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Flying Archive: Flying

April 15, 2009

Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition

Sixteen teams gathered today to determine whose autonomously-navigating vehicle would be the fastest around the Sparkfun headquarters in Boulder, CO.

Four-wheeled rovers (typically built on RC car platforms) dominated the entries, but there were three flying UAVs, and one spheroid (Nathan, with "labrat", pictured at right). One team had been designed a tethered model rocket to fly the course, but, unfortunately, didn't compete.

The race was structured as 3 heats. Each vehicle got 5 minutes to attempt a run; best time overall won the competition.

The first heat got off to a rough start. Only about half of the robots made it to the first corner of the building, and only the Mookie Mobile Death Pod 3000 made it around the whole course.

A slight wind from the West seemed to be affecting the DIY Drones's ability to precisely line up with the course route. It completed many test runs very well, but its first two official runs were disqualified for slightly cutting the corner of the course. The plane also found itself in multiple trees. The Boulder Fire Department was kind enough to help out with one, and other was low enough to get by hand.

The ground-based vehicles had other obstacles to deal with, including curbs, and people who foolishly think that curbs are a safe place to stand.

After nearly hitting its creator, Ohcraptheresalake! (who later went on to discover the creek) goes after innocent bystanders:
Entrants used the time between heats to tweak their robots according to the lessons learned from the previous run. Death Pod 3000, the only robot to complete the course in the first heat, solidified its lead in the second by lowering its time to 1:28.

In the end, though, the DIY Drones team scored a stunning success with their final try, with Chris Anderson's UAV completing the course in 36 seconds to win the tile!

The competition is over! Diy drones is 1st, with deathpod3000 taking the Engineers Choice award. Thanks for following!!! See you next year!

Jordi launches the DIY Drones UAV:
This robot used sparklers to avoid collisions with pedestrians:
All set on the starting line:

More:

Sparkfun's coverage
Sparkfun's twitter feed, with reports and pictures.
Competition page
Chris Anderson's DIY Drones Blog

March 28, 2009

Spanish students beat NASA

A group of student makers took kite arial photography to a new level: weather balloon photography. They certainly are undercutting NASA's budget, spending very little on their project, and fabricating most of the structure and electronics themselves.

Check out Gareth's previous entry on the project.

Mail Online has a decent writeup. Nice of them to copyright the photos for the students, isn't it?

Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vil, Martm Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort were able to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.

Under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18 to 19, followed the progress of their balloon using hi-tech sensors communicating with Google Earth.

'Meteotek was our experiment to see if we could accurately measure the Earth's atmospheric conditions at 30,000 metres, take pictures to prove the experiment and then recover the instruments attached to the balloon after its deflation,' said team leader Paretas, 18.

'We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs. To send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible.'

Their use of Google Earth was integrated into the project and provides some nice mashups of their data.

It's great to see the progress of their build in photos and text on their blog. Their site also provides a choice to use Google translate, which helps people from other cultures access their work.

Thanks Tom!

March 24, 2009

Lost Knowledge: Airships

The weekly Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those slightly off to the side). Each Tuesday, we look at retro-tech, "lost" technology, and the make-do, improvised "street tech" of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. "Lost Knowledge" is also the theme of the current issue of MAKE, Volume 17 (on newsstands now)

With a crew of drunken pilots, We're the only Airship Pirates!
We're full of hot air and we're starting to rise
We're the Terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves now.
Airship Pirate, Abney Park

[Abney Park's H.M.S. Ophelia darkens the skies over Stockholm]

Zeppelins. Airships. Dirigibles. These words have fired my imagination since I was a child and put together my first Zeppelin scale model. And as a headbanging teen, my devotion to a Led Zeppelin meant that I was always surrounded by icons of these floating horizontal skyscrapers. Every decade or so, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in airships, with new material availability, an energy crisis, or some other motivating factor. Today is no different. So here's a sampling of some of the airships of the past, a few in the skies of the present, and some fantasies for the near-future.

