Posted on 04/08/2023 2:30:27 PM PDT by FarCenter
An Australian engineering company has created a cardboard drone that runs on open source software, standard hardware, and can be assembled and flown with no prior experience.
The Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS) costs less than $3,500 apiece, a price made possible by the craft's use of FOSS and commercial-off-the-shelf hardware.
Michael Partridge, SYPAQ's general manager for Innovation & Strategic Programs (I&SP), told The Register that Corvo uses ArduPilot autopilot software, unspecified hardware that SYPAQ customizes, and waxed cardboard.
The drone takes around an hour to assemble, we're told, and its lithium-ion batteries give it a range of up to 100km (62 miles) with a 3kg (6.6lb) payload.
The craft ships in a flat pack complete with tape, glue, and instructions on how to assemble it. A tablet computer is also included so users can tell Corvo where to fly by entering GPS coordinates. A wired connection to upload that flight plan is required, but once Corvo is aloft, it will proceed along its route, at a specified altitude, and land itself at its determined destination.
_+++++
Reach out
Reach out and touch someone....
This made think of how P-47s were delivered and assembled in the field using the trucks and the boxes they were shipped, is well as lots of men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noqms4AhTJA&t=1101s
Pretty cool. But they would never work for our needs. If they don’t cost at least 5 million or more each then they are no good for us at all. We have priorities more important than good functionality for a common sense price.
3500 bucks seems kind of expensive for some cardboard in my books. You’d be better off getting some nice rifle glass heh.
Corvo, meet ChatGPT.
Considering you can get a custom PCB built in china for $0.40 each. I have built a transmitter and receiver for the arduino micro to run an RC boat.
My RC motorgliders were capable of this 15 years ago. I used it to get them to return to base if I lost sight of them. The airborne module I used could program some silly number of GPS waypoints.
I HATE that my hobby became so polluted by cheap drones using this tech that I would have to get licensed by the FAA to fly a one-pound toy in my yard, if I had continued to build planes. I guess I understand - it’s a homegrown terrorist’s wet dream.
Good luck delivering a 3 pound bullet 62 miles away with a rifle - even a .50 cal.
I’m talking about money wisdom heh.
a 300 or a 50 62 miles away is past even my abilities.
So cardboard drones should seek out and attack Potemkin Villages?
Skeet practice
Rain?
.
16. ET phone home!!
It also comes with a laptop running the software.
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