TiredTomato

We thought of that and have started buying toy subs and toy planes in order to find out different propellers and what works. At the moment we're also looking to see whether we want to use the XBOX kinects in order to do the imaging or another third party device ... I'm pretty much in charge of coding the entire thing and it's proving to be a challenge to find everything I need (looking for just pure information on how to modify and write code for the XBOX kinects) Anything would help, even if just to re-assure what I already think I know, thanks for all your help

We were thinking of possibly giving it sonar or maybe just turning the 3d imaging device downwards so that it could stay buoyant on top of the water, that would remove a lot of the difficulty especially because we could stick to a light weight model with only SOME water protection. I feel like if we did this we would need to compensate in speed or some type of more impressive mapping software and imaging. We're actively having brainstorm sessions to try and find a way to make it unique but lower the work load required. Its rather difficult Hopefully we will come up with an idea soon, at the moment I am learning C++ to read and modify the 3D imaging programs and my friend (the mechanic) is messing with toys like you suggested in order to find a lightweight water blocking solution that still leaves a clear or known diffraction of light (if it is known I would think that it is possible to program the imaging software to compensate for a known diffraction. Ill update soon because we have another session this Thursday and hopefully are going to get some progress made, thanks for you help! While this is interesting we were going for something a lot smaller and for imaging purposes. Not only that I would hope that it is unmanned, either by remote control or by autonomous means.

Hello, I am looking for help because I am in WAY over my head (ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED)! I started a science fair project with two other people and we're planning on completing it this year. We decided to do a project involving unmanned drones. We have narrowed our project down to creating a 3D imaging vehicle that operates autonomously in land, water, and air. I am planning on using the XBOX Kinects in order to do the 3D imaging and hook it up into an "omnothopter - esque" machine, basically our mechanical engineer plans to implement a variety of different small engines for air and a few gripped engines for aquatic conditions ( I will post a rough blue print once he finishes creating it ). The problem I am facing right now is just to large to describe, I have no idea where to start on such a big project, I need to find the SDK the Kinects functions in, get the 3D imaging source code... find the software for it all, then I need to successfully test and create the vehicle. If anyone has any knowledge whatsoever to help me out I would appreciate it so much, anything from a good cheap way to grab a small engine to a link to the open source code for the Kinects would be appreciated. Im doing as much research as I can but I have about 5 million other things I need to focus on as well. Email is shift@dcgames.com I will be updating this thread actively as I get the blue prints and as we progress so anyone's advice would be wonderful, thank you all ! ============================================================ EDIT: 12:21 AM 7/10/2011 According to my mechanical engineer the design we're going for is kind of car like. I attached a picture of what we're thinking of, the front two rotors would be for flight and we would have a pair of much smaller back two with grips on them so they can function in water.. the idea is to attain bouyancy using a series of air pumps / baloons so that all the engines have to deal with is horizontal motion. "one steering wheel in the front two wheels inthe back jet engine in the back and two rotating propellers on the front i'm sure there will be slight if not more modifications" ^ My mech. Basically says that he's going off a model he found for an air / land vehicle and going to modify it further. The kinects would sit inside the glass dome in the middle and would be encased in a solid plastic chassis made to prevent water damage. This of course would affect our 3d imaging so I have my other friend working on finding a suitable material will have a constant inputable rate of refraction so that we can work the Kinects. The last problem we're facing is the refraction of the kinects in water, my thoughts were to either use a thermal imaging system or a sonar imaging system for underwater, however I believe sonar imaging systems are pretty big and want to try and keep this to... like 3 feet large MAX, so any suggestions there would be helpful.