Hi All,

I've been working on a system for running an APM 2.5 as a sensor and I/O board for a plane with another on-board computer.  I couldn't find existing code for this (although perhaps it does exist and I missed it), so I built my own.

This is close to what I'm doing, although I do not use ROS (it would be easy to add though): http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/ardupilot-mega-with-ros-onboard?page=2&commentId=705844%3AComment%3A1203701&x=1#705844Comment1203701

The APM communicates with the on-board computer via USB, to which it publishes sensor readings, and reads messages that contain the servo values.  It also does mux-ing between autonomous and manual modes based on a radio channel input.

I'm using the MAVLINK protocol to go up and down, so it should be relatively compatible with existing code in that regard.  I did have to define a new message or two, but that shouldn't be too bad for anyone else to use.

The system is working pretty well now, and if anyone is interested, I'm happy to provide the code.  I wasn't quite sure what to call it, so it's currently named "ArduRead".  Some of the code is hacked together, but I'm happy with most of it.

Some approximate stats from the last time I turned it on:

IMU message rate: 160Hz

Barometric altitude rate: 70-80Hz

Pitot tube rate: 70-80Hz

GPS rate: 10Hz (although might be duplicated, depending on your GPS)

Battery read rate: should be 10Hz, putting this in this week

Best,

Andy

_______________________

Andrew Barry
Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Robot Locomotion Group
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stata Center, 32-380
32 Vassar St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

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  • just trying to make sure, you are controlling a UAV with Ardupilot from a computer wirelessly, right ? I Or is it the computer also flying with the UAV ? 

    I want to control a quadrotoror or any type of UAV  with Ardupilot from a computer wirelessly. Yes, without a remote control . Where can i look for the help ? I would be very thankful. : ) 

  • Hi Andy;

    I was trying to compile and load your code on Apm but there are so many errors. I couldn't handle them I am using modified arduino for ardupilot to compile the code. I am really appreciate if you could help. I couldn't put errors because so many I guess I am doing wrong some basic stuff. But I coudn't find

    Thank you

    Ufuk

  • Update: I put all of my new code in the "arduread" branch here: https://github.com/andybarry/ardupilot/tree/arduread

    It would need some cleanup to get merged into the main branch, which I'm happy to do if there's interest.

    andybarry/ardupilot
    Contribute to andybarry/ardupilot development by creating an account on GitHub.
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