Android Autopilot

Oh I hope this becomes a reality.........

http://code.google.com/p/droidfly/

It does look interesting, but I am not sold on flying with a Android/iPad/iPhone yet.  I think for actual flying I like to have physical sticks to move.  I think a step in the right direction would be to have some kind of haptic technology or force feedback on the sticks.

However for waypoint flying where we simply want to tell the drone where to go, probably depicted as a overlay on a map like a GPS automobile navigation system, a mobile phone or tablet with touch screens would be the ideal solution.

Oh, yeah, I guess the web site does not really explain the point of this very well. This would work by actually strapping a phone into the aircraft and the phone would become the "naza" type of device. Connection to the aircraft would be bluetooth from two inches away. The GPS and motion sensors in the phone would be used for autopilot flying.

OK, I see.  So the only way to control the vehicle in flight would be to call the on-board phone from a second cell phone.  So we would have to pay monthly fees for two cell phones.

Oh yeah, and if you are a T-Mobile customer like me your plane/quad/helicopter is never going to have a signal so you get to crash more.

Uhhh, not exactly,

The concept is that you would have a Rx like Spektrum/Futaba, the servo wires would come out of the Rx as usual and plug into a small "black box", out the other side is where the servos would attach (straight through in series with the ones from the Rx). The black box would have the ability to pass the standard Rx servo commands through, or pass the commands as given by the auto pilot app in the phone. The connection of the phone to the black box would be bluetooth. So just like the Naza, the phone would use it's accelerometers and gps to apply flight commands to the quad. Should a user apply stick movement on the ground then that end of the black box get priority.

The point of it would be self leveling, gps holding, waypoint autopilot, telemtry via the internet connection in the phone and all for the price of the phone you already have. No need for a $4,000 DJI system. When done flying, pull the phone out and park the plane till next time.

One would still need to have a cell phone plan for the phone in the vehicle in order for it's Internet connection to work.  How would you address the issue with changing the waypoints or endpoints while the vehicle is in the air?  To do so would also require a phone call or Internet connection so it would appear there is no way to use a phone in the vehicle without it being activated with a cell provider.

Except perhaps via WiFi.  But this would require that the map tiles also be uploaded.

My objection to this manner of operation is that more and more services are becoming another monthly bill.  As a Ham I would think you would also object to this trend.

On the other hand I can see a benefit to long range flying since cell phone towers coverage is almost everywhere.  The only issue might be latency.

However look at the cost of the Naza.  I have already seen one knockoff for $189 and we all have to agree the price will only go down.  I am sure that the DJI Wookong M will see the same effect and maybe in a year or two we will be able to buy them for $200-$500.  What does not go down significantly in cost are cell phone plans.