A new UAV/ MAV optical flow sensor has been released over at DIYdrones.   This sensor will mainly be used for Arducopter Multi-rotor and traditional helicopters to improve position hold.  This sensor is based on the ADNS3080 mouse sensor, and features a 8mm leans with 11deg FOV, ideal for low altitude position hold functions.

A library to use this sensor can be found here
This board has an SPI interface so it can be interfaced to many other micro controllers.
This optical flow sensor is also for sale in the UK from UnmannedTech

Unmanned Tech now offer pre soldered ardupilot mega kits for those who dont want the extra hassle of having to manualy solder the boards.

All the headers and connections are soldered as shown in the image to the right, so all you need to do is plug it in, upload the the arduplane or arducopter firmware,

The new PhoneDrone Android/RC interface board is in final production and will be stocked at our store in the next few weeks.

PhoneDrone is an Arduino compatible interface board that you can connect with any Android device (2.3.4 or higher), allowing you to use or phone to communicate with the RC/UAV world.  THe board features 8 PWM inputs, and 8 PWM outputs, as well as PWM-to-PPM conversion and multiplexing between your RC gear and Android device.

An example use would be where you could use or Android device for performing complex control algorithms using its inboard sensors (IMU/GPS) and send the output to your motors or servos.

For UAV applications you could use your Android phone as a long range wireless communications device instead of the more traditional data modems which have complexities due to interference between the modem and your RC gear.  Alternatively you could use your ArduPilot Mega autopilot for aircraft control, and use your Android device to run complex navigation, path planning, or evin image processing algorithms (object tracking) and sending mission commands back to APM.  The limit is only your imagination.

The main change in the project is that all the code has moved from Subversion to GIt.  The code is still on Google Code.  Other than that some of the branches of ArduPilot Mega have been renamed as follows:

• Over project umbrella is called ArduPilot Mega
• Fixed wing aircraft code is now ArduPlane
• Rotary wing (multirotor/helicopter) is now Arducopter
• Ground vehicles are called ArduRover
• Lighter than Air vehicles are now called ArduBlimp

New features on mission planner include easier mission scripting with right click options which lets you select the kind of action to trigger.  Also the waypoint radius is shown which allows you to see how close your UAV needs to be before the waypoint is considered to be reached.

The new version of APM 2.23 has been released with an updated version of the mission planner.  The new version mainly fixes minor bugs.  The main new feature of APM 2.23 is the introduction of differential ailerons/flaps.  The mission planner updates fix some issues and improve board detection speed.  Read more for full details.