We’ve seen drones in use in the military and we’ve even seen them deliver pizzas, but now, the possibilities are endless as a new DIY kit will let anyone make UAVs.
“UAV incoming”, says the unseen voice of a soldier in the TV during an online multiplayer battle of Call of Duty. Enemy soldiers are lit up on the map and you thank the video game coding gods for such an in-game feature. You switch on the news. Reports blare from the screen about the ‘big UAV debate’ and whether or not they should become a surveillance staple or if they’re too detached from humans to be safe. And then, you visit walyou.com, where we post about a Domino’s UAV that fly pizza through the air right to your doorstep. But just what is a UAV and what can it do? A UAV is an unmanned aerial vehicle and, with a new piece of DIY kit, they can do just about anything.
For future reference in this article, a UAV and a drone are one and the same, there’s little disparity between the two, but that won’t matter once you find out just what you can do with them. All thanks to a silver briefcase, called the DIY : Drone It Yourself Kit, from Dutch designer, Jasper van Loenen, you can make a drone yourself. Inside the briefcase are a selection of parts, made via 3D printing, that allow you to assemble a chassis forming the drone itself. Just about anything can be put into the centre of the UAV once you’ve put it together, meaning that if you want to recreate the great Domino’s delivery experiment, then you can.
The minimal kit clamps together propellers and comes complete with an OpenPilot CC3D flightcontroller, plus a receiver and metal circuits which are used to control motor speed. All you have to do is source some nuts and bolts and the parts to power it, such as motors, batteries and propellers (see Loenen’s recommended shopping list here).
The kit is also Bluetooth enabled, meaning that you could probably even find a way to fly your drone via your phone. So when you make your flying bicycle wheel, cake or other aerial wonder, be sure to think of new and inventive ways to pilot it.
Watch a video of the DIY (Drone It Yourself) kit in action below.
http://vimeo.com/jasperl/diy
Source: WiredUK
Read more on walyou, Germany’s National Railway Company Tests Anti-Graffiti Drones, OppiKoppi Drones Deliver Beer From the Sky in South Africa
