The HTC Vive’s Lighthouse localization system is one of the cleverest things we’ve seen in a while. It uses a synchronization flash followed by a swept beam to tell any device that can see the lights exactly where it is in space. Of course, the device has to understand the signals to figure it out.
[Alex Shtuchkin] built a very well documented device that can use these signals to localize itself in your room. For now, the Lighthouse stations are still fairly expensive, but the per-device hardware requirements are quite reasonable. [Alex] has the costs down around ten dollars plus the cost of a microcontroller if your project doesn’t already include one. Indeed, his proof-of-concept is basically a breadboard, three photodiodes, op-amps, and some code.
His demo is awesome! Check it out in the video below. He uses it to teach a quadcopter to land itself back on a charging platform, and it’s able to get there with what looks like a few centimeters of play in any direction — more than good enough to land in the 3D-printed plastic landing thingy. That fixture has a rotating drum that swaps out the battery automatically, readying the drone for another flight.
If this is just the tip of the iceberg of upcoming Lighthouse hacks, we can’t wait!
We loved the Lighthouse at first sight, and we’ve been following its progress into a real product. Heck, we’ve even written up a previous DIY Lighthouse receiver built by [Trammell Hudson]. It’s such an elegant solution to the problem of figuring out where your robot is that we get kinda gushy. Beg your pardon.
Freakishly awesome! Yet another step closer to the robot overlords.
Can anyone point me into right direction how to build my own drone? Something similar like here.
http://bit.ly/2gIiQtA
Ebay + Google + youtube = WIN and cheap but speedy drone.
There’s tons of quadcopter info on youtube but it can be daunting if you have zero frame of reference. You might find this video useful, it takes the time to explain each component: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYAW6kVoxHc
Go to reddit and search for the subreddit called r/Multicopter
/r/multicopter is OK when you’re up and running but not the best place to post with zero knowledge or noob questions. The subreddit’s wiki isn’t bad though: https://www.reddit.com/r/Multicopter/wiki/index
Is there a good reason why so many of the links don’t work? :/
Maybe it’s just on my end.
Figured it out! The mobile version is crippled. Viewed it with ‘request desktop mode’ and everything’s there!
Thanks for the link!
Well done.
Amazing
But can it change light bulbs by itself?
You mean to ask how many drones does it take?
“Change the lightbulb human slave!” – Drone
Excellent work!
Couldn’t this be done continuously via light polarization?
Best Hackaday nickname I’ve seen in quite a while! “There goes ….”
> The HTC Vive’s Lighthouse localization system is one of the cleverest things we’ve seen in a while
It’s not a new technique actually, it’s been invented in Japan in 1989 and already used commercially (Constellation 3Di in 1999 and Nikon iGPS since 2008).
There’s also real lighthouses and the boat dudes who navigated by them ;) clever, them
Looks allot like the VOR system that was developed in the late 1930s for aircraft navigation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_omnidirectional_range#
Oh wow – robot domination so near. Now we find it cool, hopefully we wont regret it in couple of decades :D. I watched it like 3x in a row :D