Hardware

Inside a Ducted Fan UAV

Posted 1 Jun 2007 at 15:35 UTC by Rog-a-matic Share This

Trek Areospace's OVIWUN UAV uses twin counter-rotating ducted fans built of lightweight materials, dual 450-watt electric motors, a high-efficiency drive train, 14 volt rechargeable battery power system, 3-axis gyro, a low-power PC104-based processor, and open-source flight control software. The vehicle is about 14" tall, weighs a tad over 6 pounds, and is capable of 40+ mph with a maximum hover ceiling of more than 3 miles. Typical battery life is about 20 minutes. It's amazing that $15k can now buy a UAV that would have costs millions only a decade ago.


Automating Google Streets?, posted 1 Jun 2007 at 15:40 UTC by Rog-a-matic » (Master)

With the recent introduction of Google Street view, I can't help but think these UAVs could be used to automate the task of scanning the burbs and transmitting the image data in real time over a municipal network.

Reminds me of the technology depicted in Star Wars - Attack of the Clones.

Of course, not without its dangers.

Robot of the Day

QuickSilver

Built by
Scott Evans

Recent blogs

12 Feb 2012 AI4U (Observer)
10 Feb 2012 mwaibel (Master)
6 Feb 2012 Flanneltron (Journeyer)
6 Feb 2012 Mubot (Master)
29 Jan 2012 robotsrawsome (Observer)
9 Jan 2012 The Swirling Brain (Master)
9 Jan 2012 steve (Master)
4 Jan 2012 evilrobots (Observer)
21 Dec 2011 spirit (Journeyer)
22 Nov 2011 robotvibes (Master)
16 Nov 2011 JLaplace (Observer)
8 Nov 2011 wesley.zilva (Observer)
31 Oct 2011 jmhenry (Journeyer)
16 Oct 2011 milk3dfx (Observer)
14 Oct 2011 Christophe Menant (Master)
20 Sep 2011 jcoat (Observer)
17 Sep 2011 githinkgp (Observer)
8 Aug 2011 Pi Robot (Master)

Newest Robots

7 Aug 2009 Titan EOD
13 May 2009 Spacechair
6 Feb 2009 K-bot
9 Jan 2009 3 in 1 Bot
15 Dec 2008 UMEEBOT
10 Nov 2008 Robot
10 Nov 2008 SAMM
24 Oct 2008 Romulus
30 Sep 2008 CD-Bot
26 Sep 2008 Little Johnny

User Cert Key

Observer
Apprentice
Journeyer
Master
X
Share this page