This week the folks at Parrot have revealed several additions to the AR.Drone 2.0 ecosystem, not least of these being a new High Density Battery. While the current iteration of the Parrot AR.Drones in-box battery does offer quite a bit of flight time, theres always room for more action and longer-lasting action, at that: a non-stop 18 minute flight is in store with this slightly more orange-looking Lithium-Polymer battery pack.
The Parrot AR.Drone iOS app had ben given a boost with “Director Mode”, this bit of movement adding on a few Camera Settings, Post-Production settings, and sequence edits. We’ll be giving you a hands-on look at this set of moves soon stay tuned to SlashGear’s AR.Drone tag protal for more while we’re at it.
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 will be working with a new Flight Recorder system allowing users to record and keep flight data and GPS-localized from here on out. This update will be coming attached to the Flight Recorder, of course, that lovely little gadget shown off at CES 2013 in another cool bit of orange.
This update will allow the AR.Drone 2.0 to grab position information (+/- 2 meters) throughout the drones full flight. The Flight Recorder also works with 4GB of Flash memory which allows the machine to record right around two hours of HD video thats across several flights, of course. Flight Recorder still rings in at $129.95 while the high density battery will cost you a cool $69.95 starting this summer (aka right this minute).
Flight Recorder also allows for Click & Go Piloting Mode, this giving the user the ability to define a destination based on an overhead map sourced from satellites from space . Once the destination set is reached, the machine will be able to return with a simple tap of the Home button. Sound nice?
Whats more, the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 can now work with open source high end autopilot software from the Delft University of Technology. Theyve worked to create this autopilot software code-named Paparazzi, it able to be integrated with the AR.Drone hardware through the Parrot Flight Recorder simple stuff. Plugging in the AR.Drone to a laptop with Paparazi allows a single button (Compile) setup, and youre off!
Features:
- High density LiPo battery - 1500mAh
- Permits up to 50% of extra flight time
- Compatible with AR Drone and AR Drone 2.0
- Lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery
- 1500mAh - 11.1V
- 2h30 charging time
