Fans of Parrot's AR.Drone quadcopter have been anticipating the arrival of the AR.Drone 3.0 for the past couple of years, but it now looks like the next major addition to the French company's fleet is going to take the form of a little something known as the Bebop Drone. Among its improvements over the AR.Drone 2.0 are a better camera, longer range, and an optional joystick-based controller.The Bebop features a 14-megapixel/1080p camera (as opposed to the 2.0's 720p model) with a 180-degree field of view, that's isolated from the copter's vibrations by rubber shock absorbers. Additionally, a 3-axis digital stabilization system keeps the camera pointing in the same direction, regardless of subtle changes in the aircraft's orientation or movements caused by wind. Footage and stills are recorded on an integrated 8 GB flash drive.As with Parrot's previous drones, video is streamed live to the user's iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, which is also used to control the drone via onscreen toggles.

For the Bebop, however, users can also purchase the optional Skycontroller. It features a shaded receptacle compatible with most major brands of mobile devices, so that users can still watch the video feed and access certain functions. ar drone parrot director modeIts main controls, however, are actual physical joysticks and buttons.parrot ar drone light kitIt also features an amplified Wi-Fi radio and four antennas, which boosts the drone's operating range up to 2 km (1.2 miles). parrot ar drone boxWhat's more, virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift can be plugged into the Skycontroller's HDMI port, allowing pilots to feel like they're actually up in the quadcopter.parrot ar drone blog

Thanks to the inclusion of a GPS module, the Bebop can autonomously follow a pre-programmed flight path, plus its "Return Home" feature automatically flies it back its point of take-off when requested.It also features a vertical camera for seeing what's right underneath it, and an ultrasound sensor for detecting the proximity of the ground when taking off and landing. Its 1,200-mAh lithium polymer battery provides approximately 12 minutes of flight time.Both the Bebop Drone and the Skycontroller should be available as of the final quarter of the year. Pricing has yet to be announced, although the drone can be seen in action now, in the video below.PX4IOAR is an electrical and mechanical adapter board. Includes everything needed to put PX4FMU on a Parrot AR.Drone 1.0 or 2.0.Drone is a trademark of Parrot SA, Paris. The PX4IOAR board is compatible to the AR.Drone 1.0 and 2.0 frame and motor controllers. PX4 is not affiliated to Parrot. PX4IOAR is not using any Parrot technology or software.

Order this module from: UnmannedTech (UK & EU) BYOD (UK & EU) UAV store (Germany & EU) Step-by-step build instructions can be found on the AR.Drone Shield (PX4IOAR) page. The PX4IOAR is sold by 3D robotics with a complete mounting kit for the AR.Drone 1.0 and AR.Only battery power cable, battery, RC receiver and a short receiver cable (servo cable) need to be added. PX4IOAR v1.2 User Manual PX4IOAR v1.2 Schematic and Layout All documentation in hardware repository The following connectors can be used to make connections between PX4IOAR and other devices. Google Sketchup can be used to view and render the highly-detailed 3D model of PX4IOAR (SketchUp Pro can export to industry CAD software): PX4 Modules in the Google 3D Warehouse PX4IOAR is designed with Cadsoft Eagle v 6.2. PX4IOAR v1.2 Eagle board (Eagle 6.2, current board version) PX4IOAR v1.2 Eagle schematic (Eagle 6.2, current board version) PX4IOARMT v1.0 Eagle board (Eagle 6.2, current board version)

PX4IOARMT v1.0 Eagle schematic (Eagle 6.2, current board version)Requested page does not exist. It is very likely that you followed an old link which is no longer adequate. Please use the menu or click on the logo for the start page. Die angeforderte Seite gibt es nicht (oder nicht mehr). Wahrscheinlich bist du einem alten Link gefolgt, bitte benutze das Menü um dich neu zu orientieren oder klicke auf das Logo um auf die Startseite zu gelangen.Fly an AR Drone with an Xbox controller and JavaScript I always found the controls on the AR Drone mobile application not accurate enough for easy manoeuvring. I wanted something a bit more precise so I thought my USB Xbox controller would be perfect for the job. I used JavaScript to both read the gamepad data and to send control messages to the drone. The Xbox controller in Node.js There are ways to read the Xbox controller (and all other USB game controllers) straight in the browser using the JavaScript Gamepad API. I used this method in my Arduino RC Car project.

But it’s much easier to use a Node.js library and do everything on the local server. We will have to run the server anyway for connecting to the drone. The Node Xbox Controller library let’s you do just that and it’s really easy to setup. Install the library then run this example app to see if everything is working fine. You might have to install the gamepad drivers first: Lion/Snow Leopard, Yosemite var XboxController = require('xbox-controller'); var xbox = new XboxController; xbox.on('a:press', function (key) { console.log(key + ' press'); xbox.on('b:release', function (key) { console.log('Xbox controller could not be found'); Luckily for this project we don’t have to use two separate libraries for reading the gamepad and driving the drone because the Xbox-Parrot library does everything for us. The AR Drone connected to Node.js and the Xbox controller Once the default app is running in your terminal the drone is ready to take off.