Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Green)

by Parrot

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 22.4 x 5.4 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B003ZT5HWO
• Item model number: PF720000AA
• Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,318 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Color: Orange/Green

Amazon.com Product Description

The AR.Drone remote-control quadricopter is a groundbreaking device combining the best of many worlds, including modeling, video gaming, and augmented reality. The AR.Drone is remote-controlled by your device (see compatibility below) and features a number of sensors, including a front camera, vertical camera, and an ultrasound altimeter. The AR.Drone can also be used in video games, such as AR.FlyingAce, a dogfight between two AR.Drones.

A groundbreaking device combining the best of many worlds, including modeling, video gaming, and augmented reality. Click to enlarge.

The First Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch/iPhone/iPad/Android Devices

Control with Your Device
Thanks to its on-board Wi-Fi system, you can control the Parrot AR.Drone using an iPod touch, iPod touch, iPad, or Android device (OS 2.2 (Froyo) or higher, 3-inches wide minimum, and multi-touch).

The Parrot AR.Drone
The AR.Drone is the first quadricopter that can be controlled by an iPod touch, iPod touch, iPad, or Android device (OS 2.2 (Froyo) or higher, 3-inches wide minimum, and multi-touch).

High-technology Sensors Offer Simple Piloting
A mix of captors, wide-angle camera, high-speed camera and MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems), accelerometer, gyro sensors, and ultrasound sensor combine with a powerful on-board computer to make piloting the AR.Drone easy. Simply use your device and just tilt and touch to control the AR.Drone.

Connect and See
The Parrot AR.Drone generates its own Wi-Fi network to which you connect your device to control. The front camera view is streamed to your piloting device display.

Autopilot
The AR.Drone autopilot allows easy takeoff and landing. After takeoff, autopilot stabilizes the AR.Drone at an 80-centimeter altitude. When you remove your finger from your device, the autopilot function automatically puts the AR.Drone into stationary flight. Lost connection with the AR.Drone? Autopilot takes over again and stabilizes the device before attempting a soft and safe landing.

Indoor and Outdoor Hulls Included
The full hull shield protects the AR.Drone from impacts that occur during wild battles against enemies hidden in the rooms of the house. The streamlined colored hull is aerodynamic, allowing greater control outside.

High Durability and Easy Repair
AR.Drone is a quadricopter made of carbon fiber and high-resistance PA66 plastic. All parts can be changed for easy repair.

Free Piloting App
Please download the free AR.Freeflight App (iTunes App Store or Android Market) to control the AR.Drone.

Augmented Reality Games
Not only see what the AR.Drone sees with the front-mounted camera, but enjoy a wide variety of games in augmented reality. AR.Games sold in the iTunes App Store and Android Market. Choose from a selection of single-player and multiplayer games, using the AR.Drone's camera and the augmented reality applications. Shoot enemies or other drones.

Thanks to its on-board Wi-Fi system, you can control the Parrot AR.Drone using an iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

The full hull shield protects the AR.Drone from impacts.

The Parrot AR.Drone has been designed for both inside and outside use.

AR.Drone Details

Compatibility

• Apple iOS devices: iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad
• Android OS devices: Optimized for: Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola Xoom, HTC Desire; Also compatible with: HTC Desire HD, HTC Sensation, LG Optimus 2x, and Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
  

Battery

• Fly time: 12 minutes
• 3-cell lithium polymer battery
• Capacity: 1000 mAh
• Charge time: 90 minutes

Motors

• 4 x 15 W electric brushless motors (3,500 rpm)

Construction

• High-efficiency propellers
• Carbon tube structure

Front camera

• VGA (640 x 480) CMOS camera
• 93-degree wide-angle lens
• 15 fps video

Vertical camera

• QCIF (176 x 144) High-speed camera (CMOS)
• 64-degree diagonal lens
• 60 fps video
• Horizontal stabilization

Altimeter

• Ultrasound-based
• Range: 6 m
• Emission frequency: 40 kHz
• Vertical stabilization

Internal guidance system

• MEMS (micro electro mechanical system)
• 3-axis accelerometer
• 2-axis gyroscope
• 1-axis yaw precision gyroscope

Embedded computer

• ARM9 RISC 32-bit 468 MHz
• 128 MB DDR RAM
• Wi-Fi b/g
• Linux OS
• USB socket

Dimensions

• Size: 28 x 28 inches with hull; 29 x 11 inches without
• Weight: 13.4 ounces

What's in the Box

AR.Drone, indoor hull, outdoor hull (orange/green), battery, charger, four adapters (EU, US/JP, UK, Aus/NZ), sticker for outdoor hull (for multiplayer battles), and quick start guide.

