A crashed birthday gift, arduino and flight automation. DIY drones!
It was my birthday a week ago and I was given a little motored RC sail plane. I loved it for all of the 10 seconds I spent trying to avoid the now seemingly unavoidable maiden flight crash.
Those little seconds, no matter how brief, got me interested in RC flight.
So after crashing my first plane on it’s maiden flight I’ve started wondering what I could do to maybe create a flight black box so I could at least analyse what I’ve done wrong, in order to improve. The gamer in me talking, I guess.
The obvious answer was to maybe build something with arduino with a few sensors and output the gathered data to a file and then find a way to visualise it. All of a sudden I got hit by all this thoughts on what else would be possible once that data is being captured live.
Well, once you realize you could attach the arduino to the RC commands and use the data to autopilot the thing, the ideas just flow a natural path. You can actually build your own drone.
“damn, someone must have done this already”
So, I did a little google search and I found this:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-mega-home-page
Ardupilot is an arduino powered RC auto pilot. It doesn’t have the storing of telemetry data I wanted. But it combines FPV (First person view) flights and arduino and it is a fully automated flying system, where you only issue commands. Return to launch point, for example.
Brilliant Idea that i will be certainly playing around with. And if I can’t find something that stores the telemetry then maybe I can try and build something myself. :)
Anyway, enjoy the video. Brilliant stuff.
Also, if you are around london and want to try to build some of this together drop me a note.
Amazing — Atari (running custom-written sequencing software) mounted into an oversized guitar body.
gAtari - Atari 2600 chipmusic project by cTrix @ Blip Festival Tokyo 2011
Source: youtube.com
Twine is the simplest possible way to get the objects in your life texting, tweeting or emailing. A durable 2.5” square provides WiFi connectivity, internal and external sensors, and two AAA batteries that keep it running for months. A simple web app allows to you quickly set up your Twine with human-friendly rules — no programming needed. And if you’re more adventurous, you can connect your own sensors and use HTTP to have Twine send data to your own app.
More at supermechanical.com/twine
Source: vimeo.com
Make a 3D printed Miniature from a photo. To find out more please go to miniaturemoments.com
Source: vimeo.com
“ontama (onyko_tama_land)” is the live event which the students who were studying sound art and media art in Tama Art University began.
Source: vimeo.com
Finally Microsoft is embracing Kinect hacking. About time, but better later than never.
Source: youtube.com
Wondering what kind of strange stuff you’ve just seen?
The answer is here: http://www.niklasroy.com/project/116
Source: youtube.com
LumiBots are small, autonomous robots that can leave glowing traces. The robots are equipped with a UV LED at their tail which leaves a glowing trail on phosphorescent sheet. The traces do not only create generative images which tell the story of the robots’ movements, but have a deeper meaning for the lumiBots: With their light sensors, they can follow the other robots’ as well as their own trails, and amplify them, thus creating an ant-trail-like mechanism luring more and more robots on the same path.
To find out more about the lumiBots, visit meyleankronemann.de/lumibots.html
Source: vimeo.com
Extending the Touchscreen — using physical objects to interface with touch screen devices.
Source: vimeo.com
The inspiration for Talk to Me came from the acknowledgment that things have always had a rapport with us, even in past centuries — maybe it was affection for an object that was an heirloom; it was the bridge where you had your first kiss; there was a relationship, sometimes it was aversion or revulsion, other times, of love. Very rarely is there indifference. If you think of a chef and his knives for example. Lately digital technology has made this relationship more explicit and sometimes verbalized, or just more articulated.
