7 week Drone project.

Gadgetman

Could you(with a team) design, build and fly an autonomous drone capable of identifying and tracking a car in a rally, in just 7 weeks?

That's what 23 of the summer interns at the Kongsberg Group did this summer...

It was this year's version of their 'Local Hawk' challenge.
(It's a challenge they've given students since 2008)

There's a picture of the quadcopter here:
http://e24.no/naeringsliv/kongsberg-gruppen/denne-kan-inneholde-kongsbergs-nye-forsvarsteknologi/23267738

It can fly at up to 100Km/h...

Videos of earlier years can be seen here:
http://www.kongsberg.com/en/kog/careers/students/localhawk/
(You can see some of their toys/tools in the latest video. )

Yeah, the Kongsberg Group is a defense contractor.
There's no mention of any payload capacity... besides being able to carry a HD camera...

erco

Very cool. Interesting mix of props on top & bottom.

Publison

Pretty impressive for youngsters.

My favorite so far:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/airdog/airdog-worlds-first-auto-follow-action-sports-dron

1.3 Million seed money when only asking $200,000.!

Kyle M.

As this is multirotor-related discussion, I will be requesting that it be moved to the multitrotor sub-forum. Please use the sub-forum for all future multirotor-related discussion.
thanks for your understanding as we work to make this forum more user friendly.
Cheers,
-Kyle

W9GFO

Kyle M. wrote: »

As this is multirotor-related discussion

Hmm, the original post did link to a pic of a quadcopter but the contest was about an "autonomous drone", which could have easily been a single rotor helicopter or fixed wing.

If I were to make a post about my Basic Stamp controlled fixed wing UAV, should it go in the multirotor forum as well? It is certainly related. Not everyone is so enamored with quadcopters, will they browse a forum named "multirotor" when they are more interested in other types of UAVs?

We should not forget that UAVs have been around quite a while. Naming a forum for a popular configuration and ignoring what has been around a long time is kind of like calling any old microcontroller an Arduino. I would suggest renaming the multirotor forum to something that encompasses all forms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Some ideas; Multirotor/UAV, Flying Robots, Airborne Robotics, ELEV-8 and other UAVs, Multirotors and other UAVs... you get the idea. Also, I think it would be better if it were it's own forum rather than a sub forum of robotics. Easier to find that way and more likely to be posted in.