France-based Parrot, which is well-known for its Bepop line of consumer drones, is treading into a new territory that may let users navigate their UAV indoors.
The company has teamed up with Canonical to unleash a new development kit dubbed the S.L.A.M.dunk. This dev kit will essentially allow the creation of obstacle avoidance robots and drones, which are autonomous. Basically, S.L.A.M.dunk will convert a drone into a smart robot.
The user friendly Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk was announced at the Interdrone conference in Las Vegas on Sept. 7.
S.L.A.M.dunk is an open dev kit for drones that are Linux-based. It is powered by the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Ubuntu and essentially offers developers a conducive environment where they can create solutions for 3D mapping, indoor navigation, autonomous driving, obstacle avoidance, particularly in situations where there is no access to GPS signals or there are several barriers.
"Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk integrates advanced software applications based on a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping algorithm: S.L.A.M.," notes the company. "S.L.A.M. technology enables the drone to understand and map its surroundings in 3D and to localize itself in environments with multiple barriers and where GPS signals are not available."
Transforming the drone into an intelligent bot is relatively simple thanks to the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk dev kit. You merely need to attach the kit to the drone in question, plug it into the source of power and flight controller and voila! The drone has been converted into an intelligent bot.
Those wondering about the hardware capabilities of the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk, it is powered by an Nvidia Tegra K1 processor. The system can not only be straddled on fixed-wing/multirotor aircraft, but also articulated arms, as well as rolling bots.
The system is also easily connectable to the battery of a drone or a bot through a 3.5 mm jack with USB cable, to allow for communication.
The Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk also boasts several sensors such as the ultrasound sensor, an IMU or Inertial-measurement unit, barometer and magnetometer. It also touts a fish-eye stereo camera that supports a resolution of 1,500 x 1,500 at 60 frames per second.
The best thing about Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk is that it is compatible with several robotic platforms and drones and fits easily. It weighs just 140 g (4.9 ounces), which is pretty impressive considering the hardware it houses.
The Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk is set to become available in Q4 2016. The pricing is not known at the moment.
