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Inhabitat's Week in Green: frozen energy, spray-on solar and the hydrogen peroxide helicopter
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. It was a big week for green transportation as San Francisco broke ground on its massive green-roofed Transbay Transit Center and unveiled plans to install 5,000 EV charging stations throughout the Bay Area. We were also wowed by several fun new forms of alternative transportation - a single-person helicopter that emits nothing but water vapor and a human-powered car that can go 30 MPH while driving uphill! It was also an exciting week for energy storage tech as New York prepared to power up the world's first grid-scale flywheel energy plant and researchers cracked the code on a new cryogenic energy storage system. We also showcased a plan for a ribbon-like solar field that unfurls over the desert and saw researchers unveil a transparent solar spray that can transform practically any surface into a sun-capturing source of energy. In other news, solar tech energized the arena of interior lighting as we showcased an adorable solar-powered table lamp and were dazzled by this set of folding OLED origami lights. Finally, a team of scientists blew our minds with this light-bending invisibility cloak made from gold-coated silk.
Apache: Air Assault launches on Xbox 360, PS3 this fall
Activision has declared war on the calm, blue and oh-so-smug skies with the announcement of Apache: Air Assault, a game where you don't fly a cool airplane because you're too busy piloting a freakin' sweet helichopter. Russian developer Gaijin Entertainment (IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey) promises several variations of Apache birds, each outfitted with sick military weaponry, "highly-detailed damage modeling" and the ability to destroy tanks who are too stupid to fly into the air and fight back. Due this fall on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Apache: Air Assault will offer an "Arcade" mode for those who want to blow things up right away, as well as a "Realistic" mode for players who to blow things up the right way. You can also expect competitive online multiplayer and a local co-op mode that has two people sitting in the same helichopter, going let's go left no let's go right oh it doesn't matter because we can fire like sixteen missiles into that guy's face this is awesome hahaha. %Gallery-97579%
Autonomous quadrocopter flies through windows, straight into our hearts (video)
We don't know whether we should be terrified or overjoyed. We've just come across a video demo from the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab that shows an autonomous quadrotor helicopter performing "precise aggressive maneuvers." And trust us when we say, nothing in the foregoing sentence is an overstatement -- the thing moves with the speed and grace of an angry bee, while accompanied by the perfectly menacing whine of its little engine. See this work of scientific art in motion after the break. [Thanks, William]
Parrot AR.Drone to get official launch, price, street date at E3 2010 (update: Android client video!)
If you've been chomping at the bit to get your hands on the AR.Drone iPhone controlled, augmented reality-sporting, WiFi quadricopter (and you know we have been) we've good news for you. According to a brief blip on Parrot's Facebook page, the thing will get its official US launch, complete with pricing and street date, at E3 come June 15. Sort of makes WowWee's Tinkerbell look silly in comparison, don't it? Update: As our main man Kefs has pointed out, the gang at Parrot demoed the AR.Drone Android client at Google I/O last month week. Now we're waiting on news of a BlackBerry client -- which we sure hope makes the scene at E3! See it in action after the break.
The future of US Army helicopters: pilots optional
Five years ago, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter got a digital cockpit and fly-by-wire controls. Starting in 2011, the US Army would like it to perform missions without a pilot at the helm. In a 140-page "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap" released earlier this month, the Armed Forces reveal that the UH-60, AH-64, CH-47 and OH-58D whirlybirds will all be part of a new aircraft category called Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPV) -- meaning in future, the flick of a switch will turn them into giant UAVs. If an unmanned Apache gunship makes your boots quake, you're not alone, but you won't truly have reason to fear until 2025. That's when the government estimates half of all Army aircraft will be OPV, and those bots will learn the more deadly behaviors, like swarming. Sikorsky says the unmanned UH-60M will fly later this year; read the full roadmap PDF at our more coverage link.
