Hey guys, as many of you know the AeroQuad has teamed up with DIY Drones on developing a very full featured multicopter! Chris from DIY Drones has proposed the name of this new effort to be called the ArduCopter! It will be based on the ArduPilot Pro Mega (APM) and the APM sensor board currently nicknamed the Oil Pan. Here's an initial feature list and software road map. Please chime in! Your input is valuable! I'll keep updating this front page until we agree on the first version of the ArduCopter's capabilities.
ArduCopter Feature ListSoftware Roadmap
- 6 Degree of Freedom IMU stabilized control
- Gyro stabilized flight mode enabling acrobatics (loops and barrel rolls)
- GPS for position hold
- Magnetometer for heading determination
- Barometer for altitude hold
- IR sensor integration for obstacle avoidance
- Sonar sensor for automated takeoff and landing capability
- Automated waypoint navigation
- Motor control using low cost standard PWM Electronics Speed Controllers (ESC's)
- On board flight telemetery data storage
- Mounted camera stabilization capability
- Wireless command & telemetry for long distance communication
- Capability to fly in "+", "x", hexa and octo configurations
- Battery level detection
- User configurable LED flight pattern
- Capability to use any R/C receiver
- ArduCopter Configuration and Ground Control Software
- Realtime graphs of flight data
- GUI for configuration of PID and other flight parameters
- On Screen Display integration
- Waypoint programming using Google Maps
- Mixertable view to auto configure "+", "x", hexa and octo configurations
- Initial baseline using Jose Julio's v3 software
- Provides absolute angle PID flight control
- Obstacle avoidance
- Waypoint navigation
- Generalize basic ArduCopter functions (ie. Separate PPM receiver input and motor control functions into separate libraries. Allows future coding of PWM vs. I2C ESC's)
- Emphasis on developing new capability into easy to use C++ libraries
- Integrate user defined EEPROM storage capability
- Develop/optimize AeroQuad serial real-time command/telemetry for ArduCopter
- Integrate AeroQuad Configurator for external software configuration of ArduCopter
- Rename Configurator to Ground Control Station and integrate graphical programming of waypoint navigation
- Integrate AeroQuad rate PID control
- Integrate mixertable configuration for multicopter configurations
- Integrate AeroQuad camera stabilization
- Integrate I2C motor control
- Develop capability to wirelessly control ArduCopter directly from Ground Control Station (USB joystick controller from laptop or through waypoint programming)
Announcing ArduCopter, the merger of the ArduPilot and AeroQuad projects!
I'm pleased to announce that we've joined forces with the other Arduino-based powerhouse in the aerial robotics world, the AeroQuad quadcopter team, to extend the ArduPilot platform to whirlybirds of all kinds. The project, called ArduCopter, will use the ArduPilotMega and IMU shield hardware along with a low-cost custom platform that will be available commercially to provide a full quad UAV with both stabilization and GPS waypoint navigation. It builds on the awesome work of Jose Julio in ArduPilot quad development, with the excellent full-systems integration of the AeroQuad team. We expect that first code and hardware will be available this summer.
And here's the impressive work of the AeroQuad team:
Another team is also extending this to traditional helis, starting with the Trex 450 heli (and its equivalents), which should be ready for release this fall. Along with Blimpduino, this should make for 100% coverage of all aerial robotics platforms on the Arduino platform, with shared libraries and ground stations across projects. Go Arduino!
We'll be setting up a proper microsite here, along with dedicated tab, for the project in the next few days.
If you haven't already seen this preview of what the ArduPilot/ArduIMU combo can do with quads, check this out:
And here's the impressive work of the AeroQuad team:
Here's the announcement from the AeroQuad team:
ArduCopter - The Full Featured UAV Multicopter!
Comments are closed for this blog post
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Comment by Sebastian Gralla on August 12, 2010 at 12:48pm -
do you use the configurator tool?
i were not able to put floating values as PID values, only numbers like 1, 2, 3 and so on
is that an issue of mine, or is it the program?
