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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Admin Comment by Thomas J Coyle III on May 24, 2010 at 10:45am -
Chris,
Sounds like an excellent collaboration! Keep up the good work.
Regards,
TCIII
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Comment by Jason Kunc on May 24, 2010 at 11:00am -
coming from a guy that just joined a couple of days ago, this sound so awesome! I'm glad I get to see this project mature from the start using the mega.
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Moderator Comment by Morli on May 24, 2010 at 11:02am -
Marriage made in sky, sounds like great project. :)
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Comment by Peter Seddon on May 24, 2010 at 1:21pm -
Can it be extended to hex and octo variants?
Peter
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Moderator Comment by Roberto Navoni on May 24, 2010 at 1:26pm -
I'm yet start to integrate the great work of Jose "arduimu quadcopter" to my aeroquad branch.
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/source/browse/#svn/branches...
this is my code ... i put the libary that i developed for aeroquad to arduimu project ... then the second step is to port the same update to ardu-imu to aeroquad ... this update is avaible for AVR 644P sanguino board that using i2c BL-CTR.
When i tested the code i post it on Aeroquad Branch and i hope that this work help the other component of Aeroquad / Arduimu Team.
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Moderator Comment by Roberto Navoni on May 24, 2010 at 1:28pm -
@Peter ,
in my branch of aeroquad there'is yet avaible an aeroquad version of software for Hexa configuration that use my Force Vector Mixer Table ....
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3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on May 24, 2010 at 1:34pm -
@Peter. Yes, the plan is to support all rotary platforms, including hex and octo, as well as coax. But we're starting with quads, and then standard helis...
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Moderator Comment by Roberto Navoni on May 24, 2010 at 1:55pm -
Hi Chris ,
in aeroquad forum we have discussus about mixertable integration and M.Holder are doing a proposal project than i have integrate id in aeroquad and work fine ... I yet check + x and hexa configuration. I'm yet doing some patch to arduimu-quad and now also arduimu-quad support aeroquad mixertable feature ... so is possible to test it ... In the next day i think that i'm doing a video of arduimu-hexa version :)
This is the video of first flight of hexafox aeroquad version !
http://www.diydrones.com/video/first-flight-with-vector-force
I'm intend to doing the same video with position hold.
I'm have an a question who are the member of arducopter team ? I can join officialy to it ?
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Comment by Dimitar Kolev on May 24, 2010 at 1:56pm -
Good people, good ideas and good work! Keep it up and running!
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Comment by Bob Hern on May 24, 2010 at 3:08pm -
any even estimation on the cost of the seutp?
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