Posted by lightninjim on November 9, 2008 at 7:32am
Just like to start by saying hi to all, I found this site this morning and although i've read what i can i'm still uncertain on a few things.I started my working life by turning my electronics hobby into a job and left shortly after i'd served my apprenticeship. A couple of years ago i picked my hobby back up again by building a few BEAM robots. I'm looking to build some uController based robots, wheeled initially then i'm going to move onto uav's.Sorry!The points i'm uncertain on are:1. What are the legallities of using uav's, can they be autonomous or must there always be the option of human control?2. Are any of the ardupilot boards suitable for controlling an ornithopter (with or without modification)?3. Are electronic compasses and other sensors likely to be affected by the movement of the body of the ornithopter.4 What expansion options are available with the ardupilot boards. As part of my progress through robotics i would like to experiment with camera vision and if possible integrate this into my uav (actually it'll be more like if i can get it to work, i'll use it )5. What in everyone's opinion is the best way to determine altitude, i already experimented with a car manifold pressure sensor (mpx4115), i found i had to calibrate my circuit before each use due to changes in background barometric pressure (weather).Thanks for reading, All replies welcome, good or bad
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1) The FAQ on this is on the front page.
2) I don't think I've ever seen a UAV ornithopter, so I have no idea, I'm afraid.
3) Yes. I imagine that would be worse than helis and planes and they're hugely affected by inertial forces. That might be a better candidate for thermopiles (IR) sensors like what AttoPilot and ArduPilot use, which aren't affected by motion.
4) ArduPilot has inputs for external sensors, but they're mostly analog pins for things like pressure sensors. Also, an Arduino doesn't have enough computational power for vision processing. If that's what you want to do, you might want to use a more conventional PC or Linux based board. This sort of project might fit your needs better.
5) With today's excellent GPS chipsets, it's often possible to get a pretty good altitude reading from GPS alone. But for higher accuracy, you'd want and absolute pressure sensor like the SCP1000.
Replies
2) I don't think I've ever seen a UAV ornithopter, so I have no idea, I'm afraid.
3) Yes. I imagine that would be worse than helis and planes and they're hugely affected by inertial forces. That might be a better candidate for thermopiles (IR) sensors like what AttoPilot and ArduPilot use, which aren't affected by motion.
4) ArduPilot has inputs for external sensors, but they're mostly analog pins for things like pressure sensors. Also, an Arduino doesn't have enough computational power for vision processing. If that's what you want to do, you might want to use a more conventional PC or Linux based board. This sort of project might fit your needs better.
5) With today's excellent GPS chipsets, it's often possible to get a pretty good altitude reading from GPS alone. But for higher accuracy, you'd want and absolute pressure sensor like the SCP1000.