So far, efforts to create a serious and sustained airship industry have fallen far short. It seems unlikely that airships will ever become common transportation, but it'd be nice to see them find some sustainable niche.

Wikipedia has a lot of great information and links related to airships. Here's an excerpt from the main Airship page:

"The Golden Age"
The "Golden Age of Airships" began in July 1900 with the launch of the Luftschiff Zeppelin LZ1. This led to the most successful airships of all time: the Zeppelins. These were named after Count von Zeppelin who began experimenting with rigid airship designs in the 1890s leading to the badly flawed LZ1 (1900) and the more successful LZ2 (1906). At the beginning of World War I the Zeppelin airships had a framework composed of triangular lattice girders, covered with fabric and containing separate gas cells. Multi-plane, later cruciform, tail fins were used for control and stability, and two engine/crew cars hung beneath the hull driving propellers attached to the sides of the frame by means of long drive shafts. Additionally there was a passenger compartment (later a bomb bay) located halfway between the two cars. Other airship builders were also active before the war: German firm Schütte-Lanz built the SL series from 1911; another German firm Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft built the Parseval-Luftschiff (PL) series from 1909, and Italian Enrico Forlanini's firm had built and flown the first two Forlanini airships.

Construction of the USS Shenandoah in Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1923

Navy blimps in hanger at Moffett Field, circa 1943

Gondola of U.S. Navy blimp J-4. Elevator operator sat on the left. Rudderman sat on the right.

QUEST on KQED Here KQED's Quest video documentary, Zeppelins Resurrected, about the crash of the USS Macon in the 30s and the return of airships to California:

The Hindenburg wasn't the only air ship to end in a catastrophic crash. In 1935, the USS Macon went down in 1000 feet of water off the coast of Monterey, California. Now, as scientists study the recently-discovered wreckage, dirigibles are returning to the Bay Area and are poised to rule the skies once again. But these aren't the same dirigibles - these are new and improved.

Read the Full Story...

More:

From MAKE magazine:

Check out MAKE, Volume 17: The Lost Knowledge issue!

Buy your copy in the Maker Shed
Subscribe to MAKE
Access the Digital Edition (if you're already a subscriber)

In Volume 17, MAKE goes really old school with the Lost Knowledge issue, featuring projects and articles covering the steampunk scene -- makers creating their own alternative Victorian world through modified computers, phones, cars, costumes, and other fantastic creations. Projects include an elegant Wimshurst Influence Machine (an electrostatic generator built entirely from Home Depot parts), a Florence Siphon coffee brewer, and a teacup-powered Stirling engine. This special section also covers watchmaking, letterpress printing, the early multimedia art of William Blake, and other wondrous and lost (or fading) pre-20th-century technologies.

Read full story

March 13, 2009

Meteotek high-altitude balloon project

Meteotek is a Spanish high school project to build a meteorological sounding balloon equipped with temperature and pressure sensors, GPS, radio, and a still camera. They had a successful launched on February 28, 2009. Their Flickr pages are in (Catalan) Spanish, but the photos speak for themselves. It's just endlessly amazing to me that the technology now exists for amateurs, high school kids even, to be able to reach into space. Check out that back seat space command center!

Meteotek 08

March 12, 2009

ArduPilot 2.0 Beta released

Chris Anderson, of DIY Drones, sends us word that ArduPilot 2.0 Beta has been released. It has built-in stabilization, making it a full-functional autopilot -- no third-party stabilization unit required. It uses the same $25 ArduPilot hardware, so all existing owners should be able to upgrade without issue. This is pretty amazing -- the functionality of a >$1,000 autopilot for less than $100! Go DIY Drones!

ArduPilot 2.0 Beta Code Released!

More:

March 10, 2009

How-To Tuesday: Compressed air rocket

Photograph by Gabriela Hasbun

Read full story

March 6, 2009

Cheap, simple Delta Wing flyer

Awesome R/C Delta Wing flyer, dubbed The Towel, you can make in a few hours out of Dow insulation blue board, an R/C rig, and model plane parts. They've even put together a parts bundle of all the mechanics and radio for under $100.

