On Saturday of the Detroit Maker Faire, I caught an impressive project on the Make Demo Stage. Eric Merril gave a talk on his DIY RC QuadCopter:
The i3 Detroit hackerspace member based the design for his QuadCopter on the AeroQuad project. The rotor motors are controlled by software running on the on-board Arduino embedded system and responds to the wireless input from the RC controller:
One local blog covering the event, the urban life, further described the exhibit:
Merrill, a programmer at Oakland University and member of Ferndale’s I3 Detroit, an art and technology collective, will be showing his QuadCopter at Maker Faire this year. He’s still in the “software-tuning stages” but his remote-controlled device can be used to take aerial photographs. The event inspired him to make one, something he’d been wanting to do for some time.
After the talk, Eric moved the crowd outside the MakerShed tent for a demo flight:
Merrill limited the maneuvering for crowd safety, but the QuadCopter was still impressive to see take flight:
Cheers,
Drew