Hi there
I'm sutdying aerospace engineering and for a 3rd year project we have been put into groups and have to design and build an RC plane. Once we have a flying plane, my task in the group is to make it as autonomous as possible. I've been looking into autopilot's and like the look of ArduPilot but I have never done anything like this before and was looking for some advice. The plane also needs to be able to send a live video feed back to a ground-station (which has to be on a laptop).
I was wondering whether Ardupilot supports this feature and the ground-station software can show live video feed (and preferably record it as well)? What other equipment do I need to buy other than the ArduPilot Mega 2.6? For example, I've seen some thast come with an external compass and others that need a GPS unit as well, would I need to buy these seperately and connect them?
We are given a budget so I am looking into cheaper alternatives. For someone who has never used arduino's before is it too much of a big task to try and build my own. So far I believe this would involve buying an arduino and all the sensors, programming an autopilot and designing and programming a ground-station in Processing. Has anyone got any experience with this and can give me some advice about how hard this would be to do by May 2014?
Any help would be much appreciated,
Clive
Replies
Ardupilot 2.6 will do your autonomous activities, but your video link will be a seperate activity unless you can build a 3G/TCP enabled tx onboard (not recommended for your experience level). 2.6 has the combined GPS and compass.
Do a search for "Beginners guide to FPV". Flite test on youtube do one, and IBcrazy does a whole series on youtube as well (worth watching btw).
PS - May 2014??? Pfft. In my day, we'd drink beer until March, start work 2nd week of April, and hand it in with the paint still wet. Pah, students of today...:-)