Cornell Builds Autonomous UAV

tshak writes "From Microsoft Research, 'Faculty and students at Cornell University have built an unmanned airplane with its own on-board, embedded control system. The large-scale model plane flies by accessing coordinates from an off-the-shelf GPS unit.' Not only does the plane run XP embedded, but the software is written in C# on the .NET Compact Framework. This is all powered by an 800mhz Crusoe processor with 1GB of total system storage."

Blue Sky of Death?

[philbowman]

Duck!

Brings new meaning....

[tdemark]

...to the term "crash"

Ugh.

[suso]

I fear the onslaught of 1001 jokes about this plane crashing.

here we go

[Sanity]

<Insert jokes about UAV flying into building during garbage collection here>

Re:Ugh.

[Phisbut]

Too late... 4 of the 7 first posts imply crashing :-P

Unknown Error

[Obiwan Kenobi]

"Hello, this is your pilot software speaking. We've encountered an unknown error as a result from an unknown error.

Please click OK to crash."

Terrorists hijack plane... via email

[Anonymous Coward]

Teehee.

Cruise missile

[panxerox]

And the difference between this and a cruise missile [bbc.co.uk] is what exactly?

Re:Ugh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the better joke is 1GB of storage for an embedded system. Throw in an 800MHz processor to run .NET on a system that doesn't need it and you have a real sitcom happening.

Make way...

[selderrr]

for the first airborne trojan horse !

Now all it needs is WiFi, and it can mass infect :-)

Re:Brings new meaning....

[TopShelf]

Not to mention the use of embedded XP - hopefully it won't be embedded in the ground...

*rimshot*

800 mhz?

[Valkyre]

In my day, when we wanted mobile computing power, we had to do it with a 6 Mhz Z80 [ticalc.org]. I mean really, you DONT need a desktop computer for waypoint flying.

CPU Usage for UAV
XP Embedded - 35%
Waypoint system - 1%
Flight Control System - 2% (It's written in C# with .net framework)
Seti@home client - 62%

This is not a joke..

[Anonymous Coward]

blue sky of death!

M$ is thinking about selling guns

[Martin_Flory]

First, the desktop with Windows, then the lands (they own a looot), then the consoles with Xbox, then the Tv with the Media Center PC... now.. like Xbox is not beating PS2, they came up with the idea of monopolizing the "a la Terminator" flying killing automated things.

I'm all forward it... mainly because I'm against war, and all it'd would take to stop an invasion would be to attack one of the millions of security flaws their embedded IE probably has... by the time they released the patch at http://planeupdate.microsoft.com, we would have already cracked the protection of the little things and we would be using them as toys.

Clippy?

[barcodez]

Clippy: It looks like you are flying a plane, would you like some help?

You had a 6 Mhz Z80?

[wiredog]

Lucky bastard. We had to use a PDP 11/780 on a flatbed!

Uphill! Both ways! In the snow!

Aerial Hunter-Killer

[fdiskne1]

For some reason, this story about an unmanned aerial vehicle running on Windows XP makes me think of it being infected with a virus called SkyNet and turning into an Aerial Hunter-Killer. (from the Terminator series)

Re:And I'm supposed to be impressed?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a reason why you have a low id but don't have a karma bonus. Your posts are crap.

Re:CUUAV

[Ignignot]

Well I'm the UAV team captain's second cousin's best friend's girlfriend's half brother. I hear all sorts of stories about how they actually used black magic to make the plane fly and sacrifice goats and midgets to the devil every time it goes up. No wonder they had a fire - the power transfer pentagram got smudged and the imp got loose for awhile before they could kill it with a fire axe.

Re:And I'm supposed to be impressed?

[Forbman]

You've obviously never talked to anyone loyal to the smallest degree about their choice of pickup truck, then.