Parrot AR.Drone: The beautifully bumpy quadricopter

By God I love this machine.

And it’s not just the fact that it’s nifty, with its on-board wifi meaning it can be controlled by any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.  It’s also the fact that it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

The Parrot AR.Drone is a quadricopter retailing at $499, which would put it closer to the category of ‘Indulgent Toy’ than Must Have gaming addition.  But the sheer gadgetry involved in the ‘Flying Video Game’ is pretty impressive for (just) under $500, meaning the Parrot fits into the domain of anyone looking for some high priced fun, whether model enthusiast, die-hard gamer or the young at heart.

The Parrot generates its own wi-fi network, so connection is pretty simple; a matter of selecting the AR.Drone network on your Apple product of choice.  NBR had some small difficulties with this, until the old tried and true method of turning it off and on again (or resetting) seemed to sort it out.  Physically setting the Parrot up is easy, and downloading the FreeFlight control app is free. 

Flying the Drone proved fairly easy if a little alarming to begin with.  Mastery, however, is another story but the challenge makes it all the more fun.  It would be prudent to have a read of some of the tutorials on offer, or the instruction booklet.  But since instructions are for the weak, NBR launched into piloting and it proved easy to pick up.

Once the battery, and (in our case) the iPad, is connected, the user taps the ‘Take Off’ button and the Drone hovers about a meter or so from the ground.  Be warned: it’s quite loud and any editors in the room who are working to deadline will be made nervous by the noise and proximity of rotating blades.  Tap the ‘Land’ button to initiate descent.  Pressing the ‘Emergency’ button will cause the Drone to drop like a stone, and should be used sparingly (ie, in emergencies).

The button on the right bottom of the screen, when touched, controls the Drone’s movement, corresponding to the iPad’s accelerometer.  Tilt away but not with gusto - the Drone is pretty sensitive (except occasionally when heading to the left on NBR’s model, for some reason).  The button on the bottom left controls height and rotation of the Drone.  Beginners are advised to stand behind the Drone, and thus the camera, since facing it means the controls are flipped.

The Parrot has two onboard cameras, streaming video to your iPod/Pad/Phone; one at the front of the hull and one on the bottom.  Users can switch between views, and the multiplayer games make use of the videos to recognise other drones by the gaudy stickers supplied.  The video’s a bit grainy, but it doesn’t really need to be perfect.  The video underneath the body is connected to an Inertial Measurement Unit, which allows the Drone to measure its horizontal speeds.  Image comparison allows compensation for turbulence when outside.

The multiplayer option AR.Pursuit, retailing for $NZ4.19, where 2 AR.Drones hunt each other down, sounds awesome and looks pretty mean on the videos available.  Without a competing AR.Drone to battle against, NBR couldn’t test this hypothesis but users apparently play in ‘augmented reality’ (the AR of the title), where real-life tags are turned into monsters! robots! or, anti-climactically, ‘obstacles.’  Players can fire lasers at their opponents (on screen) to win the fight.

The dogfight game AR.Flying Ace is not available yet, but is scheduled for release this month and will be downloadable from the Apple App store.

While Free Flight is, as yet, only available on Apple, other platforms are coming and Parrot has an open API platform, with free source code downloads of the game demos available.  Parrot said more than 800 developers have signed up to create more games or control apps for platforms other than Apple.

The AR.Drone’s top speed is 18km per hour, and it can maintain a stable height at about six metres.  The wi-fi range is 50 metres and if the user goes beyond this, and thus loses the network, the AR.Drone will switch to autopilot and hover until reconnected.  The inner body contains MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanicals Systems), three axes accelerometer, two gyrometers [1 axe & 2 axes] and an ultrasound sensor, plus the two cameras.

That was the good.  Now the bad, and the ugly

Admittedly the outer packaging is not that impressive as the what-some-might-call-pernickety KealHauller pointed out - the blades are surrounded by expanded polypropylene, a styrofoam-like substance.  It doesn’t look that good, or robust, but it’s a necessity to protect the blades when flying inside.  See videos for the amount of Parrot-Wall-Walls time when NBR gave Parrot a go the first couple of times.  It is also, of course, extremely light which apparently matters in aviation.  The outer hull doesn't have the polystyrene rings but is pretty hideous, with fluorescent colouring , which is to make it easily distinguishable.  It is aerodynamically shaped for better flight.

However, if you care about superficial things, the indoor hull combo looks fine since the Parrot is sci-fi looking enough to impress at first glance.

The real let down of the AR.Drone is the battery life.  It is slated to last 12 minutes and I found this to be pretty accurate.  However other users have said they can get a good 20 to 30 minutes out of their Drone, or 45 minutes if you want to let it hover in your lounge as a talking point, and one blogger noted that RC helicopters generally have a run time of five minutes.  The battery is billed as taking an hour and a half to recharge, but I found it to be more like two hours. 

The guide from Parrot said that attaching things to the approximately 420g AR.Drone is a Bad Idea, so it looks like stealth cameras flying over government compounds (or Eden Park) is out.  But if you’re looking for some fun, have a cool half grand to spare and love innovative gaming, take a look at the AR.Drone. 

The ideas behind the machine are impressive and the tech drool-worthy enough to make you a drone to the Drone.