Unique airframe design? Check. Open Source hardware? Check. Open Source software? Check. The ability to hover like a Helicopter, but at the flick of a switch, fly like an airplane? Double check.
It seems that the Quadshot has it all and it sure would be hard to find something as cool as this before those Christmas lists are finished. However, don’t fret, The Quadshot team have just raised a whopping $84,000 on Kickstarter (of a $25,000) goal, so these puppies are going into production and soon you should be able to buy either a complete plane or a kit to put together yourself and maybe tinker with some of the software.
The hardware that controls the ‘Brain’ of the aircraft is the very popular Lisa/M (about $250) and has an onboard IMU(Inertial measurement unit). This enables the aircraft to relay movement to Paparazzi, an open source autopilot project, that interprets the signal and can right the plane in any direction, this makes it very hard – but not impossible – to crash the copter. Building it using open source technology is genius, not only will it give the ability for anyone with the slightest bit of interest in RC Aircraft build their own (All the build plans will be released VIA a wiki like site) but it allows those who have worked with the Lisa/M or Paparazzi to contribute to the codebase and continue its development beyond it Alpha release.
The current Airframe, built from EPP Foam can carry up to around 1lb payload, meaning after all the electronics are on-board, there is probably a little space for an on board camera – something that the team have already implemented in their V7 of the craft. It allows Live feedback to a monitor, giving the Pilot the opportunity to fly the craft in First-Person view. It’s possible that you could pile on a nice GoPro HD on the craft and capture some amazing footage.
The team behind the Quadshot are Piotr Esden-Tempski, Chris Forrette, Jeff Gibboney, and Pranay Sinha all of whom have lent a hand in making the Quadshot the first of it’s kind and no doubt will take RC Arial vehicles to a new level and with the help of the open source community will continue to build on the Quadshot and make it the must have tech for all geeks.
You can check out everything on The Quadshot here.
