OpenWarfare.org

I came across the Formica project over at HackADay.  I’ve always liked the idea of cheap (disposable) robots that could be used for swarms or other simple tasks.  Surveillance, sigint etc.  Anyway this is a neat little project.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.  I spent some time practicing pistol and rifle marksmanship.  While I was at the range a nice fellow let me shoot his black powder rifle which was really fun (and interesting).  I was surprised at how accurate his rifle was.  He put a reduced charge in it since it was my first time.  At 100 yards it was dead on.  I may have to get one.  Anyway I have a few neat posts in the pipe but I saw this one today and couldn’t resist.

Build A Net Gun - More DIY How To Projects

I have to admin, it was a little weird to watch the a kid get dragged around by robots.  Oddness aside, this was a really cool demonstration of swarm technology.  I thing swarm/pack behavior is going to be a mainstay of military robotics.

I came across this project at sparkfun.  Yet another UAV you might say.  I found this one interesting because it uses ultrasonic sensors and a compass.  Usually there are some accelerometers thrown into the mix but this project doesn’t seem to have any.  It seems to rely on the inherent stability of the platform.  A mistake in my opinion but intersting and, depending on the mission, perhaps effective.

http://seanreynoldscs.com/WashUAV.aspx

http://dev.emcelettronica.com/what-microcontroller-bootloader-and-how-it-works

Here is a nice little explanation on boot loaders.

I was browsing YouTube last night and I came across a video of a tail-less RC X-36 that seems to be using some gyros to keep itself stable.  It also looks like he is using movable electric props to emulate vectored thrust.  They have a project page here.