Autonomous Flight with a Kinect

[ladangelo202]

Awesome! 

[MLGHaloKid]

Possible evil killer robots HERE WE COME!!!

[djtron1x]

This could have sooooo many applications in the world, even past the automated flight copter.

[JediMokey]

Oh that is so cool.

[swankidelic]

It's Skynet's Hunter-Killer! They're coming for us! Quick, someone invent time travel so we can prevent the invention of the Kinect!

[abram730]

@swankidelic

search kinect Time Travellers

there's a kinect hack for that lol.

[RKtrickmaster]

this can be so useful

[JavaScriptSun]

wow !! nice

[akelodmc]

thats sexy

[marantino1]

Cool



[supercoolguyT]

I WANT ONE.

[PureRebelM1ko]

HAXXOR

[butangviber]

If they can get this on a more stable platform, the data and speed would be so much better. I can see google jumping on this for a 3D street view.

[johnaiton]

it's only a matter of time before game developers can just rip real life locations with no modeling work. When that day comes, games will be so much easier to make and indy developers will fuck over big publishers.

[schmidtbag]

@johnaiton actually, landscapes are extremely easy to make - its much more practical to make a computer generated world than take actual pictures of one. however, when it comes to actual objects, there are 3d scanners that can scan the surface of an object and create a 3d model out of it, much like kinect except much higher resolution

[palmshoot]

@johnaiton To expand on what schmidtbag said, lidar can be used to achieve what you're talking about. For more info do ab web search for "C3" and "lidar." (C3 is an innovator in this area.)

[thinkamc]

"... provides a visually appealing 3D model of the environment."

While I can appreciate the depths of its technology - perhaps honesty is the best policy instead of using buzz marketing words like "visually appealing". Perhaps an "fascinating visual" would be more accurate.

Great job!!

[silentplummet]

Manhacks.

[ablestmage]

@silentplummet said, "Manhacks." I was thinking those City Scanners that snap a picture of you, but GMTA ^__^

[ILYIAB]

Great work guys and gals!

[nicholascmartinez]

You guys really want to create Skynet don't you?!?!?!

[imahackeryamofo]

For the love of all that is holy... Will someone outfit one of these to deliver pizzas?

[Filaipus]

@imahackeryamofo lol.

[ladangelo202]

@imahackeryamofo pizza is to heavy and it would need a larger power source meaning it would need an alternate source of propulsion... so a small scale fuel powered helicopter or more preferably a quadrocopter could in theory deliver pizza to your house.. but the local police wouldn't like it and i have no idea how cost effective it is especially after having to purchase a very very sizable insurance policy if you could even get one ... students cost less money

[Emeengor]

@imahackeryamofo (╯°□°）╯

[iGameRecord]

Major Nelson sent me.



[umageddon]

that thing would be fun!

[tried12usernames]

fucking love quadrocopters

[WorkerBee2011]

wow!

[Garuda1337]

Mad, Steve Jobs?

[roidroid]

Seems comparative to University of Pennsylvania's project. But they seem to be doing all the SLAM calculations onboard, including loop closure.

watch?v=IMSozUpFFkU

[dhbabey]

@roidroid UPenn's work is very impressive, and is a nice extension of our group's previous work(watch?v=bviYpMkzuSY) but it uses a 2D laser scanner which means that they must make fairly strict assumptions about the 3D environment that they fly in.

- Flat floor. (would not be able to tell if they are flying down a wheelchair ramp).

- Mostly vertical walls. (Would not be able to fly between bushy trees, or in an areas where the main walls are slanted)

[roidroid]

@dhbabey what impressed me the most about UPenn's project was onboard SLAM with loop closure.

i was all "what? that's all processed onboard? oh wow!"

you're all doing great work though.

Do you think a mobile Atom processor like on UPenn's quadrotor would be fast enough to do SLAM with loop closure using Kinect data? I guess that's the next step for someone. gogogo!

[abram730]

@roidroid x86 has a lot of baggage. Tegra 4 will have 8 ARM CPU cores and 64 CUDA cores.

Heck a Tegra 3 can beat a Core 2 Duo T7200 and they only use 1-2 watts.

Cell phone chips are where it's at.

[roidroid]

@abram730 especially when it comes to spacial calculations, such as working with kinect data. Kinectfusion runs on CUDA and works the GPU really hard.

i just wish there were more general purpose computers running these chips, instead of all these hamstrung "appliance-devices" like phones and tablets.

watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg

[abram730]

@roidroid Yes, general purpose is becoming a special purpose computer. The special purpose Development Board is the general purpose. Very backwards.

watch?v=PnRQFkiKSf4

There's project Denver, a ARM chip for desktop, server, and HPC. blocks of 32-64 CUDA per 64bit ARM core, so 256-512 total. The latter could run kinectfusion real time.

Lets hope they ARE PC's.

Autonomous drones work best with 2 tiers of processing(on / off board) and a common code base would be nice.

[abram730]

@roidroid I suggested because of price, performance per watt and having CUDA. With 9 out of 10 chips being ARM, it has the number and $ behind it.

That also makes an open ARM platform important. Hamstrung desktops could be a big blow.

By baggage, I mean many features added to x86 do more harm then good in the long run to the core as things become power limited. Power was never an issue as x86 evolved.. but now it is.

[patricknelson]

*NERDGASM*

[ptelg]

Visually appealing model? Is that nerd for F%$#ing cool?

[Leobons]

Does this have anything to do with Microsoft's Photosynth's technology?

[ptelg]

@Leobons No it has to do with Microsofts SyntheticVisualware Module. This uses biome directories to direct and facilitate visual processes. In effect the generational syncware divests the biome into 'bio-lites' and thus can output a F$#%ing awesome visual model.

[roidroid]

@ptelg hurr

[Leobons]

@ptelg wow I guess Microsoft is doing an amazing job in this field then. Don't get to say this a lot

[jb12321]

@Leobons Microsoft created the Kinect, but they're not responsible for this work.

[Leobons]

@jb12321 oh... I just answered that bc another guy said this was created with Microsoft's SyntheticVisualware Module

[roidroid]

@Leobons there is no such module, the ptelg was making it all up.

"biomes"? haha.

[Borin81]

put a automatic cannon on it and use it for nighttime security in museums and whatnot.

[roidroid]

@Borin81 might not be a good idea to be firing a canon inside a museum eh

[Borin81]

security and crime deterrent comes first.

[roidroid]

@Borin81 If the museum's artifacts are destroyed by cannon friendly-fire, you'll have nothing to secure but an empty worthless room.

[Borin81]

mang, you dont understand, SECURITY AND CRIME DETERRENT.

who cares about some old stuff when you can blow away criminals in a blaze of auto-cannon glory.

[roidroid]

@Borin81 i'd rather have an artifact stolen than destroyed

[abram730]

@Borin81 Isn't everybody in America a criminal?

[Jonassoe]

Turns out Kinect is much better used for making cool gadgets than playing games :/

[dohzer13]

@Jonassoe It's only ":/" if you were silly enough to believe that kind of gaming was anything more than a fad/gimmick.

[astnbomb]

Sounds like it would be a pretty good device to generate complete 3D indoor maps. Put the helicopter indoors and have it go exploring. Cool stuff guys.

[tothatl]

This is really cool. And basically the same automatic environment modeling could be used in biped or wheeled robots that need to move in dynamic environments, for example, at home. The potential uses of Kinect have turned out to be much more than Microsoft expected.