Paparazzi: The Plug and Play autopilot..?
I just recently moved over from NXT to Paparazzi and I must admit I'm amazed. Excluding some problems with my radio equipment it was really easy to get flying fully autonomously; just earlier today I got everything plugged in. As the airframe I used one of my EasyGliders. It has AuW of 1,4kg and about 400W brushless setup. With it I'm using a 2.4GHz radio which is plugged to the Paparazzi through the PPM encoder; so no need for a PPM radio. Installing the Paparazzi in place included little soldering (10 wires total including the wires to the datamodem) and cluing all the parts in place.
So earlier today I finally got to flying with the PPZ and was hoping for some testing with the so called AUTO1 (i.e. "fly by wire" -mode) but this is what happened; once I had the A/C at a safe altitude I engaged AUTO1 and flew with it some 10 minutes; I worked like a dream right from the start and I hadn't changed a single parameter up to that point (granted, I was using a configuration file that had been made for EasyGlider by another user and I had to make a configuration file for my 2.4GHz radio but still!). Then I engaged AUTO2 and... well... It worked as it's supposed to. I.e. I was flying fully autonomously during my first flight with the Paparazzi. If that's not PnP in the world of RC then what is? (Ok ok.. I had a 35sec flight before this; That flight ended in a crash due to bad 35MHz PCM radio but that's nothing related to the Paparazzi anyways...)Ok, I have to admit that PPZ with all it's features isn't as simple as ArduPilot, for example, but, still, I wouldn't consider it much harder to use once you get the hang of it. Besides once you get into it you'll get to like all the features that already exist in PPZ code repositories; there's, for example, code for a stabilized camera mount, gyros, additional sensor etc. readily available.
IMHO the PPZ is nowadays much more of a PnP autopilot than people tend to think. One important thing is that all the needed parts are readily available and assembled. As for the price I paid for my PPZ+PPM encoder+Datamodems about 460$ (CheBuzz PPZ). It's much more than you'd pay for ArduPilot but then again the PPZ is also somewhat more cabable and has much more features although the amount of the features may not suit everyone's taste in terms of conveniency and ease of use.
Oh and one more thing; as you may know the PPZ ground station and pretty much all the software made for PPZ is made for Linux, or Ubuntu to be more precise, and this may sound a little sacry BUT Ubuntu these days is probably one of the easiest and intuitive OSes to use AND install. Especially the installing of the Ubuntu is SO much easier than it is for windows, for example; you can even install Ubuntu while you're still using Windows Vista or XP or whatever and you don't need to format your hard drive or any partitions as Ubuntu will make a new partition for you on the fly which isn't possible with Windows and after installing Ubuntu you'll be able to use either operating system as needed. And if you don't want to install Ubuntu onto your laptop that's fine too: a LIVE CD for PPZ has been made which makes it possible to simply burn the CD and put it into your laptop, restart and you're done. As a side note I want to point out that I actually moved over from Windows to Ubuntu permanently once I had first tried the LIVE CD.
PS. Now that I reread this post I realised that it really sounds like a 2nd class PPZ advert and there's a reason for it too; IMO many people don't really know how easy it is to use PPZ and this can be seen on many discussions on RC Groups, for example. It seems that especially the Linux part is a very powerfull deterrent for many people. But the fact is that using Linux (Ubuntu) these days is so much easier and convenient than it used to be that in my honest opinnion it's actually much better and easier to use than Windows and in many ways much like Mac.
Sami F.
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Comment by Mogly (Umesh Tharanath) on July 30, 2009 at 2:51pm -
Sweet! I would order 1. Can't Wait to see my plane flying fully autonomously.
plz Post more about configurations.
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Comment by Peter Meister on July 30, 2009 at 7:28pm -
I have 3 of them, and I have to tell you. So far it is the best Open Source Autopilot out there, and has the most advanced features of any I've seen to date.
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Comment by Jonas on July 31, 2009 at 12:07am -
Hello Sami, I totally agree with you I have the same experience with paparazzi uav. I love linux so this was a blessing for me. I see you use the EasyGlider Airframe I have the EasyGlider Pro. Are you online on the Paparazzi IRC? I like the Ardupilot also but I miss the GCS from where U monitor and control the plane.
