Keeping an eye on remaining battery charge. (credit: Luke Maximo Bell, YouTube) Although not a typical focus of people who fly quadcopter drones for a hobby or living, endurance flying has a certain appeal to it for the challenge it offers. Thus, as part of his efforts to collect all the world records pertaining to […]
The fun part about world records is that anyone can take a swing at breaking them, which is what [Luke Maximo Bell] has been doing with the drone speed record for the past years, along with other teams in a friendly competition. After having some Aussie blokes previously smash the record with a blistering 626 […]
While most of the world’s venture capital is off chasing anything with “AI” in the name in what many think looks increasingly like an inflated spherical film of soap molecules, in aviation all the hot money is betting on eVTOL: electric vertical take off and landing. What if you want to get in on the […]
The solar-powered quadcopter from below. (Credit: Luke Maximo Bell) One of the most frustrating parts about flying a quadcopter is having to regularly swap battery packs, as this massively limits what you can do with said quadcopter, never mind its effective range. Obviously, having the sun power said quadcopter during a nice sunny day would […]
LED billboards are cyberpunk-dystopian enough for most, but it can get worse. For example, this project by [Concept Crafted Creations] that takes the whole concept and takes it airborn (literally) in the form of a flying POV sphere called “Zippy”. We love persistence-of-vision (POV) displays, and have featured plenty before, from the very complicated to the […]
First person view (FPV) quadcopter drones have become increasingly more capable over the years, as well as much smaller. The popular 65 mm format, as measured from hub to hub, is often considered to be about the smallest you can make an FPV drone without making serious compromises. Which is exactly why [Hoarder Sam] decided […]
With the ability to independently adjust the thrust of each of their four motors, quadcopters are exceptionally agile compared to more traditional aircraft. But in an effort to create an even more maneuverable drone platform, a group of South Korean researchers have studied adding flying squirrel tech to quadcopters. Combined with machine learning, this is […]
Quadcopters are flying machines. Traditionally, that would mean you’d optimize the design for lightweight and minimum drag, and you’d do everything in a neat and tidy fashion. The thing is, brushless motors and lithium batteries are so power-dense that you really needn’t try so hard. A great example of that is this barebones quadcopter build […]
Sometimes you instantly know who’s behind a project from the subject matter alone. So when we saw this “aerial dog poop removal system” show up in the tips line, we knew it had to be the work of [Caleb Olson]. If you’re unfamiliar with [Caleb]’s oeuvre, let us refresh your memory. [Caleb] has been on […]
When it comes to robotic navigation, the usual approach is to go as technically advanced and “smart” as possible. Yet the most successful lifeforms that we know of follow a completely different approach. With limited senses and cognitive abilities, the success of invertebrates like ants and honeybees lie in cooperation in large numbers. A join […]