A newbie's guide to UAVs
What is an amateur UAV?
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft that has the capability of autonomous flight, without a pilot in control. Amateur UAVs are non-military and non-commercial. They typically fly under “recreational” exceptions to FAA regulations on UAVs, so long as the pilots/programmers keep them within tight limits on altitude and distance. Usually the UAV is controlled manually by Radio Control (RC) at take-off and landing, and switched into GPS-guided autonomous mode only at a safe altitude. (Confused by all the acronyms and unfamiliar terms in UAVs? A glossary is here.)
What do I need to make one?
---1) An RC plane, muticopter (quadcopter/hexacopter/tricopter, etc) or helicopter (see good starter plane options here). You can buy them ready to fly, including autopilot, here.
---2) An autopilot, such as APM 2.5 (see below)
---3) Optional: a useful “payload”, such as a digital camera or video transmission equipment
What does DIY Drones have to offer?
The DIY Drones community has created the world's first "universal autopilot", ArduPilot Mega (APM). It combines sophisticated IMU-based autopilot electronics with free Arduino-based autopilot software that can turn any RC vehicle into a fully-autonomous UAV.
A full setup consists of:
APM 2.5 autopilot: The electronics, including twin processors, gyros, accelerometers, pressure sensors, GPS and more (shown at right). Available from 3D Robotics ($179).- Mission Planner software: Desktop software that lets you manage APM and plan missions, along with being a powerful ground station during flights and helping you analyze mission logs afterwards.
- Autopilot software:
- Arduplane: for any fixed-wing aircraft
- Arducopter: for any rotary-wing aircraft
- ArduRover: for any ground- or water-based vehicle
You can buy Ready-to-Fly UAVs (both planes and multicopters) from uDrones:
-
3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on September 25, 2011 at 1:59pm -
We'll be releasing an OSD board that works with APM in a month or so.
-
Comment by 420choky on September 25, 2011 at 2:07pm -
lost all my equiptment due to main battery loosing power .. which shut off the osd and gps .. leaving my cam powered but thanks to a osd not being able to use the second battery that the cam has .. makes me wonder what the heck!!!
sad over a grand lost 1.7 miles in front of me .. about to get the fpv helicopter but .. PRIVATE PROPERTY means PRIVATE .. so i loose .. they need a signal to always show the location no matter what
-
Comment by Tomas Soedergren on September 25, 2011 at 3:14pm -
Chris,
An upcoming APM compatible OSD - that´s just wonderful news!!
I´ll be looking for the "preorder" button :D
-
Developer Comment by Pete Hollands on October 22, 2011 at 11:24pm -
UAV DevBoard: Update: It's now better value than shown in the orignal post above 2.5 years ago. UDB4 Price is now $99.95 (UDB3 85$). The cheapest GPS from DIYDrones store is the MediaTek with adapter at $37.95. So for the new UDB4, the price is $109 less that shown in the original post above. (which is shown above at time of posting as $160 UDB + $60 GPS).
-
Comment by alex jack on November 24, 2011 at 12:13pm -
what are the dimension of Full ArduPilot Mega kit
-
Comment by Stepleader on December 3, 2011 at 10:09pm -
I second what Rahul Says..
-
Comment by cal cal on December 11, 2011 at 2:18am
-
ok im am really new to this and just want a help with the what to buy side. i have a bixler plane and a dx6i tx so that side is sorted i want to mount a camera to the nose. most probley my conture hd which is 170grams and a 2200mah battery 200grams all i want is the ability to take a video of my property to fly down to each corner and make a box shape flight. i need to control alttitude direction and speed. can anyone give me an email of what they did for there one or what is the best way to go about this is.. thanks in advance
-
Comment by Nadim Wehrli blanco on January 11, 2012 at 2:10pm
-
could yoy make a guide on how to assemble everything
-
Comment by Angus McLeod on January 26, 2012 at 6:45pm -
UDB hardware significantly improved with v4 and now only $99.95!
-
Comment by LAURENT on February 7, 2012 at 3:07pm -
Amazing system
Social Networking
Top Content
Contests
Season Two of the Trust Time Trial (T3) Contest has now begun. The fourth round is an accuracy round for multicopters, which requires contestants to fly a cube. The deadline is April 14th.A list of all T3 contests is here.
Groups
-
ArduCopter Italian Group
86 members
-
Documentation Editors
51 members
-
ArduPlane User Group
671 members
-
ArduCopter User Group
1280 members
-
Taiwan ROC ArduPilot Gro…
8 members
Advertisement
© 2013 Created by Chris Anderson.
Powered by
You need to be a member of DIY Drones to add comments!
Join DIY Drones