Mashup: AR Drone on Surface with the DREAM Controller

There are some great combinations in life. Peanut butter and chocolate. Ernie and Burt. Bacon and Maple Bars. That last one might be a bit polarizing. Here’s one I think we might agree on. Dr. Holly Yanco over at UMass Lowell’s Robotics Lab tipped me off on this today. Microsoft Surface + Parrot AR Drone + the DREAM Controller.

Back in January, I shared some video created by Winwise with their Surface application for controlling the AR Drone. (Incidentally, Luis just posted about the code now being available on Codeplex , if you’re interested.) In January, I mused about the great potential for adding the University of Mass Lowell’s Robotics Lab DREAM Controller project to the picture. Guess what? They did it. It’s one of the great Surface mashups I’ve seen so far this year. (Note, these are all on the original Surface device.)

[Video: Multi-touch Gamepad Piloting AR Drone]

Here’s some more background on the DREAM controller. Also, don't miss this integration with Portal and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

[Video: Multi-Robot Command and Control]

Here’s the Winwise project with the AR Drone in January.

[Video: Flying AR Drone with Microsoft Surface]

- Eric (follow Surface on Twitter and Facebook)

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 24, 2011
  Hey!! But u guys said that Surface is not going to be on commercial sale for 2-3 years? What about that??

• Anonymous
  September 09, 2011
  Thanks-- great to see what's possible with Parrot's API (I assume that's what you used).  I'm digging into it for desktop and laptop control. -- JD <a href="www.ar-drone.net/.../a>