The powered parachute is coming along:

And the Quad Copter is in progress– really just doing software now, but on hold while I finish up the powered parachute (which I need first):

I’m currently building two UAVs — one is a quadrocopter (named Dorothy 6) the other is a powered parachute (so far referred to as the “Flying Machine”).

Dorothy 6 is a helicopter with 4 electric powered rotors– sensors on board keep it level. It’s radio controlled, using custom electronics and Xbee Radios. D6 uses the 2.4GHz Xbee-Pro radios for a maximum range of about 1 mile. As the battery power only lasts for 15-20 minutes, 1 mile range is plenty. The helicopter format is ideal for getting in close to objects, and shooting panoramas as the camera platform can remain stationary locked onto GPS coordinates. If there’s a loss of power, D6 will trigger a parachute to land relatively gently. You can see some videos of the parachute tests on Vimeo, here and here. (The second one is only available to my backers on Kickstarter)

The Flying Machine takes its design from ultralight aircraft. There’s a parachute-like canopy over the base, which has a single large electric motor pushing everything forward. Because of the large wing area, it’s a very slow, but very efficient craft. Flight times are expected to be 60-90 minutes. However, it’s always flying forwards. This makes it much better suited to large area surveys. The initial camera configuration will have the camera just pointed down for orthographic shots. Later additions will add a pan/tilt rig to it, but at 10-15mph, it’s still going to be suited to taking long panoramas of things. Luckily, most riverside industrial sites are long and skinny. The radios for these are the 900MHz Xbee series, with a 6 mile range. Because it’s already hanging from a parachute– incase of a power failure, it will glide to a landing, rather than dropping from the sky.

Both UAVs will be capable of taking film or digital cameras, currently either a Canon A590IS running CHDK or a Nikon N70 with a 28mm prime lens, shooting generally onto ISO100 35mm Fuji Reala. I have plans to upgrade equipment, likely digitally to a micro-4/3rds camera, and to a motor drive medium format film camera– probably the Pentax 645 system. (You can help facilitate that by supporting the project on Kickstarter, of course).

Build for these is just beginning, so expect to see posts with photos in coming weeks.