The concept comes by way of Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University in Melbourne. What they’ve done is taken the standard Parrot AR.Drone quadracopter and loaded it with some specialized software. By doing so, the drone will lock in on the user (you) and follow you around as you go for your run around the neighborhood. It’s also designed to help you maintain a certain pace, so if you start to lag behind, it’ll fly on ahead and “motivate” you to keep up. Because you wouldn’t want to lose your $300+ toy.

There is definitely room for improvement, of course. You could equip Joggobot to keep the path lit when you go for a run at night, for example, or they could set it up to have better controls… perhaps with Kinect-esque motion-based waving to get the Joggobot to speed up or slow down. The other snag is the 20-minute battery life, which doesn’t leave you with a very big window for a good jog.

[Source]

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I saw the AR.Drone 2.0 in action when I attended CES earlier this year, but now it’s out in the wild and a sample of the HD video shot by the quadrocopter has been uploaded to the Internet. The video sample, embedded below and available in 720p, provides an aerial view of San Francisco Peaks and Mt. Elden from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Not surprisingly, the video is filled with wavy undulations as the quad-rotor aircraft makes its way up into the skies. The quality of the video isn’t the best either and the lack of audio really takes away from the experience. Even so, I imagine the AR.Drone 2.0 is a really fun toy to have, especially since all you have to do is double-tap a button in the provided iOS or Android FreeFlight app to make it do a flip.

There are better ways to spend $299, but a sensible desk or a nice toaster oven just don’t sound as fun.

[Source]

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Developed by the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Lab (GRASP), these nano quadrocopters (or quadrotors, if you prefer) are able to fly in various complex formations, navigating through the environment with complex “autonomous swarm behavior.” The very sound of the swarm in the video below gives me chills.

I’m instantly reminded of Michael Crichton’s Prey. The thing with a swarm is that they have a “collective intelligence” of sorts, so it doesn’t matter if you take out one or two units from the group. They operate as a collective, making them virtually unstoppable. Where’s John Connor when you need him?

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If the eye3 gets the $25,000 of funding that it needs, it can ship out to average Joes like you and me for all of our awesome imaging needs. It ships as a kit, so you will need to put it together, but all the hard work with testing and design has been done for you. Pledge $999 or more and you get an eye3 hexacopter kit of your own!  Check out the Kickstarter page for more information and to back the project.

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The Parrot AR Drone is a unique stable flying device built around the idea of being piloted through the use of an iPhone and a special control app. While a unique idea, many users didn’t feel that the iPhone was the cheapest or most accurate way to pilot the drone.

Luckily, Logic Consulting has fixed the problem by creating a new MAC application that talks to the AR Drone through the same protocol as it would with the iPhone app. Because the unit can use higher power WiFi equipment from a USB dongle, it can also pilot the drone at greater distances than could be achieved with the phone. The on-screen application also includes much more detailed information and control.

The new MAC application is compatible with the following controllers:

• Wired USB Xbox 360(TM) Controllers
• Wired USB PS3(TM) Controllers
• Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick
• Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X
• Logitech Dual Action Gamepad
• Keyboard and Mouse
• Wii Motion Controllers with Nunchuk and/or Balance Board

Overall, the AR Drone looks pretty cool and this new app brings great control to the drone. It also gives the device a much broader range of users, since it now supports both iOS and Mac too. Of course, I’d love to see a PC version of this software surface as well, but at least this is a step in the right direction.

Check out the video below for a closer look at the new drone application in action:

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Israeli defense electronics manufacturer Elbit has recently tested a new Forward Ground Control Station strategy by using the Skylark I LE unmanned aerial system.  What does that mean exactly mean?  The Israeli Defense Department gets one of the coolest remote control aircraft we have ever seen.  The drone will come in to use when it becomes dispatched  from the  rear, allowing forward military units to takeover operations once it reaches them and scope out foreign territory for potential hostiles.  The Skylark weighs less – about 15 kg than other UAVs – and will enhance their troops operational flexibility by cutting back on their baggage.

One standalone soldier can carry the drone.  The package consists of the unmanned aerial Skylark I LE, a computer controller, hand held display, operations stick and something called the Skylark Rambo transducer.

Skylark will be used for close-range reconnaissance missions for soldiers who are inspecting a battle field without enemy detections. The system is very silent, has good flight autonomy and can observe the battle during day or night, thus providing soldiers with vital information.

NATO has used this in previous battles such as Iraq and Afghanistan, unfortunately it’s not available to the public so we’ll just have to stick to an iPhone controlled AR drone for now.

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So that AR Drone Quadrocopter we saw at CES just the other week, well, it’s made by a company named Parrot and we’ve managed to get a hold of some exciting footage of it buzzing around the streets.

At an estimated $500 price when it hits the store shevles, it’s not so bad of a deal considering: the quadrocopter is controlled by your iPhone or iPod Touch via WiFi, it has two onboard cameras, one streams vide back to your iPhone, an ultrasonic altimeter, gyro/accelerometer stabilization system, best of all, the “augmented reality” system turns your flying saucer in to a video game by overlaying graphics and objects on your screen with multi-player capabilities.

It wont stop there, Parrot is creating an API for the WiFi interface allowing developers to get freaky with this flying system.

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