Meet Arturo, an adorable R2D2 drone ready to take to the skies
Dec 25, 2015
Gannon Burgett
Gannon Burgett is a communications professional with over a decade of experience in content strategy, editing, marketing, multimedia content creation. He’s photographed and written content seen across hundreds of millions of pageviews. In addition to his communications work for various entities and publications, Gannon also runs his multimedia marketing agency, Ekleptik Media, where he brings his expertise as a full-stack creator to help develop and execute data-driven content strategies. His writing, photos, and videos have appeared in USA Today, Car and Driver, Road & Track, Autoweek, Popular Mechanics, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, DPReview, PetaPixel, Imaging Resource, Lifewire, Yahoo News, Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal, and more.
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This holiday season, drones and Star Wars are some of the most talked about items to be had. Thus, it’s only natural that we see the two come together for a little holiday celebration.
Meet Arturo, the self-proclaimed ’world’s first actual flying R2D2 drone.’
Created by aerial cinematographer Don Melara in partnership with aerial photography firm Air Cam Shots, Arturo was built from the ground up in only 8 days.
The drone is based off a DJI frame, with built-in GPS autopilot navigation. Arturo features a rotating head, LED jetpack lights, a speaker box for playing the Droid’s iconic noises and even has a camera installed in the eye to relay what the drone is seeing.
Considering how large – particularly tall – the drone is, it’s surprising to see how well balanced it is in flight.
This isn’t Melara’s first rodeo though. Earlier this year he built a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter drone, also powered by DJI’s autopilot navigation system.
Next up, the Mellinium Falcon, Melara.
Gannon Burgett
Gannon Burgett is a communications professional with over a decade of experience in content strategy, editing, marketing, multimedia content creation. He’s photographed and written content seen across hundreds of millions of pageviews. In addition to his communications work for various entities and publications, Gannon also runs his multimedia marketing agency, Ekleptik Media, where he brings his expertise as a full-stack creator to help develop and execute data-driven content strategies. His writing, photos, and videos have appeared in USA Today, Car and Driver, Road & Track, Autoweek, Popular Mechanics, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, DPReview, PetaPixel, Imaging Resource, Lifewire, Yahoo News, Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal, and more.
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