Home »

Ubuntu drone puts robotics in the classroom

A Spanish company has a different take on encouraging students to get involved in electronics design. No Raspberry Pi controlled lights for them, Erle Robotics is putting drone development in the classroom.

4-1024x589

Erle Robotics saw the potential of robotics in education, and the need for easy-to-program Linux hardware.

“Many of the current drone platforms are still black boxes, technology that can hardly be understood by newcomers so we are bringing Linux to it,” said Erle Robotics.

The Vitoria-based company’s founders believe that UAVs have the potential to change the way we interact with technology.

“We also share that the true impact of scientific study facilitated by UAV technology is the advancement it enables in real world applications.

“We want to put UAVs in the hands of the next generation of innovators because we believe that the future of robotics won’t be about humanoids that costs $10,000. It’ll be about low cost drones and the creativity and passion of the people.”

The company has created a DIY kit for building an Ubuntu  drone. It is a Linux-based platform with Erle’s Ubuntu core running on the APM Autopilot hardware platform from 3DRobotics. It sells for €299.

This is an all-in-one drone controller with point-and-click programming, command modes, failsafe programming and 3-axis camera control.

It uses the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework for writing robot software. It is a collection of tools, libraries created by the Open Source Robotics Foundation.

 

 


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*