There hasbeen increasing discussion of application of the UAV Dev Board IMU approach to CCPM RC Helicopters. Bill and I thought it would be useful to start a thread on this specific topic and see what interest there might be.
My particular interest is to initially implement a stabilization system on my TREX 450SE Heli. Loftier goals of AP with RTL and WPs may well follow.
If you are interested in something similar, please post and describe your interests. Perhaps we can help Bill on some of the CCPM-specific issues.
Note: The Heli and Quad discussions have been moved to:
http://groups.google.com/group/UAVHeliBoard?hl=en
With the code and documentation at:
http://code.google.com/p/matrixpilotheli/wiki/TopLevel?tm=6
John
Replies
I just became a member and I am very interested in the work that has been accomplished specifically for helis. I am fairly new to the hobby and have a Trex 600 & 450 and JR DSM TX/RX.
I have not done C programming over 15 yrs but probably can get back into it quickly. I need some recommendation on where to start from HW/SW so I do not waste time & money.
regards,
NK
Thanks for the reply.
As I intend to pursue this project for educational purposes, i was thinking of acquiring the Analog devices triaxial Gyro coupled to a DSP! After hopefully achieving the Heli Stabilization I would like to dig further into an IMU+GPS; in case of the latter a DSP board would come in handy??????????? But ofcourse I could employ this DSP for other projects too.
I would definitely need help with the code. Perhaps if you can guide me initially,
1.How to filter the gyro outputs .
2.How is the correction thru the PI controllers applied to the concerned servos ( I have a 120 degrees Swash Plate)? Any Euler/quaternions applied?
3.Extended Kalman Filters; where do they exactly fit in the loop? Before the PI Controllers,I guess?
4. How do we tie up the Tx of the R/controlled Heli outfit with our proposed Stabilization Unit?
Sorry for the too many questions.Basically from building warships to Autopilots / IMUs is a huge gap but I am determined.
I rely on you guys for all the help.
I surely would like to chip in as much possible.
Sincerely,
muhammad
I am a keen hobbyist & have in possession a Hirobo Sceadu but have difficulty in maintaining a perfect hover; the actual flying of it is a bit away.I want to install a roll/pitch stabilization unit into the same; there are some good stuff available in the market but I would love to make my own and LEARN out of this process.To begin with I need your guidance over the most suitable hardware ie the Gyros+processor board. Secondly, I can not write a complete code by myself but shall be able to understand somewhat if someone amongst you can do me a favour by sharing it, please.
I am a Naval Architect/ Marine Engineer by profession and did some courses in Electrical /Electronics at the Undergraduate level so shall make an effort to understand the relevant things.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Thanks for showing me this thread. Our group is composed of mainly programmers, none of which have any helicopter flying experience. I actually crashed the helicopter into a coffee table the other day, and one of my partners is replacing the broken parts on the helicopter as we speak... the dsPIC controller is a pretty complicated device... Right now we've been able to monitor the outputs of the three gyros and accelerometers over a serial connection, but all of the data is pretty noisy and we're a little bit cloudy as to choosing a proper sampling rate/conversion method.
We're all undergraduate computer engineering students in an embedded systems design course, so this is really more of a difficult project than a hobby, haha.
Matthew Lim
I am also interested in bringing my TREX to a good autonomous hover. I am a rather novice in embedded design world and have studied the basic stamps. I thought about designing a UAV board myself, but I was happy to discover the Bill's UAV board which should do basically what I wanted to do. I am not sure how capable the board would be, but I believe it has (almost) enough horse power to program auto-hover, take off/land, and simple WPs. It is my very first attempt in PIC controller though. I know I have a lot to learn, but willing to put some time into this for years to come. I'll take small and easy steps. I thought about starting out with a single axis gyro and getting accustomed with PIC programming, but I did not see much advantage, so I decided to jump into the full IMU. Like Bill, this is just my hobby. I have background in rotorcraft control design, and been flying RC helis for years.
As discussed, the current 3 PWM outputs can go to 3-servo CCPM swashplate. The issue is the tail rotor which can be stabilized with a RC gyro like Futaba 401, but cannot be guided autonomously unless Bill can suggest a way to implement an extra output.
The ESC can be set in governor mode, so no active control is necessary for the throttle.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next