Android-controlled robotic blimp

YARB is a robotic blimp controlled using an Android phone. Images are sent over Wi-Fi from the blimp to the phone’s display as it’s maneuvered along using the tilt sensor inside the G1.

Source code for the control interface is hosted at code.google.com/p/srv1console/

The tilt sensors in the Android phone work quite nicely for rotor control – we have proportional steering so the amount of tilt controls the amount of power, and live video is displayed on the Android screen from the blimp’s onboard Surveyor SRV-1 Blackfin camera, carried via the same radio channel that sends the control signals.

YARB robotic blimp controlled by Google Android G1 phone