I was recently sent a link about the new Parrot AR.Drone remote control quad-rotor helicopter. It is navigated using the tilt sensors of the iphone which is cool in itself. But it also has a live video feed from one of two cameras back to the iphone so you can see its poing of view. It comes with an optional shroud for the rotors so you can bump into things if your flying in tight spaces. Check out their video:
As if all this isn’t enough, the very best thing about it is that they are planning to release a software developer’s kit for it! Oh the science we could do. Now I wonder what payload it might be able to carry.
We'd need a small onboard auxiliary power supply, data logger, a GPS, and maybe a tilt sensor. Ocean Server has a small enough attitude sensor with onboard magnetic compass. Yes, there’s lots of cool stuff we could do with one of these.