World's First Lego Autopilot

zlite writes "What's the best way to create a UAV for less than $1,000? Use the new Hitechnic gyro sensor for Mindstorms NXT to create a Lego autopilot! This one can turn a R/C plane into a drone, keeping the aircraft level and returning it to the launch area. Add a Bluetooth GPS module and a microcam and you've got a fully autonomous surveillance platform."

Awesome

But I'll reserve judgement until it actually flies :)

Embed a Wiimote

Get a bluetooth PDA as the controller and bobs your uncle.

I was considering similar for my helicopter.

Best job in the world....

I used to think that unit testing missle systems would be the best job in the world. Now that I'm older I realize the best job in the world was the one I had when I was a kid where I had a big bucket of Lego bricks and the only limit was my imagination.

Re:Best job in the world....

Nothing is stopping you playing with Lego now, and the AFOL community (Adult Fans Of Lego) is one of the friendliest communities to be a part of. Visit Lugnet [lugnet.com] to see what's going on, upload your models to Brickshelf [brickshelf.com] to share what you do with everyone else, check if there are any Lego shows in your area, and maybe join a local user group. Have fun.

HOMSEC!

The department of Homeland Security has been notified. Ownership of Lego's have officially been declared a crime to be prosecuted by the Patriot Act. This support of terrorist activities will not go unchallenged! Only the Feds are allowed to spy on the populace, the populace is not allowed to own these types of things.

In all seriousness now, how long do you think it will be before someone gets arrested for doing something like this. I just listened to the story about crazyskimask.com and getting arrested for just wearing a skimask and taking pictures. Welcome to our new feardom :(

Autopilot

Add a Bluetooth GPS module and a microcam and you've got a fully autonomous surveillance platform.

I think you misspelled "cruise missile."

LEGO skynet?

Dude, if the robots that overthrow humanity are made of LEGOs, my head is going to explode trying to decide how I feel about the situation.

MY LEGO assistant is only smart enough to try and grab rings and feed them into a spotwelder, but even that could be dangerous if the controller (my computer) turns to EEEVILE, as in fru-its of the deviiiiil.

huh?

"Any ideas on how to solve the altitude problem in a Lego-friendly way?"

I was impressed up until this point - the guy already has GPS onboard, which includes altitude parameters, and he doesn't know about it...?

VaporWarez

Hmmm, HiTechnic says gyro "will be available soon" and the Lego blog says "I haven't received the gyro sensor yet, so I've got a light sensor standing in for it in the picture, but the mechanicals are pretty much in place.". Vaporware. Cool idea, but nothing more than a cool idea at this point.

What will be interesting in all this is the complete stupidity that will follow. I work for an embedded systems contract design house. We tried to get some samples of the single chip gyros, what a royal pain! It seems somebody out there is terrified that "tear-ists" will buy the chips and build evil cruise missiles and such. Why did we try to get the parts? Because one of the guys needed to replace one in a $100 RC helicopter. So for now you can buy the helo, buy the Lego add-on, but forget about getting the gyros themselves unless you can prove you're not sellin' them to the KLF or whatever liberation front dujour. How long before some congressional idiot ("but I repeat myself" - Mark Twain) sees this and decides us lowly regular folks have no use for these devices at all?

For god's sake, Slashdot....

Post some new news!

Model helicopters and model thermal soarers both have used this technology for the past 20 years. In the case of thermal soarers, which may launch at over 1k ft, an Out-of Sight (OOS) control system is essential.

What about that Canadian floating gliders to the edge of space on balloons and then having them find their way back home? http://members.shaw.ca/sonde/ [members.shaw.ca]

What about that New Zealander making a home built cruise missile? http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/ [interestingprojects.com]

When I want to read history, I'll go to a history of technology board!

Don't do this in Boston

add a Bluetooth GPS module and a microcam

I'd like to see a microcam video of a flight. Fly it over something interesting. If you do it in Boston, over City Hall perhaps, you'll be able to bring the entire city to it's knees, and the Mayor will be demanding $$$ from Lego. A state police helicopter, sharp shooters, the bomb squad...it'll all be on the 6 o'clock news...

1000 $ ?

This sounds pretty expensive to me. The mindstorm is overkill tho, you could simply use a basic PIC controller and a few servos. And I believe one can buy a basic plane for 100 or 200$...

