I’ve been fooling around with and thinking about various forms of robotics lately.

It started with an Arduino and some basic electronics parts.  As a kid I was always fooling around with electrical relays, making alarm systems for my room and other fun stuff but I never quite made the transition to electronics.  Now I dabble.  I recently got a motor shield for my Arduino and built a small autonomous tank.

Then I got an ArDrone quadcopter.  It’s lots of fun to fly but I really wanted to hack it.  When my friend Tim dropped by from Paris we set aside a day and had some fun.  OpenCV, node.js and before you know it we have copter than can identify and follow faces.  The experimenting inside quickly resulted in some new policies involving a Flight Safety Officer.  I haven’t returned to the scene of the crime since but I can’t wait to do more with this.  More quadcopters are coming.  How long before we have quadcopters that can autonomously take off, patrol, return and recharge?