Team Geared Up

This model plane has been modified to become a drone aircraft running on autopilot with a Lego brain!

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame has built a DIY Drone model plane controlled by Lego with his young son. It has Lego Technics cogs inside controlling the rudder, elevator and ailerons using the Lego MindStorms processor for navigation.

Let me repeat - this thing is autopilot - they’ve programmed it to stabilize itself by detecting tilt, and it navigates by using a compass sensor to know direction. They give the clever MindStorm Lego brick waypoints to follow and off it goes. Their next step is to integrate a Bluetooth GPS unit for greater accuracy and programming ease.

They’ve hung a camera from the bottom of it that supplies a live wireless video feed back to the ground, and Chris has taken the video and YouTubed it (see above). There’s more on GeekDad.com.

-Robin-