I don't know how I missed the Forums right beside Blog, but anyway, this is a re-post in the propper place, almost.
This question more or less belongs in every category in the book, but I guess I will present it here. I wan't to build my dad an autonomous plane which features high quality video (none of the shaky ugly stuff you see on youtube because this isn't for fun, this is serious use. It is going to be a large gas plane with a fairly large engine. It may use an engine to run a generator which then power an electric motor, but probably not. It will need to be able to fly to a location (field) then it will just circle over it while my dad uses either a joystick and a TV or the head tracking goggles to look around the field and find what he needs. The camera needs to have pretty good zoom so he can pretty much fill the whole screen with one cow, and it needs to be good quality optical zoom, and it needs to zoom out too. The plane will also need to be able to move to a new circling location with a simple click on a map, or entering of coordinates. It would also be wonderful if it could land itself either using recorded data of a manual landing, or using complex software and stuff. It would also be good if it could calculate distance to home and then using the amount of fuel left decide the point of no return and make it unreachable.
Recap: I need high quality, long zoom, live video, fuel monitoring, autopilot, antennas, amplifiers, and other stuff I don't know about.
A list of specific parts with links would be awesome guys, thanks in advance.
Any ideas for the most stable, easy to control, easy to land, and smoothest plane shape. It would also be good if it had a large payload area for equipment and fuel. It also needs to be able to handle 10-20 mph sudden gusts.
Replies
Did you ever get the fuel monitoring set-up/working?
Try a ScanEagle or an Arcturus T-16. Your system requirements are commercial grade, you will need a commercial solution.
or just get a gopro hd camera then hook it up with a wireless transmitter then you get viewing this is better move compared to an ip cam since this is low latency no data packet to convert to wifi
setup your own :) have this mounted on a pole and you have long range wifi http://www.worldeyecam.com/store/eoc-5610-802.11a-b-g-outdoor-dual-...
try getting a hugin airframe its big and can carry i think a eee pc netbook 2g for full blown computer which you can connect to long range wifi antenna like engenius eoc 1650 its rated to have atleat 20km radius then get axis communication ip cameras they have pan and zoom they are available in hd 720p and ofcourse the apm 2 for brains then get a serial to ip converter to convert the apm2 comport to have it pass thru wifi too it wont cost you 20k$ usd
I think the 20k would cover the camera!
For this level of performance, at this time, you would need to purchase a $20k plus commercial type system. Actually, you would probably have to pay much more.