Drone 2.0 with 720p HD camera, autonomous video-recording, we go hands-on If you'll recall, it was just yesterday that we spied the Parrot's AR.Drone 2.0 banners here at the Las Vegas Convention Center in the run-up to CES, followed today by a leak of what appeared to be the official press release. So, it's not like the cat -- or in this case quadricopter -- wasn't already partially out of the bag, but now at least, it's officially, well, official. The new Drone touts much improved 720p HD video-recording capability, a revamped app with updated flight controls and features, along with revised hardware and reinforced hulls. We recently spent a few minutes with the smartphone-controlled UAV, so head on past the break for our brief impressions and a quick video overview. Off the bat, it's clear that the AR.Drone 2.0 is more aggressively styled, with sharper edges and streamlined curves. The new indoor hull has also be re-enforced, for even more protection against any accidental floor-dives.

Parrot's also aimed to streamline the user experience, starting with its Freeflight 2.0 app for Android and iOS, which acts as a portal to all of the AR's various flight modes and related games and software. Notably, unlike it's predecessor, you can now capture videos and photos straight from your device and then share them to site like YouTube. Better yet, it also features a new "traveling" mode, which allows for autonomous video recording along a pre-determined flight path -- perfect for budding filmmakers who'd like some aerial pizzaz. parrot ar drone rc modThe Drone's HD camera is notably smoother looking during flight, with much less video-stutter than what could be achieved with the original. ar drone 2 buy onlineWhile we weren't able to take out our own clip, we were shown some previously recorded videos loaded on the iPad being used to control it, and they certainly looked very good. parrot ar drone 60beat

When it comes to flying, Parrot has made two notable additions to the UAV itself, which allows for more easier control. Along with the previous array of sensors, it now has a 3D magnetometer which allows it to auto-orient based on it's front camera and the position of the smartphone you're using. Furthermore, thanks to an added "pressure sensor," pilots will be able to fly higher than the previous model, in upwards of six meters. Impressively, having all of these new updates and features, we're told the AR.parrot ar drone rosDrone 2.0 will manage the same amount of flying time as its predecessor. parrot ar drone samsung s3If you're flying bug is getting the best of you, you'll be pleased to know that the AR.parrot ar drone raggio d'azioneDrone 2.0 is set to ship is "Q2 of this year," at the same $300 price point of its older sibling.

From around the web ear iconeye icontext file This tracking algorithm is able to maintain the position and orientation of the drone while the object moves along the ground. The control system is divided in two subsystems: control position only (x,y) and control orientation only (theta). The first one use control curves to command speed to the drone. The second one uses a control surface for the rotations of the drone. Both subsystems work together to track down the object. The following video shows some of the tests performed with this control. In the following video you can see how the drone tracks down an object that is in the ground. The tracking is done in the X and Y axes. The algorithm uses control curves to command speed to the drone. In this tracking algorithm, the drone tracks down a red ball in a 3D space. The algorithm use three PID controllers to maintain the position of the drone. ardrone_server is a wrapper for the JdeRobot platform that belong to Ar.Drone SDK.

It's inspired by the ardrone_brown and ardrone_autonomy ROS packages and implements the followings ICE interfaces: camera, ardrone_control and remoteConfig. The camera interface provides images of the drone. ardrone_control allows the control of the drone and gets the navdata of Ar.Drone. remoteConfig can change the settings of the drone. My first challenge is to develop a jde wrapper to AR. In the first stage of my project, I worked with ROS (Robot Operating System) to control the drone. Thanks to ardrone_brown driver I was able get pictures from the drone and send commands to control its movement. Next you can see some projects I did with ROS. ARDrone GUI, is a GUI to control the drone developed ​​with Qt.ARDrone GUI allows to teleoperate the drone, get pictures from its cameras and get the nav_data. It also has a filtering algorithm to detect red objects. Next you can see a screenshot of the ArDrone GUI. In the following video you can see how ARDrone GUI allows us to change the view from different cameras.

Object tracking, is a small program which provides the drone of sufficient "intelligence" to be able to follow a red ball.The tracking algorithm is quite simple, it just checks where the ball is at any given time and corrects its position relative to the center of the ball. Object tracking, is able to follow the ball when it's above, to the left or to the right of the optical center. It hasn't got depth support and it's not based on any other more advanced algorithm as the PID. Object tracking 2, works just Object tracking but with depth support. Camera calibration is a ROS package that allows us to calibrate cameras. The following video shows an example of the use of rviz, TF and Progeo library of jderobot, to determine the position of the mouse click in 3D space. And finally we can see a small flight in the halls of the university.Drone is a quadcopter, developed by the Parrot company. It was designed for the creation of augmented reality video games, where the user can interact with the environment or others users.