co-founder of LaserMotive. “Because laser power beaming enables electric aircraft to be recharged in flight, it is especially viable for high-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles and other types of aircraft that need to power over a long period of time.”
LaserMotive is planning to develop a demonstration model of an airborne vehicle powered by laser before the end of this year. The first working prototypes of the new system could be available within as little as 18 months.

Headquartered in Kent, Wash., LaserMotive is a privately-held R&D company specializing in laser power beaming for commercial applications. The company was co-founded in 2006 by Dr. Jordin Kare, one of the foremost experts on laser propulsion, and Tom Nugent, former Research Director for LiftPort Group. Its industry partners include some of the leading companies in aerospace and lasers, including The Boeing Company, DILAS, MS Kennedy, Ophir Spiricon, 4D Optical, and In-Tec. For more information, including the white paper on LaserMotive’s UAV strategy, please visit the company website at www.lasermotive.com

Tri-copter successfully flown with IMU AttoPilot in a stabilized and assisted attitude mode (Co-Pilot type mode). Planning to offer as a commercial product, likely as part of the standard IMU Atto autopilot system.

GPS + IMU INS filter for heading (without magnetometers!) with uncorrected drift of 2.5 degrees per minute under real flight conditions (tested in flying wings), this has been added to overcome the latency of GPS heading. The GPS heading values are de-weighted depending on the average amount of turning (dHead/dt) over the last few seconds. As mentioned above, even if GPS (measurement) input % is dropped to 0%, I find the estimated heading remains accurate to within 5 degrees for up to 2 minutes. With even very minimal GPS measurement input, this method stays well converged AND allows very fast turns (up to 60 degree bank angles!) without heading overshoot. This means your UAV can execute a 90-180 degree snap similar to a pylon racer and continue on the course without over-shooting the path or over-steering. And in case you are wondering, NO: wind does not confuse this filter in any of my testing, and CenTexFlyer can tell you the kind of conditions we were flying the IMU system in last week… worst possible.

Pitch Airspeed / Throttle Altitude method added (old default was pitch for altitude and throttle for airspeed), plus ability to mix it with old method spread proportionally from mix% A to mix% B over altitude error amount C to D. The mixed method is producing truly spectacular results in altitude and airspeed control. Specifically for hing-wing trainer and motor glider afficianados this method allows AttoPilot to work with your preferred airframe. Even for flying wings, the method gives superior control and saves power by not allowing over-speed condition in steep descents like the old method could allow. Developed a new control method that is almost 100% self tuning – this method is the one that controls airspeed via pitch. User only has to supply a single tuning constant.

Enhanced Assisted flight mode with max roll = 60 degrees, pitch = 45. You can really crank the turns and climb out in ARC assisted mode now. AttoPilot has absolutely no problems (IMU convergence) with high attitudes and g-forces for extended durations. Also implemented enhanced rate dampening methods in assisted flight mode that allow use of 60 degree rolls without spinning up the angular momentum of the airframe too much.

Power feed-forward scheduling in turns to better maintain altitude. This automatic correction is applied in autonomous mode to add extra throttle depending on roll angle. This method makes a few basic assumptions but is in fact model-based (as opposed to fudge-factor would be like “hey… maybe add 5% extra power if the roll is > 10 degrees”). It is also easy to turn off if you don’t want it, but I find it adds value so I always use it now.

Motor Start via G-force trigger during autonomous launch. Video coming… This optional feature has been hard-set internally to trigger at 3 G’s total felt force. Intended for small hand-launchable sUAS like plank wings (I might make a REALLY tiny plank wing and call it a Planck wing – nerd joke I just made up)

Automatically Tuned Navigation (and it is wind independent as well). Finally took my notes from last year on this one and implemented it in the code. Works as I had hoped. I have even had IMU autopilot customers think they tuned their navigation perfectly and they are all proud of themself, while in reality they had no control over the tuning and the autopilot did that for them. But I will let them enjoy their euphoria and not spoil it.

Some other heavy-hitter modelling and features are coming as well.

Saving of SET.txt to Internal non-Volatile memory. Now you no longer need to have a SET.txt on the micro SD card in order to fly. There are neat little methods to extract the internally settings to the SD card in case you want to know what is in the Atto. These types of features will also be supported through the GCS.

V1.9 created (has most code advancements from the IMU put back into a thermopile autopilot)

Corrected the Xbee modem compatibility issue in code for the V1.8 control board (no hardware fix is required). There had been a logic level issue, but I found a robust fix in code.

Enhanced ground setup procedure. Fix of some old bugs that could allow servo over-travel during ground test, AND added an automatic cycling test of the camera trigger during this procedure.

The TERP II is a quick deployment and easy to operate micro UAV. It is capable for providing real time information and is ideal for covert & tactical operations as it can pick up and instantly relay information back to base with full security. TERP-II has all the industry leading features incorporated into it including optical zoom, night vision IR capabilities, encrypted data transmission, etc.

