Parrot Announces the Release Of the AR Drone 2.0
Posted on January 9, 2012 by aaronredbaron
At the 2012 CES trade show in Las Vegas, French company Parrot anounced the follow up to their popular AR Drone. With a slew of new features to make the product more attractive but the same $299 price as the original, Parrot has a sure winner on their hands. While the original AR Drone broke new ground on many levels, this 2.0 version addresses some of the shortcoming of the first version, and appears to be a significant improvement, based on their early videos. The first AR Drone garnered significant attention at the 2010 CES show when it was initially released. For the first time any consumer with a smart phone could operate a multicopter (similar to a helicopter in flight, but only requires simple electric motors and propellers) and had the opportunity to get a first person view on the phone. Although intriguing, the frame rate of the first AR Drone’s front camera was only 15 FPS, which makes any type of FPV flying impractical. In addition the Drone was limited to a rather low altitude of about 10 feet because of it’s reliance on ultrasound sensors for altitude control.
Enter the 2.0
Parrot has directly addressed any consumer concerns with the 2.0 model and added a few features to help novice fliers. First off, the front facing camera is now a 720p camera which can deliver 30 fps back to your smart phone. The ability to fly up to 50 meters high is now available thanks to the addition of a barometric pressure sensor to the flight controller, and adding a 3 axis magnetometer gives the drone enough info in flight to know where you are, so a beginner mode is now available which eliminates the need for orientation; if you want the drone to fly away from you, a forward command will send the drone forward regardless of its orientation. The addition of these features without an increase in price is sure to draw a new group of users who were teetering on the fence about the old version, and dedicated AR pilots will be clamoring for the upgrade.
In the two years since the first version was released the aviation world has added multicopters to the ranks of manned aviation, so the advancements we see in Parrot’s AR Drone 2.0 may in fact be sparking new ideas and bringing awareness of this new form of aircraft to the general public.
Click here to see Parrot’s website
Here is Parrot’s own video promoting the new Drone
Here’s video of the world’s first manned multicopter, please see e-volo.com for more information
