Discussions

Hi all,

for a project for a robotic lab, i'd like to build an automous quadcopter able to follow a path and land on its own. I'd like to use an onboard android phone to do the image processing and recognition part, so that I avoid to send the video stream to a control station, proess it and send back the commands.

As I need to use it in an indoor environment (so no GPS coordinate), I need the phone to guide the quadcopter giving it relative directions like FORWARD and after 1 sec STO. This is something a normal pilot would do via the RC radio.

I already have a arducopter APM 2.5 and an arduino mega ADK and I was thinking to connect the phone to the ADK and then the ADK to the APM to guide the copter.

I think I have 2 options: either having the ADK to generate PPM/PWM signals as a RC receiver would do or use the mavlink protocol.

Which is the best/easiest solution?

Other info:

-I have already read many threads in this forum, but I couldn't find something close to what I want. Most of them, try to build a new type of controller, or use only Android + ADK. I'd like to stick to something already tested and known to work (as the APM & arducopter sw) and I don't want to use the phone as IMU as i don't trust its sensors

-I already have built the quad (a hexa actually)

-I have already set up the connection and protocol between the phone and the adk so i'm able to send commands like, i.e. forward, turn, hover etc...

-I have already checked the andro-copter project and similar ones.

-I might consider other platforms than the APM 2.5 if there's something easier to use

-It'd be nice to keep the RC receiver in the loop to regain control of the quad if something goes wrong.