I must admit that I used a tutorial from rcgroups to help me on the way they are great! And I do not think that paparazzi is expensive. I can recommend if you order than order with cable set and bootloader installed I did not but it save s some time.
Everyone can download the live cd with paparazzi already installed for free and start a simulated flight all for free!!
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Comment by Jonas on July 31, 2009 at 1:03am
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Comment by Adam Spence (GeicoGecko) on July 31, 2009 at 1:06am -
I have to completely agree. Whilst studying at university I created an IMU based autopilot which was only ever tested on the ground. I then discovered papers regarding the horizon sensing autopilots and last year I finally discovered Paparazzi. It's taken a wee bit of reading to get into it but the IRC channel and development list are invaluable and everyone is so friendly. The solutions offered by CheBuzz and the like really mean that the pain of getting an autopilot in the air are vastly reduced.... Keep up the work guys!
If I'd found Paparazzi whilst at Uni I feel I could have contributed to the development and really become immersed. Unfortunately with a full time job, wife and kids, I can only spend a limited amount of time each week... that won't stop me though!
My overall aim is to re-visit the IMU solution using the Paparazzi solution as a development platform. Having said that there is work going on behind the scenes and I do wonder if it won't be long until Paparazzi will be offered with an IMU solution as well (you can already connect many commercially available IMU's and there is a German team who are offering an open source alternative).
I understand that linux does put a lot of people off but as Sami is saying you can use a Live CD (available from the Paparazzi wiki http://paparazzi.enac.fr) which means there is nothing to install on your computer and you can't risk loosing your existing OS. Currently I'm running Ubuntu from an external hard drive on my work laptop either from boot or using vmware player when logged into windows... it's so easy it's scary!
I'm also using the easy glider pro airframe and I believe the config file that Sami used it this one from hendrix on rcgroups: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12011375#post12011375
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Comment by Sami Finnila on July 31, 2009 at 3:47am -
GeicoGecko: Yes, that's the file I use and with the original file I had only very little altitude oscillations but dealing that was as simple as tweaking the auto_throttle_Dgain a little.
Jonas: Yes, I'm indeed on the #paparazzi channel under the nick of Safi and I know both you and Adam's story through there.
I'm glad to hear that it's not only me that's happy with the Paparazzi autopilot!
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Comment by OlivierD. on July 31, 2009 at 2:58pm -
Jonas, Adam, Sami:
Do you guys think we could somehow interface Bill's IMU to the Tiny or TWOG units?
(UAVDevboard : http://www.diydrones.com/page/uav-devboard)
Bill's board seems to be a viable prepackaged IMU solution, just wondering if it could somehow mate with Paparazzi. That would make it an awesome package.
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Comment by Sami Finnila on July 31, 2009 at 5:34pm
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Olivier: There has actually already been projects which connect the Paparazzi to an IMU. It should be relatively easy to connect the Bill's DevBoard to the PPZ through either SPI or I2C; it requires some programming, though. I, however, suspect that Jordi is already working hard on an IMU extension board for ArduPilot which will probably be much smaller than the DevBoard and you'll porbably be able to connect even that to PPZ quite easily.
I was going to make my own "one-IMU-fits-all-add-on-board" until I realised that everybody is working on one.. :)
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Comment by OlivierD. on July 31, 2009 at 6:56pm
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Hi Sami. Thanks for the response. It's true, the race for whomever comes up with a viable 6DOF (or 9DOF with magnetos) is on but so far, the only working solution I saw is Bill's. Thanks to Bill and Paul's outstanding work on code, a self stabilizing solution is now possible without Kalman filtering, using an entirely new approach. I imagine if we use similar gyros and accelerometers, DCM code can be ported over in a smaller package to suit Paparazzi. I agree Paparazzi seems to be the most versatile platform as far as readily available controllers go, without spending thousands. I keep an eye on the developments, there is a big community behind it as well and the success stories are plenty. And I love Ubuntu, I have not rebooted my system in 3 months. That would not be possible with a windows machine! Regards,
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Comment by Michael Evans on August 4, 2009 at 1:00am -
i love Paparazzi! easy to work with and loads of support. i was only 16 when i started and used ubuntu daily ever since the first boot. i had a little mishap and had to sell it, but will be buying another very soon! i hope to see Chris work on his! ;)
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1000937
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