We’ve always liked the Parrot AR Drone quadrocopter, and of course the four-rotor layout is gaining popularity among robocists everywhere — but this is something totally new. Weighing in at just 20 grams (that’s only slightly more than DARPA’s hummingbot), it’s basically just a PCB with rotors on it — and with the telemetry being handled off-device, it’s essentially a thin-client UAV.
The “CrazyFlie” is made by Daedalus Projects, whose aim was to make pretty much what it is: a flying robot pared down to the essentials. They’ve been working on it for quite a while and this is its debut. Simple hardware means it’s cheap to make — I smell a promotion on ThinkGeek in a few months.
[via Hack a Day]