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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!"

9 of 16 comments (clear)

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

    pc104? Maybe they meant pc2004?

  2. 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 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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.
  5. 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: 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.

  6. 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.