We were back in the Arctic flying Paparazzi aircrafts on Svalbard (N78° E15°) doing research with the Geophysical Institute of the University of Bergen/Norway. There are two teams operating near Longyearbyen, one on the apron of Longyearbyen airport (LYR) and the other at the old northern lights research station in Adventdalen. We had permission to fly up to 1500m outside the airport opening times. The Paparazzi aircrafts work perfectly…for humans it is just a little cold. Last night we flew having -32°C (-25°F) on the ground. There is a video showing a 1500m vertical profile flight.

We have a new forum to talk about this project. Please visit and participate http://www.azoreanuav.com/forum .

Please, vote in the next link to continue with the forum or not. http://www.azoreanuav.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7

Three ENAC students have released a Graphical control application for Paparazzi on Mobile phones using Java Technologies, connecting via Bluetooth to the ground station. It is divided into 2 programs, one running on the ground station, and the other on the mobile phone. Check the Ipodrom project page for more details.

*Ipodrom is the french acronym for Interface pour contrôler un drone sur un mobile. It is the French UAV control interface on a mobile phone.

Paparazzi Developers, This is to announce a Call for Papers for the 2009 ASME/IEEE International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA09), part of ASME IDETC09. The conference is to be held August 30 - September 2, 2009 at the San Diego Convention Center. This Call for Papers is specific to the Session chaired by myself, Antoine Drouin, and Anton Kochevar. This topic of this session is " Open Source UAV Autopilots: Status and Progression", part of a symposium of MESA09 called “Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technologies and Applications (SUAVTA)”. This Technical Session is meant to be a session that will focus on Paparazzi, the topics can include specific features developed for Paparazzi or applications using Paparazzi along with other innovative aspects or uses of Paparazzi. We hope to make this one of the largest and best conferences dealing with Paparazzi. Please help us to promote Paparazzi and bring this amazing project to even more people. Full paper deadline is Feb. 27, 2009 using the online submission system.

A paparazzi team took part in the Motodrone event held in Finowfurt near Berlin. It was fun, the beer was cool and barbecues worked flawlessly. And we flew funjets… Video

The OSAM Paparazzi team took 2nd place in the Sixth Annual Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition! The event is sponsored by AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) and was held at Webster Field, St. Inigoes, Maryland. It should also be noted that this was Paparazzi’s and the OSAM Paparazzi team’s first time at the competition. Link to competition Highlight Video of Competition

The new baby autopilot is born. His name is TWOG, he weighs 8 grams and is 40.2 x 30.5mm long. He’s in good health and looks a lot like his mother Tiny v2, except for the GPS receiver. The proud parents invite you to visit the pictures and technical information album…

Scientists from the Geophysical Institute of the University of Bergen/Norway flew Paparazzi controlled Funjet aircrafts equipped with meteorological sensors in the Arctic sea around Spitsbergen with only the help of an RC safety pilot and no Paparazzi team member nearby. They took off and landed on the helicopter deck of the Norwegian icebreaking coast guard vessel KV Svalbard for one week and set a new Paparazzi low temperature record by flying at around -20°C and 15m/s wind in altitudes up to 1500m. For another two weeks they also collected data on Spitsbergen near Longyearbyen. See pictures in the gallery and a video.

Paparazzi attended the US-Asian MAV 2008 competition taking place in Agra, India. The ENAC team won the “Best Autonomous MAV” Award.

Here is the program for the event.

MAV08 Proceedings

A number of vendors are now offering assembled and not-assembled autopilots, sensors and accessories. The software is written, the hardware is built, what are you waiting for? Getting started has never been easier! More details on the Get Hardware page.