Robotics and autonomous agents are way more interesting to me then writing the same organization process-oriented software every day. I've been doing a lot of research on autonomous micro-air vehicles (MAV) and Unmaned aerial vehicles (UAV) lately and I've come across a few Open Source projects I'd like to share:
The
paparazzi project includes pretty much everything you need to build your own relatively inexepensive UAV. It's GPL'd and includes the software for controlling the UAV and the hardware designs for autonomous operation of the vehicle.
The
RCpilot project seems to have the same goal:
GPL Autopilot software for UAV operation. This software was created by Trammell Hudson of
Rotomotion, a UAV manufacturer that sells small UAVs and their related hardware.
Here is a
Bluetooth robotic helicopter that apprently uses features from the autopilot project above.
I also found out that my employer, SAIC, is involved in the development of several autonomous platforms, including the
Vigilante helicopter, a large UAV that is used by the US Navy and the US Army. I'm personally not too keen on killer robots, but it is interesting the amount of research my employer does regarding robotics and autonomous agents. You may remember that not long ago SAIC helped develop Carnegie Mellon's
autonomous Humvee, a competitor in the
Grand Challenge .