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Comment by Taylor Cox on August 12, 2010 at 12:50pm -
When the full kits are available...will we be able to choose between the larger and smaller armed arducopter frames?
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JDrones Comment by Jani Hirvinen on August 12, 2010 at 12:52pm -
Hmm yes i use configurator. I think that , . problem was fixed on it already but I will let people know who made it. Due fine tunes goes in steps like +- 0.05 or +- 0.1
You can also use serial monitor to send those values. As in ascii string if nothing else.
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JDrones Comment by Jani Hirvinen on August 12, 2010 at 12:55pm -
Taylor, we have not yet decided that how it will be done due it's a bigger logistical issue. Maybe it will be come as smaller and then you can get longer arms to it. This way you always have a another set of arms available if you happen to have bad crash or so... future will tell us.
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Comment by Alberto Casu on August 12, 2010 at 3:21pm -
Hello Guys, I am new to all this UAV world, and I am still trying to get all the information to start.
One thing I do not understand about the community tools for the Arducopter project. Why are we all typing comments to this Chris's blog post, instead of opening a discussion forum as it was done for the Aeroquad for instance?
(http://www.diydrones.com/forum/categories/aeroquad-1/listForCategory)
I think it would be easier to find and share information (avoiding also to retype the same questions).
In my case, I still haven't understood what is the roadmap for this project and how someone like me can start from scratch (even though it is pretty clear this version is till in a testing phase)
I still can't wait :-)
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Comment by Richard Hirst on August 12, 2010 at 7:45pm -
Hi Jani, looks like I damaged the Mux. shorted out the in/out for ch2 and works ok. Will order a new IC later.
Does anyone have any code to read the ADIS16355 Acc/Gyr from Analog Devices.. I just happen to have one.
Thanks
Richard
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Moderator Comment by John Church on August 12, 2010 at 8:58pm -
If you get a minute, are you using the analog accessory pins for your LEDs? I can't seem to place these (I haven't looked at the datasheet yet):
#define FR_LED 3 // Mega PE4 pin
#define RE_LED 2 // Mega PE5 pin
#define RI_LED 7 // Mega PH4 pin
#define LE_LED 8 // Mega PH5 pin
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JDrones Comment by Jani Hirvinen on August 12, 2010 at 10:21pm -
Alberto, reason why we are not using AeroQuad categories is that this is ArduCopter project. Ted run's his AeroQuad as separate project and it is done by him self. ArduCopter then again is DIY Drones project. And Chris is one of the main man's behind DIY Drones so it's rather natural that ArduCopter posts are under his main postings.
We are working to create better website for ArduCopter and ArduPilot but due we have a lot other tasks running parallel, it will take a bit untill everything is ready.
@John yes i did use those due we have been having national holidays here and did not go to office. All my pin headers are at office but I had a lot servo extension cables so it was easy to connect them to OUT4-7 ports on APM. In future they might/will change but that is still just an I/O port. PE4 is OUT7, PE5 = OUT6 and so on. Also there are 1kOhm resistors installed on those ports so I only had to connect LEDs. But in close future we will need those ports for example to sonar and others.
@Richard, yep shorting pin fixes it but next time you burn your MCU so be careful, hehe you are not only one who made that "n000b" mistake.. In future releases there will be another type of protection for the pins. (me and Jose burned them even on same day... doh ArduN00bs ;) )
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Moderator Comment by John Church on August 13, 2010 at 12:15am -
Thanks for that Jani. By the way, no more potato fields today. We saw great success after my initial plunder. I'm currently working on getting a visual indication of what mode we're in using your latest rev..
Anyone else trying r75? I can't get motors to arm... Previous rev. works like a charm :)
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Moderator Comment by John Church on August 13, 2010 at 12:22am -
My bad... Just noticed the arming timer! LOL! Blasted safety :)
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