[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.
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.
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.
Here is a really cool demonstration of soft body robotics and locomotion using “jamming”. As far as I can see they use a balloon filled with sand (kind of like those stress balls) and then suck the air out of it to make it maintain a more rigid shape. This seems like it would be fairly easy to replicate cheaply.
I remember seeing a demo of a delta robot a while ago and being very impressed. I have seen them used on assembly lines to quickly sort and organise objects but there are loads of other applications. I know of one company that uses a delta design for a tactile feedback capable interface device. I wonder if this sort of device would be good for routing/drilling/cnc type work? If you are interested in the maths behind this sort of design you can check out this pdf.
via Hackaday
The folks over at InventGeek just released the plans and tutorial videos for making a paintball turret with pan (I think) and tilt. I really like these sorts of projects. They deal with a lot of the problems one would deal with when making a real gun turret…plus they are just fun to watch.
Via Hackaday