Toughbook plummets from helicopter, narrowly misses future Toughbook user
So, check it. You're out and about with mum and dad on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, eager to get whatever's on the grill into your own grille. You're pondering the origin of wildflowers, the middle name of America's 18th president and how humanity functioned prior to the invention of Mighty Putty. You're only ten years old, but your young eyes have lived to see a lot... so much, in fact, that you're semi-seriously considering penning your own novella. Bang. Three inches to your left lies a mildly deformed swivel-screen laptop, and all you can think about is the gush of air that's still rustling your fauxhawk. Turns out, a medical helicopter departing St. Cloud Hospital in Minnesota forgot to bring their Panasonic Toughbook onboard before heading out, and if fate were feeling just a bit more cruel, that shock-mounted hard drive may have left you out for the count. But as it stands, you've got a fairly stupendous show-and-tell to deliver in class this week, and who knows -- maybe that DIMM will work in your Nickelodeon Edition Mini 10.
Quad-copter responds to your voice, isn't coming to a toy store near you (video)
Hey, remember Taiyo's voice controlled toy helicopter from last year? This is way cooler. Like, way cooler. It's an autonomous quad-copter created by the Robust Robotics Group at MIT. It hovers and flies a bit like the AR.Drone that had us smitten at CES this past January, but this one has a lot more brains. It response to natural (though slowly delivered) language voice commands that look to be processed on an iPhone before being sent to the helo. In the video embedded below you'll see it responding to the command "Fly past room 124 then face the windows and go up." Sure enough, it does as instructed, and while we don't know how many takes that particular feat of robotic subservience took to pull off, we're suitably impressed. Mind you, this is a research project and not any product ever destined for retail, so after watching that video a few more times we'll just go back to crashing our Picco Zs into the walls -- and each other.
Dragonfly jet-powered helicopter runs on H2O2, shuns traditional tail rotors (video)
Your average whirleybird is driven by a big motor in the middle, spinning the blades one way and, as per Newton, rotating the body of the craft the other. A tail rotor counteracts the force, but a more efficient solution is to have the rotors power themselves, which is exactly how the Dragonfly DF1 works. It has tiny, hydrogen-peroxide jets on the blade tips, spinning them up without pushing the body of the helo in the other way -- though a small tail rotor is still needed to turn the craft. It's much like the tech that propelled James Bond toward his waiting DB5 in Thunderball, but unlike that jetpack this copter can fly for up to 50 minutes. It's the product of Swisscopter Americas and, while they've been playing with the DF1 for many moons now (demonstrated in a video below), the company is also working on the DF2 shown above, a rather more civilized version that seats two. The DF1 is certified for flight in the US, looks to be available for sale and, while no price is listed, they are said to be much more friendly to the environment than traditional helicopters. That'll surely add to the premium.
MIT's Flyfire paints images in the sky using micro helicopters, is apparently top-secret
Micro helicopters, the kind that fit in the palm of your hand (and sometimes spread holiday cheer) are huge fun -- and hugely frustrating. Have you ever tried to get one to hover in place next to another? Impossible! MIT thinks it can do that, not with just two but thousands of the little beggars all hovering in harmony as part of a project called Flyfire. By using LED-equipped drones the project pledges to build free-floating 3D displays, endowing them with enough smarts and positional awareness to organize themselves into an airborne canvas. It sounds deliciously exciting and challenging, yet for some reason the school has decided you aren't to know about it, pulling its concept video and website offline. We can only imagine there's a government agency involved here, possibly trying to stem the virulent spread of robo-socialism, but we invite you to leave your own conspiracy theories in comments. Update: You can take your tinfoil hats off, the site and the video are both back online! We have the goods embedded after the break.
