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A new Kickstarter campaign aims to create a programmable flying robot called Spiri.
The Spiri project on Kickstarter explains that “Spiri is a versatile, airborne Linux device with sensors, cameras, wifi, cloud support, development tools and more,” designed to be customizable.
The fact that Spiri has native flight reflexes means that there’s no programming or coding required — meaning programmers can go straight to experimenting and developing projects with Spiri, outfitting the drone with a wide variety of functions.
Says creator Patrick Edwards-Daugherty: “Spiri can be a courier, a rescuer, a spelunker, a cartographer, a playmate, a gardener, an inspector, a reporter, a teammate, a wanderer, anything.”
Spiri‘s main chip, which runs Ubuntu Linux with ROS (Robot Operating System), can run a variety of programs using its 1 GB processor, 4 GB memory, and three-axis accelerometer.
The drone is outfitted with reinforced carbon fiber bumpers surrounding each one of the rotors — just in case it does happen to crash.
As of Thursday, Spiri has raised more than $52,000, with 13 more days of crowdfunding to go. Edwards-Daugherty hopes to raise a total of $125,000.
What would you do with Spiri if you had one? Watch the video above, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Check out Spiri, a programmable flying robot on Kickstarter
Reblogged from: mashable.com
