Thursday, March 26, 2015

MOARbots update

MOARbots is now on github: https://github.com/MOARbots/

Here's a video of one of the waypoint navigation routines that have come out of the UW independent study.



What's next? Yet another revision to the parts list. The new MOARbots will be based around the Teensy and the ESP8266. Using the ESP8266 by itself (with something like this board) is still on the table but will have to wait a bit. Using the Teensy has the advantage of being able to make them into Teensyduinos. The Arduino programming language/environment is easy to use compared to writing in C. And, if I'm willing to wait a bit, the hobbyist community will develop the tools I need for the ESP8266. Take a look at this project, for example: https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/

One of the most important things that has happened to MOARbots recently is the expansion of the team of volunteers working on it. Thanks to the Sector 67 community and the University of Wisconsin community, MOARbots is now more than just my own personal project.

Lastly, here's a teaser of one more cool direction MOARbots might take:

This $50 quadcopter...
http://www.amazon.com/Hero-RC-Matrix-Quadcopter-Battery/dp/9269802574

...plus this $40 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, and on-board processor...
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11028

...plus this github project to help free that device from the small-mindedness of the company that made it and then decided to make their code closed-source...
https://github.com/jrowberg/i2cdevlib/tree/master/Arduino/MPU6050

...plus April Tags and MOARbots.

A swarm of Wi-Fi connected autonomous self-stabilizing quadcopter at under $150 per quadcopter? I'm hoping it's possible, anyway!

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