[Via Engadget]
I have seen some pretty amazing autonomous maneuvers with standard helicopters. I always assumed that quads should be capable of pretty crazy maneuvers but have never seen any. Well the wait is over. Check out the project page over at Daniel Mellinger’s UPenn site. On a site note. it looks like perching is going to be the new must have for MAV’s.
[via DIY Drones]
A company called Skilligent put out this video demonstrating computer vision based navigation that uses landmark detection. I’d love to see an open source version of this capability.
This is a very cool project out of Stanford. It is a MAV that can land on rough surfaces and hang there. The possibilities that come with this capability are far reaching. Recharging, hiding, surveillance and seeking refuge are just a few. Put an eInk skin on its back, weaponize it and you have a nasty little urban MAV.
via DIY Drones
Logic Sniffer
Logic Sniffers? Bus Pirates?? IR Toys???
Names can be deceiving. These little gizmos allow unfettered, real time access to the bits and bytes flying around us all day long. Now if only they had some wireless tools 
Global Guerrillas posted a link to Tapatio. It looks like it uses twitter to collect and distribute information. It looks like the real value add is that ‘Administrators’ can verify incoming messages and then tag them with metadata before they get republished to the network. It’s a cool idea and it looks like they have even used it in the field. My main worries would be:
No encryption.
Adding tags allows for easy automated interception.
Centralised point of failure (administration).
Dependent on controllable infrastructure (Cell Provider, Internet, Twitter).
Not much value add over existing messaging systems (Twitter, IM, Skype, E-Mail, XMPP, Radio).
Most of those issues could be resolved and are probably on the dev team’s radar.
Check out the rest of their site hackbloc.org for other cool stuff.
This is a pretty nice talk by the guy developing the AttoPilot. It has a very impressive set of features compared to some of the more popular autopilots out there. I was particularly impressed by the Vector Navigation features and in flight trim and PID gain adjustments.
Via DIYDrones
I saw this article on Global Guerrillas this morning and had to comment on it. Apparently Iraqi insurgents have been using OTS hardware and some cheap software to intercept live video feeds from Predator drones. OMFG I can only hope that the control and telemetry links are encrypted. Once again hats off to GG for another great story. If you like this blog you should add Global Guerrillas to your list of dailies.
Tricopter - Flips and a little bit of gardening from W. Thielicke on Vimeo.
I like seeing demonstrations of the aerobatic abilities of this sort of platform. I am also curious about the feasibility of a fail-over mode for a quad rotor that has lost a rotor. Overall very cool project and pretty cheap. Check out his blog for the build details Good work William.
This would probably not be useful in combat (though I would not want to be on the hot side of it). It is, however, a great example of the power of one tinkerer and cheap, available hardware. Alter the idea slightly (throw in an autonomous vehicle) and you could have a very disruptive weapon.
While I was browsing the RepRap site yet again (I neeeeeed to get a reprap). I came across and advert for the mbed. It is billed as a rapid prototyping platform (which it is) but it has a TON of features including 12 bit adc, USB host, . You can pre-order now and save some money. The only downside I see is that the IDE and compiler look to be in browser only. I’m sure someone will come up with a solution for that.