Product Description

The AR.Drone remote-control quadricopter is a groundbreaking device combining the best of many worlds, including modeling, video gaming, and augmented reality. The AR.Drone is remote-controlled by an iPhone and features a number of sensors, including a front camera, vertical camera, and an ultrasound altimeter. The AR.Drone can also be used in video games, such as AR.FlyingAce, a dogfight between two AR.Drones.

Features Free Piloting App on iTunes - Download AR.Freeflight in the App Store to control the AR.Drone Augmented Reality Games - Additional AR.Games will be sold in the iTunes App StoreSpecificationsBattery Fly time - 12 minutes 3-cell lithium polymer battery Capacity - 1000 mAh Charge time - 90 minutesMotors 4 x 15 W electric brushless motors (3,500 rpm)Construction High-efficiency propellers Carbon tube structureFront camera VGA (640 x 480) CMOS camera 93-degree wide-angle lens 15 fps videoVertical camera QCIF (176 x 144) High-speed camera (CMOS) 64-degree diagonal lens 60 fps video Horizontal stabilizationAltimeter Ultrasound-based Range - 6 m Emission frequency - 40 kHz Vertical stabilizationInternal guidance system MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) 3-axis accelerometer 2-axis gyroscope 1-axis yaw precision gyroscopeEmbedded computer ARM9 RISC 32-bit 468 MHz 128 MB DDR RAM Wi-Fi b/g Linux OS USB socket Size - 28 x 28 inches with hull; 29 x 11 inches without Weight - 13.4 ounces

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

360 of 373 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Skynet isn't quite there yet, November 1, 2010

By 

rrko "rrko" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Electronics)

Update Jan 2012: Parrot has announced version 2.0 of the AR Drone at CES. Shipping Q2/2012, same price. This review is based on v1.0:

It was really love at first sight when I saw the first CES videos of the AR-Drone in January 2010. It reminded me on that one scene in Terminator 3 where they had one of small Skynet drones in a lab with scientists working on it... I wanted to have one - even at $1.000. I already owned a Hirobo Lama RC coax helicopter at that time and was very familiar with the problems of getting a device like that hovering stable or even flying it at all. The AR-Drone seemed to do all that automatically which is not only pretty cool but also extremely useful if you lose control of your helicopter. You would just take your hands of the controls and it stays where it is! The original idea was to start a little R&D project using the iPhone as an intermediate step and control the drone from a computer and let it automatically fly around the house from point A to B to C. Well, at this point it won't quite happen yet.

The manufacturer has built extremely high expectations by showing numerous product videos on Youtube. One particular video shows two players driving two drones through the woods out of direct eye sight just using the iPhone video display. That's purely science fiction: frame rate and video latency/delay simply don't allow you doing that.

The Wi-Fi signal indicator bar either shows 4/5 or nothing at all. DYI programmers on a web forum have now revealed that we are looking at a static picture rather than an actual indicator. The drone is actually supposed to go in auto hover mode as soon as it loses the Wi-Fi connection of if you receive a call on your iPhone. Well, we see quite a number of reports where a drone out of range flew off like a rocket! 45° angel at maximum speed until the battery is dead. You'd be more than lucky to find what's left of your done again in a distance of 3 miles and that it doesn't crash into someone. At any rate: faking the signal strength display in a case like that where it really matters is just reckless IMHO.

The automatic start procedure works nice and flawless. You just hit the <ascent> button and the machine rises to 2ft height and stays more or less in position. The auto descent however is less impressive at all. "Soft" as they state in their product copy is definitely different. It almost drops like a rock over the last 2". That should work much smoother. They might want to get that fixed in a software update sooner or later.

