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PC/104 Consortium Announces Design Contest Winners

Posted by timothy on from the here's-your-flying-car dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The PC/104 Consortium announced the winners of its annual design contest today at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. One winner was an autonomous model helicopter developed by a team from the University of Southern California (USC). From the writeup: 'Not only can AVATAR fly without human intervention, it can also perform GPS waypoint navigation, autonomous vision-based landing and autonomous sensor-based take-off, and image processing from three Firewire cameras.' Check out the cool photos and other details!"

16 comments

  1. y2k problem? by njchick · · Score: 2, Funny

    pc104? Maybe they meant pc2004?

  2. How long.. by n3m6 · · Score: 0, Troll

    How long before the april fool jokes start coming in?

    1. Re:How long.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When it is april in The most powerful nation on this universe has ever seen.

    2. Re:How long.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When it is april in The most powerful nation on this universe has ever seen.

      What are you talking about? It's been April for several hours now in Soviet Russia (where the universe sees YOU).

  3. PC/104 by Otter · · Score: 2, Funny
    First thought: they need a consortium to make 104 key keyboards? Is there a PC/105 consortium also?

    Second thought: what is the difference between 104 and 105 key keyboards, anyway? Whenever I do a Linux install, I never have the energy to count them (and which ones do you count?). I just go with 105, figuring it must be better.

    Third thought: here's a link to the PC/104 site. I still don't understand what it is, exactly, but then I'm just another person holding forth here on computing despite knowing nothing about non-desktop systems.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    1. Re:PC/104 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's see...

      Keypad: 17 keys
      Navigation: 10 keys (arrows, page up, etc.)
      Obsolete: 3 keys (print screen, scroll lock, pause)
      Functions: 12 keys
      Escape: 1 key
      Punctuation: 12 keys (including space)
      Numbers: 10 keys
      Letters: 26 keys
      Misc: 4 keys (tab, caps, enter, backspace)
      Meta: 6 keys (shift, ctrl, alt)
      Microsoft: 3 keys

      Total: 104

    2. Re:PC/104 by Xiver · · Score: 1

      I'm 100% sure that PC/104 does not refer to a type of keyboard. This comment kind of lays it out.

      --
      10: PRINT "Everything old is new again."
      20: GOTO 10
  4. Explanation: what is PC/104? by Jim+Morash · · Score: 5, Informative

    PC/104 is a standard for embedded computers, based on ISA (and now PCI with PC/104 Plus). There are many companies that offer PC/104 compatible products, both single board computers (SBCs) and add-on modules for GPS, wireless networking, all kinds of digital or analog I/O, motor control, DSPs, etc. etc. The boards are a little over 3.5" square and vary in price, typically $200-$600, with processors from a 386 to a Pentium III. They are typically industrial-temperature qualified and shock-hardened, and used in many applications in robotics, avionics, factory automation and other places where small, harsh-environment computers are needed.

  5. A.V.A.T.A.R. by oDDmON+oUT · · Score: 2, Funny

    Skynet beta is here *now*!

    --
    Some days it's just not worth
    chewing through my restraints.
  6. Firewire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    image processing from three Firewire cameras.

    Those must be long wires!

  7. What size bird is that? by KyolFrilander · · Score: 1

    That's a hefty looking chopper - any word on how big it is? Or is it just a perspective thing because of the ginormous landing skids?

    --
    Buddha says, "Shut your karma hole."
    1. Re:What size bird is that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, the two white balls (let the joking begin...) on either side of the front look like Logitech Quickcams*, which are around 2.5 inches in diameter. I'd guess the whole thing is around 2 feet high, 2.5-3 feet long, and a 3-4 foot diameter main rotor. Biggest RC-sized helicopter I've ever seen.

      *Logitech doesn't seem to make Firewire Quickcams, so either the article is wrong, or some other company makes Quickcam-like firewire cameras.

    2. Re:What size bird is that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Just found the AVATAR's site on Google. The heli chassis used is a Bergen Industrial Twin. Looks like I was a bit off: 22 inches high (stock, the AVATAR's skids obviously add a few inches), 59 inches long, and 810mm (2.66 feet) long blades.

      And apparently they're iBOT cameras, not Quickcams. Not that anyone cared.

  8. More... by wan-fu · · Score: 2, Informative

    helicopter coolness

    1. Re:More... by krumms · · Score: 1

      I didn't actually read that article, but I had a lot of fun racing the menu up and down the page.