Posted by Joel Ryan on January 15, 2010 at 10:38pm
Hey everyone! I'm pretty new here so I'm not sure if this is feasible, but I'm just toying around with the idea, and I really want to hear what other people think.Is it possible to have some sort of beacon that I can set down, say 1/2 km from the launch site, and then have the UAV search for it? I'm thinking maybe put it somewhere, and then send the UAV to a lat/lon coordinate near there, and it would be programmed to run a search pattern looking for it? Maybe it could then take pictures, while aimed at the beacon. Would it be possible to put it on a moving object, and have the plane track it? Could I put it on my friend's dog, and set him loose? (just kidding about that one :P ) Finally, the plane could return to the launch site after the battery depletes a certain amount?Thoughts anyone?
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So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and I think the xbee gps would really work. Would ardupilot have the capability of following a moving waypoint? If not, i think it would be easy to adapt the formulas for patch antenna alignment to plane direction, and have it continuously fly towards the target, but it would probably be more difficult to have it circle around it. All the while, a camera could use the adapted antenna alignment formulas to be always aimed at the target.
And finally, could ardupilot be programmed to come back after the battery has depleted to say 2/3, or 3/5 of its total charge... just to stay safe in case the target has been moving far away.
Has anyone here ever used there uav to track a moving object, or find something autonomously? Maybe RF beacons aren't right for the job, but maybe very strong IR led's and IR camera that scan's for them. Any ideas?
Look up blob tracking in OpenCV. It is doable in a small room type environment. Visually (i.e with a camera) tracking an object over 500 meters away is something that the military probably do. Lots of processing power and heavy UAV's. That said, the drone competition in Australia recently was similiar to what you want. It was a simulated autonomous search and rescue.
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And finally, could ardupilot be programmed to come back after the battery has depleted to say 2/3, or 3/5 of its total charge... just to stay safe in case the target has been moving far away.
UAVs returning to home when the batteries get low is easy. All of ours can already do that.