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Make an Autonomous Drone. Which parts should I choose?

Posted by Daniel Pedro Ferreira Lopes on September 18, 2016 at 8:09am

Hello everyone, I'm a new member and I'm currently doing my master thesis.

The basic point of my work is to connect a raspberry pi (that will run OpenCV) that, according to camera video will send a signal to a flight controller (like pixhawk) move forward, go left or right, these kind of commands.

As my thesis is focus on the computer vision algorithm I would like to have some controller that would support some basic functions and I would not get the work to change the speed of each motor.

Basically I want some a function like go_forwad(int speed) and go_back(int speed) that will be sended through Raspberry Pi.

Any advises of what flight controller or micro controller to use? PixHawk seems a little bit expensive

Appreciated,

Daniel Lopes

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Replies

  • Patrick Poirier September 19, 2016 at 10:48am

    Hello

    Take a look at Randy's Balloon Finder

    and Daniel Nuggent precision Landing

    By the way, RPI is a little bit underpower for OpenCV, you might a have better succes using Odroid Xu4 , or Nvidia TK1.

    As for the controller, you can build your own cape for the RPI, just like I did here.

    Enjoy :-)

  • Crady von Pawlak September 19, 2016 at 9:32am

    I know it's possible using an Arduino (I use one to receive PWM directly from an RC Rx) but I only recently picked up my first Pi and am presuming it has similar capabilities.

    The simplest method may be via an I2C to PWM. Adafruit carries an inexpensive 16-channel I2C to PWM converter board that may be exactly what you're looking for.  As an aside, a cheap RC servo could act as a surrogate for an FC during development.

     

  • Daniel Pedro Ferreira Lopes September 19, 2016 at 2:27am

    Thank you so much! 
    So, you're saying that it is possible to control Naza Lite via Raspberry right?

    Do I need to install something on my Pi?

    Crady von Pawlak said:

    Hey Daniel, It's simple enough to send commands to a FC via basic PWM on the Rx inputs, but how do you plan to keep track of where you are once you start to move - GPS?

    I really like the Pixhawk but unless you need to hack the FC code or use additional sensors like optical flow, sonar, or lidar, I would say your best bang for the buck would be a DJI Naza Lite flashed with V2 firmware and coupled with an inexpensive NEO-M8N GPS (complete Naza Lite systems with the DJI GPS can be had on eBay for about $80.)   

    The NAZA uses proprietary firmware but it's easy to connect to and incredibly stable out of the box (which is probably what you need for a project like this.)

  • Crady von Pawlak September 18, 2016 at 6:14pm

    Hey Daniel, It's simple enough to send commands to a FC via basic PWM on the Rx inputs, but how do you plan to keep track of where you are once you start to move - GPS?

    I really like the Pixhawk but unless you need to hack the FC code or use additional sensors like optical flow, sonar, or lidar, I would say your best bang for the buck would be a DJI Naza Lite flashed with V2 firmware and coupled with an inexpensive NEO-M8N GPS (complete Naza Lite systems with the DJI GPS can be had on eBay for about $80.)   

    The NAZA uses proprietary firmware but it's easy to connect to and incredibly stable out of the box (which is probably what you need for a project like this.)

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