The Geek Triathlon - the Geekiest Sport of them all?

I was reading Chris Anderson's article on the size of the FreeConomics market (of which another post later) when I came across his other blog - for amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV, or Drones) design and lost a happy hour there. Chris is thinking of setting up competitions for amateur UAV builders.

UAV's combine the Geek Triathlon of mechatronics/robotics, complex computer systems (for autopilots etc) and aeronautics (there is a parallel strain with sailing vessels) coupled with model building - who could resist?

There is some great stuff on the site about converting ordinary shop bought models - planes, choppers, blimps - to UAV usage. But this small, flapping UAV - with camera inserted - from the University of Delft takes the prize.



(Amateur UAVs have already crossed the Atlantic - see here)

(Disclosure - at Uni yours truly initially studied Aero Eng and has designed and even flown - without immediately crashing - a number of R/C model aircraft, and final year BSc design project was a 6 axis robot - I was only seduced by the Internetz for an MSc. Hence the odd article on mobile robotics on this blog