Parrot AR.Drone hands-on: a quadricopter for the rest of us
The Parrot AR.Drone was definitely one of the highlights of our day; how can you top a quadricopter that can fight with another using augmented reality, is easy to fly, and only needs an iPhone to control it? You simply can't -- this is just pure joy and is exactly what a gadget should be: it's an electronic aircraft, has multiple cameras (two to be exact), uses WiFi for control (via an ad-hoc connection), and likely has more intelligence on board than a lunar lander. This early version can only be controlled via iPhone, or iPod touch, but Parrot's Henri Seydoux mentioned that it could be (and we're really hoping will be) controllable by BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and so on. The AR.Drone uses a pile of pretty sophisticated magic to enable it to fly -- those aforementioned cameras are just the start (one forward facing, one facing down running at 60 fps that allows stability in light wind) because you've also got two ultrasonic transmitters for vertical stability, a three-axis accelerometer, and a two-axis gyroscope paired with a single-axis yaw precision gyroscope for good measure. Needless to say, casual gamers and folks looking for a nice $30 gift need not apply. Read on for more impressions and video! %Gallery-81915%
Parrot's AR.Drone helicopter brings military-style amusement to the iPhone
Sure, the iPhone does a commendable job with heavy-duty 3D acceleration for intense virtual reality gaming, but funk that noise -- these guys want to bring you the real thing. Parrot -- better known for its Bluetooth accessories -- has introduced the AR.Drone, a WiFi-enabled remote control helicopter that takes its commands from the iPhone or iPod touch of your choice. The wacky toy has a pair of on-board cameras, one to help steady itself and the other to beam a live bird's-eye view (almost literally, if you pretend for a moment that this is in fact a bird) from the captain's seat onto your phone's screen. Parrot's mainly pushing the hardware here -- it's offering up a host of open source goodies to help developers learn about the product and figure out how to turn it into a must-have toy with replay value, and they'll have plenty of time to do so since it won't be available to consumers until "sometime in 2010." Follow the break for a video of the AR.Drone mercilessly hunting down and destroying all who dare oppose it. %Gallery-81517%
NASA risks then saves lives of dummies in helicopters with external airbags
Airbags have evolved from being in cars to on cars, so it's only natural that airbags in aircraft should be making the trip outside. NASA's Subsonic Rotary Wing Project is attempting to make autorotation landings a little bit softer by slapping a pair of expandable kevlar cushions between the skids, and the first test was a success. The helo was dropped at a height of 35 feet, achieving a speed of 48 feet-per-second before unceremoniously hitting concrete. The helicopter and its simulant occupants were said to be largely undamaged, giving hope that such a system could reduce injuries -- if you're not traveling downward at more than 48 feet per second, anyway. Future tests are said to be coming in the next year and, if all goes well, we hope to be seeing these on real whirlybirds soon.
Breakfast Topic: Crafting pride
For some reason, crafting has always been a big part of massively multiplayer games. Maybe it's their quality as loot-collecting simulators, but from the very early graphical MMOs, players have almost always been able to create and modify and trade and sell items of their own. Though we don't talk about it as a mechanic much (you press a button and get what you crafted, what's the big deal), it's certainly one of the main reasons people play World of Warcraft, and the crafting system has come to not only fuel the economy, but has ended up becoming one of the best ways to show off and present your customized character. So our question today is: what's your favorite or most important crafting item? I'm in the middle of leveling my paladin, and he's just now reaching the highest reaches of Engineering, which is a skill I've never leveled up before, but have always wanted to. I haven't gotten together the gold for epic flying yet (well on my way at level 73), but I did make normal flying machine as soon as I could. And my big goal with this character, other than getting him raiding ASAP, is to make the Mekgineer's Chopper -- ever since we first saw it in the early days of Wrath, I've planned to get a character up high enough to make it. I know, I know, I can buy it, but for me it's a crafting thing -- I want to go out, find what I need to find, and craft it with my own virtual hands. Any other crafted items that have you wanting to make something for yourself?
MIT takes the wrappers off autonomous, robotic helicopter with intelligent navigation
Advances in autonomous helicopters have been many over the years, but as far as we can tell, there's essentially no limit to how awesome they can get. MIT's recently developed an autonomous, robotic helicopter which is also able to navigate itself intelligently through a changing environment. The helicopter, which is equipped with a dual-camera array and a laser scanner, maps its terrain in real time, identifying changes along the way. An integrated autonomous exploration module allows the heli to interact with the changing, unknown environment it is mapping. The helicopter was shown off at the AUVSI 2009 International Aerial Robotics Competition, completing five missions -- a feat not before seen in the 19-year history of the show. Check out the very educational video after the break.
