Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Howard Gordon on June 1, 2008 at 1:16pm

Certainly, it is possible, though I've only done it at relatively close range using WiFi (802.11b/g) - here's an example -

http://www.surveyor.com/YARB.html


However, one user of my boards that was achieving close to 2 mile range with WiFi using a directional antenna with the ground station.

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Permalink Reply by ReD-DaWg-OnE on June 1, 2008 at 1:21pm

Wow, you guys are amazing. I read threw his project to see how he did it. Have you guys used something like a PicoITX motherboard and built a really tiny computer to control everything?

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Permalink Reply by Howard Gordon on June 1, 2008 at 1:28pm

No - it's using a small processor card with 1.3Mpixel video camera and 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin processor, along with a Lantronix Matchport WiFi radio module. The board set is described here.

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 1, 2008 at 5:18pm

The Paparazzi team has demonstrated flying several UAVs controlled over the Internet simultaneously.

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Permalink Reply by ReD-DaWg-OnE on June 1, 2008 at 8:16pm

Wow that is just what i wanted to do. I did a lot of reading on there site and relized there are lots of things i need to learn. Is there any how to guides and basic information guides?

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Jones on June 7, 2008 at 9:56pm

I really doubt there are any "guides" since the field of "UAV's" is fairly new. My suggestion would be to get a "HAM"(Amateur) radio license. And then, depending on how big your UAV is, acquire a ham radio. Then go research the Packet Radio which is a Ham Radio internet thingy. Then go research AGPRS which is the Amatuer Global Positioning Radio System which is a bridge between ham radio and GPS. combining all though togethor would give you a pretty sweet internet accessible UAV.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Johnson on June 8, 2008 at 4:56pm

Actually, that would be APRS ... that is Automatic Packet Reporting System. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Position_Reporting_System ... but in the context of a UAV, something more like EagleTree Systems telemetry downlink may be more what you are looking for ... http://www.eagletreesystems.com/

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Jones on June 8, 2008 at 6:39pm

Yea, woops on the APRS/AGPRS mistake. I'm just getting into amateur radio. While the EagleTree Systems does look very nice and I'm sure it's very useful I disagree, I don't think the EagleTree thing is what he is looking for. He states in his original post that he wants to make something "internet controlled." Amateur Radio(ie, APRS and Packet Radio) would solve both the position problem and the control problem. With it, you could get the position(APRS), relay it to the ground, the ground could interpret it, and then upload via Packet Radio the next commands to the UAV.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Johnson on June 8, 2008 at 6:42pm

Dependent upon the existence of local digipeaters. Which may or may not exist where he is planning to operate. For a true 'internet controlled UAV' he may need to look into cell phone based solutions, BGAN terminals or another means of air-ground, air-satellite connections. The latency of any of these solutions may be problematic.

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Jones on June 8, 2008 at 7:08pm

And yet again, my lack of Ham Radio is evident. I completly forgot to take the position of digipeaters into account. Ok,using your cell phone idea.. I change my suggestion: If I were you,ReD-DaWg-OnE, I would go buy a GM862(available at: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=7917) and some dev board(also available at: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=477) and then use your existing cell phone account to dial a modem and then send and recieve gps and control data that way. Ofcourse it does require that your vehicle is near a cell tower...

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Permalink Reply by ReD-DaWg-OnE on June 9, 2008 at 12:24pm

This was what I had in mind, you could use the cell phone to update a pre planed route or phone home couldn't you? What about embeding in a data card so you could get more info, just as snapshots of where the vehicle is?

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Permalink Reply by Harrison Jones on June 10, 2008 at 10:34pm

I'm sure you could use the cellphone to update a pre-planned route. It sounds like what you want is a combination of Cellphone/Datalogger. The cellphone would send updates/snapshots every few minutes via data connection and the datalogger would log data every few seconds. That way at the end of the run you would have loads of data but you could also keep an eye on the craft in real time.