http://www.openwarfare.org It had to happen sooner or later... Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:33:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=283 [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. http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=281 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, ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=277 [caption id="attachment_271" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Logic Sniffer"][/caption] 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 :) http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=274 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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=265 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 http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=263 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. ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=260 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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=258 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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=252 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, . ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=249 MikroKopter - HexaKopter from Holger Buss on Vimeo. Here is a nice demo video of MikroKotper's new HexaKopter. Lists at around $1500 which is pretty good considering it's capabilities. 1Kg is a lot of payload. I'd love to see some numbers on loiter times but overall this looks ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=247 This seems to be the next iteration of Berkeley's cutout robot. I think the most interesting part about this concept are the build process and materials. Every time I see something like this I am reminded that I REALLY WANT a laser cutter :). http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=244 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. ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=242 I'm a big fan hardware projects and have recently been playing around with a couple of Digi XBee pro modules for a UAV controller. Anyway I came across Travis Goodspeed's blog post explaining a method for extracting keys from certain ZigBee chipsets. I won't ruin the surprise for ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=240 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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=238 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 ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=235 This is a cool project that aims to be a "universal remote" for those cheap IR controlled toy helicopters.The same group is also working on a visual tracking system as well. The main problem with IR is that you are basically limited to line of sight.  Even with that limitation ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=233 This is kind of a goofy video at first glance but when you think about it it is pretty cool.  This guy rigged up his Easystar based UAV with a FPV camera and some model rockets and fireworks.  It looks like great fun, flying around and shooting rockets but scale ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=228 Via Hack A Day Strobit is a neat open source project from strobotics creating a small cheap Arduino based wireless widget.  They are creating "personalities" which look like different sets of functionality.  It looks like they are working on mesh networking and solar power which would make this a great candidate ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=224 As rapid prototyping /3d printing and DIY continue to converge we are going to see more and more of this sort of thing.  I did some digging and found his list of parts but none of them are printable by others at the moment.  He also has a forum at ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=221 Slashdot had a good post about an this interview with the author the book Wired For War.  It is a good interview although they only briefly touch on the topic of open source weapon systems and then in a pretty negative way.  My main problem with these sorts of negative ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=219 [caption id="attachment_216" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Soaring"][/caption] This is a really interesting group that is attempting to make a UAV that can use thermals to stay aloft.  Their ultimate goal is a cross country unmanned flight.  So far they have made pretty good progress.  I wonder how far you could go my mixing ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=215 A pretty interesting talk on the mathematics of insugent warfare.  The two things I thought were particularly interstign where how they collected the data from normal news streams and the idea that asemmetric warfare has a set mathematical distrobution. http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=213 Wow. As a taxpayer I wonder from time to time where all the money goes.  I'm guessign DAS took a fair chunk of it.  I think we sometimes forget just how far ahead we are in the arms race.  I see something like that and the size of that gap ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=211 With home fabrication becoming more of a reality every day it is only a matter of time before the average person has the capability to manufacture high quality firearms on their desktop.  The folks over at CNCGuns have some pretty cool toys and have decided to put them to use ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=209 I have always been a big fan of designs based on bugs.  Here is a new one that I founds at HackADay.  As you can see it really scoots right along.  It has pnuematic legs that are power by a master pump (I think).  I would love to see what ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=205 One of my favorite pieces of 3D modeling software is Blender.  It is, in my opinion, the best open source 3D modeling platform out there.  I have been using it for quick and dirty data visualization for a while new.  It has Pythion scripting built in which makes it very ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=199 I came across SenseFly.com while paroozing DIY Drones.  What I found particularly interesting is that they use optical sensors and directly map the "optic flow" from the sensor to control signals.  According to the original research site they have to estimate position and movement usign their method.  Check out their ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=196 I guess it was only a matter of time.  This outfit is now selling plans for wifi enabled remotely operated gun turret.  I'll be really interested to see what sort of legal issues they run into.  Because they are only sellign plans they are probably protected to some degree but ... http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=193 I came across the Complex Terrain Laboratory web site.  Pretty interesting articles.  They seem to center around technology and warfare so I thought it was apropos. http://www.openwarfare.org/?p=189