Yaw, Pitch and Roll

I think using the lego gyro is a fantastic idea. Imagination is great. I must admit though that I am a bit confused, maybe it's me, maybe it's the way TFA was written, and I pray it's just a typo otherwise, someone is going to have a nice repair bill as an RC aircraft takes a nosedive through someone's roof.

This autopilot only controls the rudder, keeping the plane flying level when engaged and returning to the launch area.

According to WIKI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_controls [wikipedia.org] the rudder controls yaw, not pitch or roll. So I am not sure how the rudder keeps the plane flying level. Can anyone help?

Re:Yaw, Pitch and Roll

Many high-wing R/C planes use the rudder for roll. They're inherently stable, and rudder turns tend to bank because the weight is under the wing.

The product page says something else.

From what I can see on the Hitechnic page, it isn't a real gyroscope but just a "tilt sensor", which would limit it's capability.
I'd like to see something working.

No Fate..

No fate but what we make from lego.

This is a great toy

I would love to be able to do something like this. Add a wireless color camera, and you got yourself a cheap video surveillance UAV. However, this project is not yet complete and not a working model. Perhaps something like this would be better on http://hackaday.com/ [hackaday.com] rather than /.

Article is misleading

He won't be able to do much with a single-axis gyro. Also I didn't see any mention of an accelerometer, or an altitude sensor. He would be much better off (and save some money) by learning how to solder and use real components instead of the overpriced lego stuff. For example, my current RC autopilot setup uses 2x IDG300 dual-axis gyro IC's and an ADXL330 3-axis accelerometer. Also a SiRF III 20-channel GPS module, a pressure sensor for altitude, and a set of Nordic 2.4 GHz wireless tranceivers. Right now I have everything tied into an ARM7 but a Nano or Pico-ITX might be in my future.

5-axis IMU ($109.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=741 [sparkfun.com]
2-axis gyro (use with above to make a 6-axis (double up on one axis) ($69.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=698 [sparkfun.com]
Altimeter: ($49.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=8161 [sparkfun.com]
GPS receiver, SiRF-III ($55.95): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=465 [sparkfun.com]
And finally, 2.4 GHz 1Mbit transciever to control it ($24.95 each): http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php? products_id=152 [sparkfun.com]

Add a GWS slowstick RC airplane ($35) and miscellaneous electronic pieces for a grand total of $370 or so. Not to troll, but I really don't see why people invest so much in doing things in legos when there's so much real hardware out there to play with.

Look out!!!

Spies!!! with tiny yellow heads!!!

Bah!

In my day, we crashed our R/C airplanes! And we were grateful!

-jcr

Yeah, but is it a PILOTLESS DRONE?!?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail? blogid=5&entry_id=12853 [sfgate.com]

hehe

Paparazzi

I'd rather buy a gumstix board [gumstix.com] and run Paparazzi [recherche.enac.fr]. The project looks really cool, and open source hardware schematics and software is available.

No story here.. Move along please..

Come on slashdot, this isn't a story. He hasn't built a helicopter, he hasn't thought about how he is going to carry such a heavy payload, he hasn't got a gyro, he hasn't put more than superficial thought into how to build an autopilot. How is this the "World's first Lego autopilot"??

Auto-pilot?

Meh. I'll be excited when they have self building lego. Then it'll be a short step to self-constructing nanobots... And then the world! But until then, very cool self building legos..

Look Here For Modellers Already Doing This !

    I have been Flying R/C airplanes and Heli's for over a decade and we have been using technology like this before I was around as others have posted but here is a link to a Ready To Fly (RTF) Trainer plane with AutoPilot Stabilizes in all three axis. Color video transmitters are readily available for cheap, even real time telemetry and GPS modules, depending on how much you want to spend you increase the quality and reduce the physical size and stealth capability (eg. electric vs. combution powered).

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=L XEXK2**&P=ML [towerhobbies.com]
RTF Flight stabilise system (autopilot) >$350

http://www.planetalk.com/videoacc.html [planetalk.com]
Video Systems

http://www.jcsportfliers.org/ [jcsportfliers.org]
NJ based model club w/ links and photos of hobby

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/tt.asp?forumid=81 [rcuniverse.com]
Hobby - Aerial video forum w/ video links

http://www.rcgroups.com/uav-unmanned-aerial-vehicl es-238/ [rcgroups.com]
Link to Hobby related "modeler-built" UAV forum