Qball UAV flies at the ASEE Quanser Innovation Hub

I have just returned from the 2010 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. This year, Quanser decided to do something a little different from the usual tradeshow booths and exhibits. In addition to our usual booth, we went all out and built a fully-functional indoor lab for flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Quanser's Innovation Hub was dedicated (this year) to demonstrating our Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) Laboratory. The UVS Lab includes the Qball UAV, Qbot UGV, OptiTrack camera localization, and ground station with QUARC real-time control software.

Before the show even started people were lining up to take a look at the Qball flying around its enclosure. Anyone walking by while the Qball whirred and flew around immediately stopped and stared. And when we told people they would have a chance to actually take the controls and fly the Qball during our hourly demos, they got really excited.

Although we didn't have the time to give everybody a try at flying the Qball, dozens of people ranging from grade schoolers to professors got a chance to try it out. It was a really great way to captivate the younger audience members and get them excited about engineering.

Part of the demo was our own technology demonstrations to highlight some of the capabilities of the Qball and the UVS Lab. We got to show some of the nimble flight capabilities of the Qball, its on-board sensors were used to fly over some obstacles, and we also ran fully autonomous missions.

The UVS Lab and Innovation Hub will be

going to ACC in Baltimore next, followed by the Guidance Navigation and Control Conference in Toronto. If you're going to either of these events please stop by and see the UVS Lab and try your hand at flying our Qball! Look forward to more feedback from ACC and GNC and also some videos shot at these events.

-Cameron