zlite
Jan 04, 2008, 02:34 PM
Guys,
Over at DIY Drones (http://diydrones.com/), I just posted our "five rules" on what guides our amatuer UAV community. I thought it might have some application here, too, as well as simply being interested in feedback from this community, which I feel equally part of.
The whole post is here (http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A17789), but the core is our five guidelines:
"We emphasize amateur UAV projects that are:
Simple: The aim of this project is to create new amateur UAV platforms, including those that could be used for a FIRST (http://www.usfirst.org/)-like contest appropriate for students. While we're at it, we'll make amateur UAV development easier for everyone.
Cheap: The target cost of all of our platforms is less than $1,000. You can buy a very good autopilot system (http://www.procerusuav.com/productsZagiTestAirframe.php) for $10,000, but that's not our approach. Cheaper is better, especially with students and schools.
Safe: We follow the current interpretation of the FAA guidelines on small UAVs. Recreational use (non-commerical), under 400 ft altitude, line of sight, "pilot in the loop" and onboard safety systems that always allow for manual control in the case of malfunction. We're building experimental platforms that demonstrate autonomy and the capacity to do real useful UAV work, but we test them in controlled settings. If you want to fly miles out of sight or map cities, we're going to assume you've got the proper FAA clearance or we don't want to know about it.
Participatory: Share and others will share with you. That means that whenever possible, we open source our code and post it online. Everything on this site is published under a Creative Commons"attribution" license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) , which means that anyone can use or repost it, as long as they give credit to the original author.
Civil: This is a community site of peers helping each other. Bad behavior, from rudeness to foul language, will be deleted. Generosity and kindness is often rewarded in reciprocal behavior and help."
What do you think?
Over at DIY Drones (http://diydrones.com/), I just posted our "five rules" on what guides our amatuer UAV community. I thought it might have some application here, too, as well as simply being interested in feedback from this community, which I feel equally part of.
The whole post is here (http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A17789), but the core is our five guidelines:
"We emphasize amateur UAV projects that are:
Simple: The aim of this project is to create new amateur UAV platforms, including those that could be used for a FIRST (http://www.usfirst.org/)-like contest appropriate for students. While we're at it, we'll make amateur UAV development easier for everyone.
Cheap: The target cost of all of our platforms is less than $1,000. You can buy a very good autopilot system (http://www.procerusuav.com/productsZagiTestAirframe.php) for $10,000, but that's not our approach. Cheaper is better, especially with students and schools.
Safe: We follow the current interpretation of the FAA guidelines on small UAVs. Recreational use (non-commerical), under 400 ft altitude, line of sight, "pilot in the loop" and onboard safety systems that always allow for manual control in the case of malfunction. We're building experimental platforms that demonstrate autonomy and the capacity to do real useful UAV work, but we test them in controlled settings. If you want to fly miles out of sight or map cities, we're going to assume you've got the proper FAA clearance or we don't want to know about it.
Participatory: Share and others will share with you. That means that whenever possible, we open source our code and post it online. Everything on this site is published under a Creative Commons"attribution" license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) , which means that anyone can use or repost it, as long as they give credit to the original author.
Civil: This is a community site of peers helping each other. Bad behavior, from rudeness to foul language, will be deleted. Generosity and kindness is often rewarded in reciprocal behavior and help."
What do you think?