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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."

1 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