Tuesday, June 17, 2014

My Son's Latest Project: Quad Copter Autonomous Flight



My son's latest tech project involves programming a Quad Copter to take-off, climb to 20 meters, fly to multiple GPS points and then land - all on it's own without any human control.  We spent most of Fathers Day working on the project (OK I did very little but offer encouragement).  The video is after his 4th test and a few replacement props later (thank goodness they're cheap).  The test was very successful and it was a very fun Father's Day.

This Quad Copter can carry a payload of a little over a pound and will eventually mount a sony go-pro camera on a gimbal mount.  His project is to build a prototype of a security bot that can be triggered to launch via a cell phone call and fly a preset route (around our house), transmit video of the house and then return to it's landing pad - all on it's own.

I'm hoping to use it to get some tracking shots of a big game - with the quad copter flying over a table shooing my mini's in action

7 comments:

chris said...

Security copter taking photos of your minis in the middle of a game, I laughed out loud! You great big nerd! My hat (a tri corn of corse) goes of to you. Hahaha

jmilesr said...

Nerd?, NERD?????
Why that's an outrageous, although accurate, accusation. I am a Geek, Sir there is a difference!

Yes we're a pretty nerdy / geeky family but it's a lot fun. Unfortunately my son has far out paced me on the tech front where now I am beginning to think of his creations more as "magic" than applied tech!

Stefan (aka. Monty) said...

isn't there a nerd / geek within everyone of us?

Anyway that copter project is really awesome. And the more I think of it the more I like the idea of flying camera eyes over the gaming board...

Cheers
Stefan

DeanM said...

Very cool aircraft - nice photography on a fine day too!

Monty said...

That is sooo cool! Maybe it can be programmed to carry a payload of beer down to the club. Or minis.

I can just imagine your neighbor looking out the window and yelling "I'm being droned!"

jmilesr said...

Beer Delivery!
Now there is an admirable tech application!

Ian said...

It's never dull at yours is it.

Great stuff

Ian