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Cornell Builds Autonomous UAV

Posted by michael on from the million-and-one-uses dept.

tshak writes "From Microsoft Research, 'Faculty and students at Cornell University have built an unmanned airplane with its own on-board, embedded control system. The large-scale model plane flies by accessing coordinates from an off-the-shelf GPS unit.' Not only does the plane run XP embedded, but the software is written in C# on the .NET Compact Framework. This is all powered by an 800mhz Crusoe processor with 1GB of total system storage."

2 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And I'm supposed to be impressed? by Steve+G+Swine · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Anything that flies benefits from light components.
    Anything that flies benefits from being actually completed already - a mystical state that higher-level toolkits help one achieve more quickly.

    I'm sure they could start from the codebase they have now, work really hard, and have equivalent expertise built into a lighter package in some number of staff-years. Alternately, they could archive the source, go drink margaritas for a couple years, and then buy the lighter package with equivalent power off the shelf and use it to run the existing already-completed software.

    Which would you consider the elegant way to proceed?
    --
    "Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer." - Linux Advocac
  2. Re:Mean-spirited by dave420 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    That's the thing - they did use the most efficient/difficult/brag-worthy route to completion. Any other route (including linux) would have required a LOT more work, more than they could have been expected to do. Crusoe chips and 1gb of memory could fit in your hand and you'd not notice. We're talking two small wafers of electronics. They didn't bolt a P4 to the side, but came up with an elegant embedded solution, which can talk to every piece of hardware they need it to, and be small enough to fly where ever they tell it to. If they'd been using linux for the project (with all due respect) they'd probably have spent more time getting linux to talk to the various peripherals than making the flying vehicle itself.

    Credit where credit's due - it's a truly great feat of engineering.