

Drones That Anybody Can Pilot with a Phone - sk2code
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/skydio-drones/

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Someone1234
Drones that came with an iOS/Android app have been available for around two
years. So the only USP here is that ex-Google employees made another one "me
too!" Good for them, but nothing revolutionary going on here.

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kcorbitt
> Good for them, but nothing revolutionary going on here.

The article is hindered by the fact that the author doesn't appear to be
familiar with what's on the market already, so he doesn't focus exclusively on
the right things. Watching the embedded video introducing the tech, it's clear
that they're working on optical flow algorithms that will allow a drone to
autonomously avoid obstacles and (eventually) navigate in GPS-denied
environments without heavy and expensive sensors. It's true that there are
other people working on it, but no one in the commercial market at least has
come anywhere close to solving this problem. I'm excited by the possibilities
this capability would open up.

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spiritplumber
We've been doing this since 2010 at www.robots-everywhere.com although it has
to be an android phone. The software and even the schematics have been
creative commons'd since 2012, too (they're on the wiki). We demoed at Google
I/O 2010.

Wired has been notified of this over the years and consistently failed to
report it.

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skybrian
Are you working on sense and avoid? How is it going?

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spiritplumber
Pretty well. Amazing what you can do with $5 ultrasound detectors, if your
software is clever.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk-H--
e6PUs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk-H--e6PUs)

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fit2rule
The use of phones to control devices like this is kind of old news .. what I'd
be interested in more is a kit you can use that will turn your average iPhone
into a flying drone itself .. bolt on some wings/rotors, charge up the
batteries, and let it loose. Seems to me that is an accessory whose time has
come .. perhaps its out there on the horizon somewhere already, who knows?

EDIT: It IS! This is what I want in the iPhone/drone department, next:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhv7qmo63D4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhv7qmo63D4)

(EDIT2: D'oh, looks like its CGI .. still, a man can dream..)

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dharma1
I've been playing with using Ubuntu phone as a brain for drones and robotics.
People have been doing the same with Android for a while. There are lots of
Arduino boards that communicate with Android either over bluetooth or OTG USB.

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fit2rule
Sounds great .. have you got anything up online about how you're using the
Ubuntu phone for this? I'd love to participate somehow .. I'm a long-time
flying-thing builder (3 decades now) and to me this seems like a very ripe
opportunity for someone to disrupt the drone world. Of course, there is an
ulterior motive: getting people to launch their phones into the wide blue
yonder, yay! :)

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dharma1
not yet, you can ping me at info (at) londonhelicam dot co dot uk