Brando Tiny USB Rechargeable RC Helicopter prettifies your desk, might fly
Hey there, has your previously high-powered stock trading job been downsized out of existence? Are you one of the unlucky ones who've had to diversify their job portfolio? We understand, so here's a way to satisfy those latent urges to own a helicopter on the cheap -- Brando is offering to exchange $39.90 of your blood money for a machine so simple that its protracted model name describes it almost in full. To complete the picture, you get a 3-channel IR controller, integrated gyroscope for balancing and a set of blinking LED lights on the sides for, you guessed it, nighttime flying. You should be warned though, the first functionality listed for this product is "decoration," so temper your expectations accordingly.[Thanks, Louie]
Video: Silverlit's Heli-Mission SWAT Truck brings your Blue Thunder fantasies to a rockin' reality
We've seen remote controlled toy helicopters and remote controlled toy cars, and they were good, but never have we seen before a product that brings the greatness of the two together. Silverlit's Heli-Mission SWAT truck is that holy union of RC, a butch-looking controllable truck with flashing lights and a cavernous cargo bay that swings open to release a three-channel helicopter. The heli is hoisted into position and can then be launched to go rescue your Transformers figurines from the clutches of your evil sister, brother, husband, wife, or pet. This wireless duo will set you back £59.95 when it releases in Europe, about $100, but sadly we're not finding it up for order anywhere else at the moment. So go ahead and relax, Brazilian prison guards -- at least for now...[Via SlashGear]
Brazilian RC helicopter cellphone delivery service busted
What do you do when your cellphone-smuggling carrier pigeons get caught on their way to the big house? Why, you go higher tech, of course. Those texting-crazed Brazlian ultra-max prisoners hatched a new plot to fly a radio controlled helicopter up over the wall of a prison, dropping diaper-swaddled handsets into the awaiting hands of criminal non-masterminds on the inside. Unfortunately for them, police foiled the plan when they pulled over the accomplices on the outside, confiscating the chopper, a suite of phones, and arresting the four who were paid just $5,000 to get the plan airborne. Our suggestion for their next attempt? Jetpacks.[Photo courtesy of AP]
Video: Martin Jetpack flies again, but you still can't buy one
You know, for a device as potentially bad ass as the Martin Jetpack is -- the company boasts a maximum range of 31.5 miles at 63 mph, and the ability to hover at 8,000 feet above ground effect -- the video we've seen thus far has been pretty lackluster. Of course, you can't actually get your hands on one anyways (check back in January 2010), but that isn't stopping the company from accepting your $10,000 deposit for the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Despite all that, we couldn't help but feel all a-flutter when we watched the newest clip and realized that someday soon our dreams of super heroism might be fulfilled -- and with a rocket strapped to our back, no less. Check it out for yourself after the break.[Via Oh Gizmo!]
Found Footage: Controlling radio control aircraft with an iPhone
Take one radio-controlled airplane or helicopter, add a Wi-Fi router and some custom software, then mix in an iPhone's accelerometer and touch interface. What do you get? An R/C aircraft controller.Joshua Ziering loves to fly radio-controlled 'copters and planes, and he describes exactly how he went about developing an app and the associated hardware to control their flight by tilting his iPhone and moving throttle controls on the screen in a post on his blog. Check it all out in the video below. Gary Z. at MacMost.com -- thanks for the tip!
Prox Dynamics' Black Hornet nano-copter gets demoed on video
Prox Dynamics' PD-100 "Black Hornet" nano-copter has already gone through a number of different prototypes and test flights, but it looks like things have really started to come together with the last few models, and the company has taken advantage of the opportunity to show off their progress in a couple of videos. One of those shows a "simulated" indoor mission, in which the 15 gram copter scouts out a nondescript office building whilst some suitably dramatic music plays in the background. The other, slightly more interesting video demonstrates how the two latest models are able to handle themselves in flight, and hold up against some obstacles, like the always problematic flapping clip board. Head on past the break to check 'em out for yourselves, and hit up the link below for some more information about the copter itself. Oh, and watch the skies, people. Very, very closely.