The managing director of the Market Intelligence Group (MIG), Herlik has gone public on YouTube with his frustration about what he calls an “illegal” move by a former Space Command official to countermand a direct order by a former USAF chief of staff. I’ve excerpted the key passage from the video below:

“Why aren’t we doing this?

Part of this is the cultural resistance to lighter than air vehicles. The air force for example has absolutely no interest in airships. It’s just too far from what they choose to do. On top of that, there are technical issues having to do with the altitudes, the environment, radio frequency interference, the number of aircraft in the air.

But frankly the bottom line inhibitors are right here: Budgets and careers. As with any technical innovation the old technology will be replaced to some extent, and the losers always resist, especially those whose careers are based on whatever technology is going away.

As far as the history, air force space command was assigned to this task by a chief of staff named Jumper back in about 2003. Several years later the technology problems had been solved, to include survivability, which meant that the threat to satellite budgets was then crystal clear.

At that point, and just as that chief of staff retired, an air force general wrote a cease and desist order countermanding the chief of staff. Yes, that is illegal. But they did it anyway.

Shortly thereafter the space community jettisoned the entire idea of persistent UAVs, pushing it to the Air Combat Command, which again for cultural reasons rejected the lighter than air piece.

That again left the army space and missile defense command as the only military organization trying to fly these. To their credit the high sentinel has flown a number of times reaching 73,000 feet. It simply doesn’t have the funding to be turned into something effective over the battlefield.”

Certainly one to watch in the 2010 Australian Outback Challenge, the team has designed their own autopilot and are now integrating it into their airframe.

Good luck to them and all the other contenders!

Follow built blog progress here

Website here

If the quality of the website is anything to go by it should be a cracking entry into the worlds most popular UAV competition.

Queensland University of Technology engineers are creating a solar unmanned airborne vehicle capable of providing 24-hour services to emergency services, without fuel or pollution.

The Green Falcon solar UAV – designed by PHD student, Wessam Al Sabban and aerospace avionics engineering supervisor, Dr Felipe Gonzalez – has completed its preliminary flight testing and with further development and funding, could be available for use in the next year.

“Bush fires in Australia have killed many people and caused millions of dollars in damage. The Green Falcon is a next generation warning system with remote sensing and visual data capability,” Dr Gonzalez said.

“Unlike manned aircraft, which have restricted air time, unmanned aerial vehicles could provide 24 hours surveillance and coverage of disaster areas.

“Solar energy runs the Green Falcon by day and charges its battery for night power, which discharges slowly until morning when a new cycle starts.”

“It is fitted with infrared cameras to locate distressed people and relay information to emergency services on the ground.

The UAV system can be used in emergency planning and search and rescue missions singularly, or in multiples as a swarm.

It has a 2.5 metre wing span and is hand-launched for easy use. It is commanded from a ground station, where an operator can receive and respond to images and video sent from the plane.

“The vehicle can survey large areas and provide near real time data to assist emergency services, and improve response times during crises such as bushfires,” Dr Gonzalez said.

Joining Wessam and Dr Gonzalez, the Green Falcon design team also included graphic designer Simone Dumbleton and PhD student Andre Pozzetti from RMIT.

The team designed the solar UAV for the RMIT University 2009 Design Challenge: Fire – which challenged researchers and specialists to generate design proposals in response to bushfire events, including fire prevention and planning, emergency response, mitigation of fire impact, and post-fire regeneration in communities.

The Green Falcon was one of only six finalists from more than 75 researchers, industry and community experts, and 35 projects.

Finalists’ ideas, including the Green Falcon will be on display at the Melbourne Museum from 10 November – 28 February 2010.

The Green Falcon was also highly commended for its use of an embedded computer in the 2009 EDN Innovation Awards- which recognise and reward excellence in electronics design, manufacture and test from Australian companies.

Further information: Dr Felipe Gonzalez, QUT Aerospace Avionics engineer, +61 7 3138 1363 or felipe.gonzalez@qut.edu.au

Green Falcon – Solar Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The Green Falcon project aims were to develop a methodology for designing and conducting a systems engineering analysis to build and fly continuously, day and night, propelled uniquely by solar energy for 24+ with a 0.25Kg payload consuming 0.5 watt without fuel or pollution.

An airplane able to fly autonomously for many days could have many applications, such as:

• coastal or border surveillance
• atmospheric and weather research and prediction
• environmental, forestry, agricultural, and oceanic monitoring
• imaging for the media and real-estate industries.

Additional advantages include its low cost and simplistic launch. In the case of potential forest fire risks during warm and dry periods, swarms of solar airplanes can be easily launched by hand, and could efficiently monitor a large surface, rapidly reporting fires.

Rapid reporting of these and other emergency situations would allow fast intervention and reduce human and material losses.

Solar HALE – UAV (High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) platforms are also expected to play a major role in communication relays, and could replace satellites in a near future.

Website: http://www.bee.qut.edu.au

Boomerang electric UAV

From servos to complete UAS systems EMTechnologies have become a one stop UAV shop.

The company has created a range of composite UAS airframes all flown by the Attopilot UAV autopilot.