What really differentiates the AR-Drone from other RCs out there (beside the Wi-Fi / iPhone control) is it's built in stabilization system: you get an accelerometer, 2 gyros, an ultrasound altimeter and a video camera facing downwards feeding an real time image processor to see if you are drifting in either direction. The image processor needs a contrast rich and rather bright picture (ground, floor) to work. The more texture the better. It didn't work at all on my industrial style concrete floor although it has some light gray textures it. The drone drifted 8"/sec. Using it on a colorful carpet it worked better. Looking at the CES videos on youtube again I started to realize that the manufacturer had been using a carpet showing aerial photography at their well illuminated booth. All the roof tops, hedges and streets on that carpet provided a great texture and rich contrast for the image processor to work - now I don't want to put fancy carpet all around my house to use the drone.

The ultrasound altimeter works perfectly fine on even surfaces. The system keeps the altitude at a constant level even when flying across a sofa or a table. The drone surges up to keep the constant distance. Keep that in mind when approaching a 2.9ft table at an altitude of 5.5ft: It will surge up to 8.4ft and bump right into the ceiling. Same story flying outdoor over a hedge or garage. Heights add up. I also had random heights going over grass and hedges due to poor ultrasound reflection.

The brushless motors are getting extremely hot - too hot IMO. I would not recommend flying longer than the promised battery life of 12 minutes. That's actually quite common for all sorts of RC models with this type of engines.

The lipo battery that comes with it is supposed give you 12min flight time at 1.5h to recharge it. I couldn't get more than 8min out of it even after recharging it for the fourth time. The battery charger isn't explained anywhere in the manual. It's got 5 LEDs. I got it blinking red/green after each recharging process. Only after unplugging and charging it again I got a stable green light from it.

The EEP (styrofoam like) elements do have quite fragile bridges. The indoor hull won't survive any medium crash. It does the job protecting the propellers and everything else from the propellers while flying. On some of the product pictures it almost looks like the indoor hull has got a chrome finish. The reality is it's a black and white print which looks nothing like what you would expect from that picture at all.

Final verdict: Disillusionment. I was expecting more than that. Skynet isn't quite ready yet. It reminds of these football playing sort of robots they show you on Discovery Channel - still struggling to walk straight, oh well. Before the product launch I've seen a couple of people concerned folks on news boards that this thing might be used as a new weapon. Don't worry at all - at least until the developers actually do their homework. I'm looking forward to an advanced model fixing the image processor and ultrasound limitations as well as adding GPS. I'm quite sure there will be more and better gadgets like this soon. I'll be back!

rkoo

PS: From the FAQs: Spying on the cute girl next door probably isn't going to work either: That thing is pretty darn loud. Recording pictures and video from the front cam do require extra 3rd party apps.

423 of 443 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is an expensive fragile toy!, September 13, 2010

By 

J. Bielby - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Electronics)

If you are not into the RC plane hobby, you need to understand what you are in for. This is a fragile high tech piece of equipment. Those who have flown RC Planes know this but those of you that are new to RC flying would be well served to buy 2 of these. One to fly and one to take parts off of when they break, and they will break.

Any fall from greater that the default (9') will cause extensive damage, a new system board is $99 and the costs of the parts quickly add up. Just a note replacement parts are not shipping at this time.

Yes these are easy to fly, but they are easy to crash and break very easily. I have a broken, central cross, system board, body set, shaft and gear.

It's fun to fly but even after about 10 hrs under my belt I am still using the indoor hull outside. Shaft and gear will break if prop hits anything. Any wind is a problem. My indoor hull is showing signs of stress and I imagine it will not last much longer.

It is well worth the $299 price but keep in mind, it will break,

FWIW I sent support an email over 2 weeks ago and no response, I sat for hours on the phone and never talked to anyone. You are on your own with this. Oh and try and find parts, my guess is 80% of the drones out there are non usable.

Buyer beware THIS IS AN EXPENSIVE TOY, that breaks very easily and the replacement parts are pricey.

83 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars bad service from manufacturer, November 8, 2010

By 

Greg Perry - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter Controlled by iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices (Orange/Blue) (Electronics)

One of the units purchased had bad battery charger. Manufacturer refused to treat this as DOA and refused to send a new charger. We had to spend extra money to purchase a new charger. Very very poor service which discredits the product and manufacturer.

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