So here’s a TED Talk that inspired me to get interested in the quadcopter scene.
I really recommend you watch the whole talk. It’s only fifteen minutes, and the things they show… wow! Essentially they have developed a way to make quads very flexible in the way they move. They can balance a pole, bounce back balls, or even behave like viscous fluid, allowing you to push them around for easy repositioning.
While there goes a lot more into those things that just getting a quad and programming cool stuff onto it, my interest was piqued. What would I be able to do? How far would I get? Sadly, to get anywhere at all I’d need something “hack-friendly”. Ideally I’d build one from scratch, but that just isn’t my field of expertise. Besides, I don’t have the funds for the kind of setup used in the presentation, with the many cameras they’re using.
An accelerometer-based control system wouldn’t be too hard, I think. Maybe?
~ Fang