We were just reading about the ARDrone. For those that haven't heard about it or seen it, the ARDrone is a Quadricopter that you can control from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Now at face value the ARDrone is aimed as a toy. However we think this will have a greater implication, as it opens up some amazing technology to a lot of people.
Think of the implications for the building industry. Currently you can buy a robot heli to take aerial photos of projects, they are still very expensive (around US$8000), although that still isn't bad when compared to having to hire a helicopter every time you need an aerial image! So we think the ARDrone (or its V2) will help to lower this sector.
Or what about if they could build in some sort of 3D Scanning hardware into it? Then you could affectively send out your unmanned aircraft to measure up the exterior of a building without every leaving your seat! Or even better the computer could convert it into a functional BIM model for you straight away. Obviously something like this is a few years away, but not impossible.
In the mean time we're excited about what developers will do with the ARDrone's API, & will be keeping a close eye on it in the following months.
Send A Robot To Do Your Measure Up....
2010
This blog post is related to the following tags 3D scanning & BIM, AR Drone, ARDRONE, convert data to a building information model, parriot ARDrone, robots & BIM, Technology, un manned flying.