The Towel V1.0

Giant RC plane runs on a Weed Wacker motor

Instructables member nickademuss shows us how to make an RC plane with an 8 foot wingspan out of corrugated plastic and a 25cc Weed Wacker engine.

I love Radio controlled airplanes and have built several kinds from balsa to this large scale plastic one. This one is made from $25.00 worth of plastic I bought locally at a sign company. The plastic is Coroplast or corrugated plastic, its cheap and builds fast. You could also use old election signs, you just need to paint them or make a patchwork airplane. Total cost with radio and motor was around 350 bucks.

Anyone have any post-election yard signs lying about?

8 Ft Wingspan Coroplast RC Piper Cub flown by 25cc Weed Wacker Motor

February 28, 2009

Kite Buggy Skis

In December, I finally jettisoned the skis I got when I was a nanny/construction worker for the year after college. Michael needed them to turn into a Kite Buggy. Right now it is operating successfully as a sled/buggy, but the kite is already functioning.

Finally able to get your skis to work! Next iteration will have shorter skis and slight camber to help cornering/ lateral load of kite.
Waiting for the wind. In the mean time, gravity is helping out.

When the wind kicks up, there will be some more fun in the snow!

What do you do to beat the winter doldrums? Add your celebrations in the comments and don't forget to include your photos and video in the MAKE Flickr pool.

Fly Plane

Make Pt1794
Finished
Yikes, someone made a real "Fly Plane". Not every cute illustration should end up "real" :( - Spatula writes -

After coming across this lovely image depicting the construction of a fly powered matchstick airplane, I had to try it for myself. Here are the flies, trapped within their impenetrable polyethylene terephthalate dungeon of doom. As difficult as it may be, avoid pouring the hydrochloric acid in with them. They find it very unpleasant, and may refuse to fly for you. Wait until after you get bored with the plane before you decide to bathe them.

February 26, 2009

Head-up display unit for FPV hobby flying

The whole FPV (First Person View) R/C flying hobby fascinates me. I'd love to try it at some point. This system, being developed by a French maker, is a board that plugs into the video camera system used in a FPV rig to provide a heads-up display with useful flight, navigation, and power information. Looks like it's still in the prototyping phase and there's no word about selling it, kits, open sourcing, etc.

Check out some of the other cool projects on his site, like this analog instrument panel to go in the cockpit of an FPV plane so you can see the instruments from the camera POV as if you were in the cockpit.

R1OSD Augmented Reality Display

February 25, 2009

Rockets from office supplies!

Here's a great how-to on building a "liquid fueled" rocket using little more than a fat Sharpie marker, a can of compressed air, and a few more supplies found down on the Cube Farm. The resulting rocket can fly up to 75 feet!

But hey there, John Glenn of the IT Department, BE CAREFUL! This is actually a project you don't want to take lightly. Launch it outdoors, wear safety goggles, don't "burn" yourself on the compressed air (it's *very* cold). Generally, be smart, and use common sense whenever dealing with any type of projectile and components under pressure.

What you need:
A Sharpie
Canned Air
Electrical Tape (Substitute Packing Tape)
Ball Point Pen
Rubber Band
Bottle Cap
Leatherman

The innards are removed from the Sharpie and a port for the canned air tube is fashioned from a ball point pen tube and secured to the thrust end of the rocket.

The fins are made from electrical tape.

Plug the compressed air into the port on the business end the rocket, fill will gas from the can, and... BLAST OFF!

TIP: On the Comments to this Instructable, a maker suggests cutting off the bell-shaped end of another Sharpie and adding it to the thrust end of your rocket to form a De Laval nozzle for better thrust performance.

See the full Instructable for more details.

January 15, 2009

Hydrogen steam rocket

Steampunk maker Professor Fzz rebuilt a hydrogen/oxygen rocket kit into a thing of Victorian era beauty. He used a 12V 3.3Ah lead-acid battery to generate the hydrogen, and built a control system to monitor battery charge and fire the rocket. He also built his own spark igniter from a voltage generator, and constructed a lovely copper-pipe lanuchpad. Gorgeous work.

