Parrot Minidrone Rolling Spider; An indoor drone for big kids!

The latest mini flying drone from Parrot is a bundle of fun in eight-minute chunks.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?. Not quite, it's very small for a plane. It's a very small, very fun drone. Controlled by an iOS app, the MiniDrone nips around and reaches height of 160mph, whilst its large wheels stop it crashing into any unforgiving walls or branches. Get ready to get hooked.

The Minidrone Rolling Spider is the latest smartphone-controlled drone from French Bluetooth specialists Parrot - and it is probably the most fun enjoyable. With having a price of 90 pounds. You can now have a leisure within your indoors. 

A tiny 55g quadrocopter, the Rolling Spiders needs to be connected to an iPhone or Android (Windows Phone coming October) allowing the user as pilots to perform various tricks such as barrel rolls, backflips while flying.

This drone will take off and hover on the spot with just a touch of a button, and maintain its height and balance even when pushed against. Its large and flexible wheels can roll along floors or ceiling - and won't damage anything it crashes into it. Quite amazing right?.

The small drone buzzes around like a large insect and is sensitive to gusts of wind - strictly a fair weather or indoor toy only - but is perfectly sized to whizz around the indoor halls of even the smallest flat. 

Controlling the drone at up to 20m away is straightforward using a smartphone, with three choices of control scheme. The joystick is certainly the easiest way, but tilt controls are also available. Double tap the virtual pad to initiate a mid-air backflip or barrel roll. ( GIF avaible at the top of this paragraph) 

Crash into something and the rotors cut out instantly, which means the drone will drop out of the sky like a dead bird. Thankfully, its quite robust and the large flexible wheels are great at absorbing fairly hard impacts. In additon, one single 90-minute battery charge can only lasts for eight minutes, but additional batteries can be brought.

The smartphone control app has three different control schemes, with tilt and joystick options, but the low battery is something you'll see quite often with only eight minutes flying time. Credits; Samuel Gibbs

Some features of this drone is a camera underneath, but it's mainly part of the sensor system combined with an ultrasound sensor, a gyroscope, accelerator and pressure sensor for measuring altitude. It will produce low-resolution photos, but they are shot straight down, so no shots through the neighbors' windows.

Lastly, a the price of 90Pounds, the Rolling Spider is certainly a toy for the very biggest children, like you my dear reader, its is extremely good fun and will certainly entertain your whole family without causing too much damage. All around, a chance to experiment a drone without breaking the bank. 

Credits to Samuel Gibbs for the photos and the article.