engineering

Parrot AR.Drone

Parrot AR.Drone is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Parrot AR.Drone rather than just read about it. In short: The Parrot AR.Drone is a discontinued remote-controlled quadcopter, built by the French company Parrot. Design and development The Parrot AR.Drone was unveiled at the International CES 2010 in Las Vegas along with a demonstration of the iOS applications used to control it.

Key takeaways

Parrot AR.Drone belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Parrot AR.Drone to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Parrot AR.Drone from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Parrot AR.Drone is a discontinued remote-controlled quadcopter, built by the French company Parrot.

Design and development

The Parrot AR.Drone was unveiled at the International CES 2010 in Las Vegas along with a demonstration of the iOS applications used to control it. The main airframe of the AR.Drone is constructed from PA66 plastic and carbon fiber tubes. Two interchangeable hulls were supplied with the airframe, one is designed for indoor and one for outdoor flight; the former made of expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam with bumpers to protect the propellers at the cost of reduced flight performance. The AR.Drones is powered by four brushed or brushless DC electric motors, depending on the version, and a 1000 mAh lithium polymer battery gives the drone a maximum flight time of 15 minutes. The drone was released alongside several augmented reality games, allowing users to race through obstacle courses or engage in simulated dogfights between multiple AR.Drones. The drone has an embedded computer with an ARM9 processor and a Linux operating system.

The AR.Drone is designed to be controlled by mobile or tablet operating systems, such as iOS or Android within their respective apps or the unofficial software available for Windows Phone, Samsung BADA and Symbian devices. The successor to the original drone, the AR.Drone 2.0, was unveiled at CES Las Vegas 2012. The AR.Drone 2.0 is outwardly similar to its predecessor, being powered by four brushless motors, but has several internal improvements including an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, a 3-axis magnetometer, and an upgraded camera with a 720p resolution. The drone also features a pressure sensor which Parrot claims allows it to fly up to 164 feet (50 m), though flight testing by Popular Science found that the WiFi link between the drone and controlling device would disconnect before reaching that altitude. The AR.Drone 2.0 was released alongside a new flight app which was backwards compatible with the original AR.Drone. Popular Science praised the AR.Drone 2.0 for its improved ease of use over its predecessor, but criticized its average flight time of 15–25 minutes. At CES 2013, Parrot announced the Flight Recorder add-on for the AR.Drone 2.0, which the company compared to the "black box" of a commercial aircraft. It adds 4GB of storage to the drone, along with GPS tracking and flight data recording. Flight Recorder features can be controlled via mobile phone and desktop applications, with "Director Mode" and "Rescue Mode" included. An extended battery designed to increase flight time by up to 50% was also launched alongside the Flight Recorder. By February 2018, the AR.Drone 2.0 Elite Edition and Power Edition were no longer being sold.

Operational history

Third party uses

To aid third-party developers, Parrot launched the AR.Drone open API game development platform. Due to this open platform, affordability, and wide range of onboard sensory equipment, the AR.Drone is becoming an increasingly popular tool in research and education. It has been used for experiments with visual-based autonomous navigation, autonomous surveillance, and human-machine interaction. In France, the AR.Drone 2.0 was tested by a Special Operations unit for aerial reconnaissance, while other companies have been developing software that allows the drone to track sports activities, and generate training feedback. An AR.Drone was used by Tim Pool during the Occupy Wall Street protest, running modified software that allowed it to stream directly to an internet channel. He theorized that a chain of command could be set up, where multiple people could step up and take control should the primary operator be detained by police. To further this, he began the development of a new control system, replacing the existing Wi-Fi hotspot with a 3G chip. This would allow users to control drones via the internet, and potentially from remote locations.

Reception By early 2013, around half a million units of the AR.Drone and its successor had been sold. It received a 2010 CES Innovations award for Electronic Gaming Hardware, and was also awarded Best Smart Product of 2015 according to Wellbots Top 25 Smart Products Ranking of 2015. The AR.Drone 2.0 was praised for the relative ease with which pilots could learn how to fly it; the original release required more intense practice. Since its release, individuals, organizations, and governments have expressed concern over the use of AR.Drones for surveillance. Although the technology required to feed and record live video taken from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) existed before the release of the AR.Drone was not widely available to members of the public. In Germany, consumer affairs minister Ilse Aigner described the drone as a privacy threat, and called for restrictions to be placed on the use of cameras mounted on aerial platforms. A UK advertising campaign, showing an AR.Drone being flown into the grounds of Buckingham Palace was withdrawn after concerns that it was demonstrating illegal use of the drone. In the US, the use of AR.Drones are governed by the Federal Aviation Administration at the Federal level and local jurisdiction, which restricts the use of small UAS above 400 ft (120 m).

Variants

AR.Drone Original variant with PA66 and carbon fiber tube construction, four brushed or brushless electric motors, a 480p forward-facing camera, a 144p downward camera, and interchangeable indoor and outdoor hulls. Power is provided by a single 1000 mAh lithium polymer battery, giving it a maximum flight time of 15 minutes. Announced in January 2010.

AR.Drone 2.0 Improved AR.Drone with brushless motors, an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, a 3-axis magnetometer, a 720p front camera, an air pressure sensor, and a flight time of 15–25 minutes. Announced in January 2012. An optional "Flight Recorder" add-on and a high density battery were also made available. AR.Drone 2.0 Power Edition Improved AR.Drone 2.0 with the 1500 mAh high density lithium polymer battery as standard equipment, giving it a flight time to 18 minutes per battery. AR.Drone 2.0 Elite Edition AR.Drone 2.0 but with three camouflage hull patterns; sand, snow, and jungle. AR.Drone 2.0 GPS Edition AR.Drone 2.0 with a GPS module that connects to its USB port, allowing for autonomous flight, flight recording, and a "Return Home" feature.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Parrot AR.Drone

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Parrot AR.Drone claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Parrot AR.Drone before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Parrot AR.Drone ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Parrot AR.Drone

In research: Parrot AR.Drone appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Parrot AR.Drone in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Parrot AR.Drone is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Educational robots, Products introduced in 2010, Quadcopters, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Parrot AR.Drone outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Parrot AR.Drone in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Parrot AR.Drone means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Parrot AR.Drone out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Parrot AR.Drone in simple terms?

The Parrot AR.Drone is a discontinued remote-controlled quadcopter, built by the French company Parrot. Design and development The Parrot AR.Drone was unveiled at the International CES 2010 in Las Vegas along with a demonstration of the iOS applications used to control it.

Why does Parrot AR.Drone matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Parrot AR.Drone?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Parrot AR.Drone.