January 12, 2009

Migratory birds

Goldenrod Foundation has created this nifty animated map to show how migratory birds use Plymouth Beach in Massachusetts.

Check out their interactive map showing the migratory path of some of the birds that pass through Plymouth. It is fairly amazing to see that the birds seem to fly to specific regions and towns in far flung locations. The birds then return to Plymouth after incredibly challenging flights, and may recharge before heading on to their destination, or may stay for their breeding cycle. Their resources page has lots of information and check out their Projects and grants pages as well.

How can you gather data from live wild animals who weigh less than a pound and travel tens of thousands of miles? How can that data be visualized so other people can understand? Does your community share birds with other parts of the world? What else do you share with those parts of the world? Have you got techniques for creating stunning wildlife photography? Share your ideas in the comments, and contribute your photos and video to the Make Flickr pool.

January 11, 2009

WowWee's latest flier

The latest addition to WowWee's FlyTech line is the Lightstar, a simple, inexpensive flying blade (retailing for $20). They come in three different colors/infrared channels, so you can fly and remote-control three fliers at the same time.

WowWee Lightstar

January 9, 2009

Rocket cars

Designing CO2 cars is a project for many middle school technology and science classes. The projects gives an opportunity for students to get hands on experience with the Design Process, working with tools and materials, and design and build for aerodynamics and manufacture a vehicle that can go very fast if even for a short bit of time.

To come up with the best design, you will need to gather information about the car, how it will move through the air, and how it will overcome friction and gravity. You will need to manufacture the car, usually made of wood, though some students use other materials with tools like a drill press, band saw and sander. During any project, you will need to manage your time carefully, and make sure that the project is done on schedule so that it can be delivered on time. Projects like this often have technical specifications, and this is something to pay attention to.

Make LOTS of quick sketches, called Thumbnail Sketches of possible car designs.
Base your car design on the best of your thumbnail sketches, keeping into account the aerodynamics of the design, and the car's ability to overcome gravitational force and inertia.

Have you done the CO2 car project? Have you done this project as a student? Have you done this project as a teacher? What concepts does this project help teach? What could be done to make it really incredible? How can people doing the project use it to raise their awareness of the systems in their lives? Have you got great documentation of your work on this or other projects? How can the CO2 car project awaken automotive designers, pilots, aerodynamic and automotive designers? Just how fast do these cars go? What do you do with your CO2 car after race day has ended? If you were going to suggest ideas and information that might be useful to students or teachers designing and building rocket cars, what would you tell them? Add your comments to the discussion, and include your photos and videos to the Make Flickr pool.

January 1, 2009

Robotic ornithopter in-flight

Awesome slow-mo footage of a butterfly ornithopter from the Shimoyama-Matsumoto Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan. [via BotJunkie and Smart Machines]

Artificial butterfly wing on a butterfly-type ornithopter

December 24, 2008

Rocket powered sled

Ky Michaelson, better known as The Rocketman, is one of the world's leading rocket powered vehicle builders. He was featured in MAKE, Volume 05, and says he got his start using a Gilbert chemistry set at the age of 12. This JATO rocket powered sled is meant to take the strain out of the uphill journey, but I have to wonder what it's like to fire it off during a downhill run.

Super sled ride

December 21, 2008

Stop action Millenium Falcon build

Paul Romein and Greg Radzimowsky have created an incredible stop action animation of their building of the Millenium Falcon in Lego. I suppose that if you go through the effort of making your own Millenium Falcon, you have to take it for a test drive, right?

Have you built your own starship? Have you flown one lately? How is your technique for stop motion animation? Contribute to the discussion in the comments, and add your photos and video to the Make Flickr pool.

December 17, 2008

Happy Flight of the Wright brothers day

Wrightplane
Wright-Brothers-Airplane-001-1
On this day in 1903 @ Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made some of the first sustained flights. The first flight was a approx. 120 feet lasting about 12 seconds. As you travel this holiday season this about how far we've come in just 100 years! It might not seem that way if there are delays though!