By Wesley Fenlonon Aug. 20, 2013 at 8:45 a.m.3D Robotics Announces Full

On Monday, 3D Robotics announced a new quadrocopter: the Iris, a $730 autonomous flyer that comes fully assembled out of the box. The Iris is priced in between 3D Robotics other copters--it's an upgrade over the existing $600 quadrotor, but less expensive than the eight- and six-rotor copters. Iris' main selling point is a new 32-bit PX4 autopilot system, which is an open source platform replacing the APM autopilot used in 3D Robotics' previous copters.

Photo credit: Flickr user cmichel67 via Creative Commons

3D Robotics touts the Iris as a consumer-friendly quadrocopter, thanks to a simple all-in-one housing and its autonomous features. The copter's landing feet extend downward from its rotor arms, rather than being separate legs like the RTF Quad's. The autopilot system supports GPS waypoints and flying the copter by setting points on a map. Like 3D Robotics' other copters, Iris can also go into follow mode, loiter, hold its altitude, or turn over manual control responsibility to the user. There's room and lift capacity for a user-mounted GoPro for aerial videography.

3D Robotics' introductory post for Iris points out "GPS waypoints allow for professional-grade mission capabilities, such as: mapping, scripted cinematography, scientific research, and other applications where repeatable flight plans are required." The APM 2.6 autopilot also included GPS functionality, but the shift to the new platform may indicate more sophisticated flight capabilities in the future. One commenter on the site mentions that APM is nearly out of program memory, limiting its expandability, while PX4 has more memory and more room for future capabilities.

3D Robotics will start shipping out the $730 quadrocopters on September 16th. They're already up for pre-order, though 3D Robotics cautions that pre-order units are mainly aimed at pros who are ready to deal with firmware updates and other early adopter issues. Iris is targeted at the mass market, though, which means it should be the company's most user friendly drone yet.

3D Robotics公司發(fā)布自主飛行器Iris 星期一，3D Robotics公司宣布了一項(xiàng)新的四軸飛行器：虹膜，730美元的自主飛行，是完全組裝的盒子。虹膜是以3D機(jī)器人其他直升機(jī)之間--這是一個(gè)升級(jí)到現(xiàn)有的600美元的旋翼，但低于八和六旋翼直升機(jī)。虹膜的主要賣點(diǎn)是一個(gè)新的32位PX4的自動(dòng)駕駛系統(tǒng)，它是一個(gè)開(kāi)放源碼的平臺(tái)取代用于3D機(jī)器人以前的直升機(jī)自動(dòng)駕駛儀的APM。

photo信用：Flickr用戶cmichel67通過(guò)Creative Commons

3D機(jī)器人吹捧的虹膜為消費(fèi)者友好的四軸飛行器，由于一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的一體式外殼其自治功能。直升機(jī)降落的腳下延伸從轉(zhuǎn)子臂向下，而不是像RTF四的自動(dòng)駕駛系統(tǒng)支持GPS航點(diǎn)和設(shè)置點(diǎn)在地圖上飛行的直升機(jī)分開(kāi)腿。像3D機(jī)器人的其他直升機(jī)，虹膜也可以進(jìn)入跟蹤模式，蹭，保持其高度，或移交責(zé)任用戶手動(dòng)控制。那里的房間和用戶容量安裝高空攝像GoPro電梯。

3D機(jī)器人入門后虹膜指出“GPS航點(diǎn)允許專業(yè)級(jí)的任務(wù)的能力，如：地圖、腳本的攝影、科學(xué)研究和其他應(yīng)用程序的可重復(fù)的飛行計(jì)劃是必需的。”APM 2.6自動(dòng)駕駛儀還包括GPS功能，但移到新的平臺(tái)可能在未來(lái)更復(fù)雜的飛行能力。一位網(wǎng)友在網(wǎng)站上提到的APM幾乎是從程序存儲(chǔ)器，限制了它的可擴(kuò)展性，而有更多的內(nèi)存和PX4未來(lái)的能力更大的空間。

3D機(jī)器人將開(kāi)始出貨了730美元quadrocopters 9月16日。他們已經(jīng)開(kāi)始預(yù)訂，雖然3D機(jī)器人提醒預(yù)購(gòu)單位主要是針對(duì)職業(yè)人準(zhǔn)備處理固件更新和其他早期采用者的問(wèn)題。虹膜是針對(duì)大眾市場(chǎng)，但這意味著它應(yīng)該是該公司的最具用戶友好的無(wú)人駕駛飛機(jī)尚未。