As a kid growing up, RC toys were easily one of the coolest things around. Be it a racing car, 4×4, or boat, there was nothing quite like being in control of a micro version of full sized vehicles you could only dream about riding. Taking to the air with the more expensive RC helicopters or planes was not for kids, instead it was a sport mainly for the older boys or adult hobbyists. However, recently there has been a huge boost in RC toys with the introduction of micro or nano RC helicopters. In the UK at least they became one of the biggest selling toys during the Christmas holiday season (I myself have two), and gave even kids the ability to take part in a far more cost effective introduction to RC flight.
As a boy, and no doubt after watching many a Bond film and being inspired by the gadgets under 007′s command, I remember myself and a friend attaching a camcorder to the top of an RC 4X4, hitting record and spying on my family around the house. It was less than inconspicuous however, because in the early 90′s camcorders were huge! Roll on nearly twenty years and the technology – back then only a kid’s wet dream – is now in our grasp. Inspired, no doubt, by military drones seen patrolling the skies of Afghanistan, Parrot’s AR.Drone is a lightweight quadro-copter with a front mounted camera. And, unlike my DIY camera mounted jeep, it streams live video, in real-time, to your controller. And if you didn’t already know, the controller in question is your trusty iPhone or iPod Touch.
Incredibly, the drone emits its own WiFi signal, becoming in essence a WiFi hotspot. By downloading the supporting AR.Drone App from the AppStore, and connecting to the drone’s WiFi signal, you’ll be up flying and spying in no time.
Controlling the drone does require a bit of a learning curve. If, however, you’ve played flight simulators on the iPhone or iPod Touch then you’ll feel right at home. But for everyone else you might want to take it slow and begin in a large open space. The screen of your iDevice gives you all the information you need. The camera display takes up the whole screen with your twin stick controls laid over it. There are two main buttons on the top and bottom of the screen. The latter starts the drone, while the top button is the emergency stop button, which when pressed, kills the drone dead. There’s also a settings page for switching to advanced controls, trimming the drone and tweaking more advanced settings, but for most of us, the default set up is just what we need.
On starting up the drone, the rotors will fire and the drone will automatically climb to around one metre in height. Here it will hover, perfectly balanced using some clever on-board tech, and will await your instructions. Pushing up on the right onscreen-stick will cause the drone to climb further, while rotating the stick spins the drone on the spot. For forward, backward and side-to-side momentum you touch the left stick and tilt the device in your chosen direction. As I said, it does take some getting used to, but by combining the controls successfully, the drone can be flown pretty much anywhere to an accurate degree. (see video below to see me land the drone on top of a public waste bin)
The drone comes packaged with two hulls. One for outdoor use, and one for indoor. If you are outside then it’s safer for the rotors to spin freely. However, when indoors there’s more of a chance you’ll hit something, so by fitting the indoor hull, which surrounds the rotors with polystyrene, you’re less likely to break your Aunt Floe’s favourite vase!
The drone for the most part is built well and looks pretty cool. However, due to its reliance on lightweight materials, many parts are made from polystyrene, which are prone to breaking if your drone is involved in a nasty impact. These parts are all replaceable via Parrot’s online store, but still, you may feel a little wary of taking it anywhere other than your own living room or garden.
The drone is powered by a relatively large lithium battery, it’s the largest part of the drone and adds the most weight. However it’s size is necessary to power both the front and below facing camera’s, the rotors and of course the Wifi, which no doubt sucks the most juice. The battery can be fully charged in one hour, however it will only give you around 15-20 minutes of flight time, so stocking up on extra batteries is a must if you want the most of your drone. It’s a little disappointing, but with all the on-board tech that’s on offer it’s understandable.
The AR part of the name ‘AR.Drone’ stands for Augmented reality. This means that through the use of the two cameras, it’s possible to partake in single and multiplayer gaming. The cameras can pick up the individual markings of another drone, which when used in conjunction with specially developed Apps, you can engage in epic dogfighting battles. As I only had one drone to try out, we couldn’t test out this feature. However, we can see that there is tonnes of potential to expand the drone from being just another RC toy. Parrot will be releasing an SDk for the drone software, allowing other App developers to tap into the device and create their own battles or racing experiences.
With or without the AR, I had great fun piloting the drone. Despite having four battery packs at my disposal it wasn’t enough. It’s very addictive once you get the hang of it and waiting an hour for the battery to charge, when you are itching to take it out, seems like an eternity.
So, is the AR.Drone the next best thing in RC toys? Well with it’s relatively high price of £299 ($299) it’s certainly not going to be an impulse buy like the nano-copters available for £20 ($30), and the fact that it requires (at present) an iPhone and iPod Touch, may put some people off. For tech enthusiasts though, it certainly ticks all the geek chic boxes and has that wow-factor that will ensure it is a success to some degree. As a first stab at combining the real and virtual worlds of RC and gaming it is a roaring success. Let’s hope it allows Parrot to develop cheaper and smaller versions that will be available to the masses.
Now, I wonder what’s happening in my neighbour’s window up there? Time to unleash the drone me thinks!
The Parrot AR.Drone is available from Parrot’s website here (you can also check availability in your country)
