Here's what we need:
--Open source
--Cheap (sub $1,000 all in)
--Easy to make
--Full UAV--including GPS navigation and ground station.
--Capable of indoors and outdoors flight (ie, bigger than the Parrot AR.Drone, but not as big as the Hollywood-quality big camera lifters)
--Pretty mature in terms of software and community
Which projects fit the bill best?
Replies
I know you are going for a full system?
Price for frame should be around 120-140 $.
Length: 500mm (wing diagonal length)
Height: 185mm
Weight: 220g
Material: Glass Fiber Air laminate +
It also looks like there will be some research into making an airframe. OpenPilot has an airframe, but maybe we can think of something better. My term of better is pretty open it could be simpler, cheaper, lighter, stronger, easier to manufacture, or something else.
I suppose it's too soon to ask when you hope to have test flights and something in the store, but if you have an estimated timeline for this project I'd love to hear it.
i.e. An airframe kit with motor/esc/propellor ?
I am developing my own electronics based on a Parallax Propeller chip (a 32bit 8 core micro).
see http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=436063
However, I have been looking everywhere for ideas of how to construct the airframe and motor/esc. In particular, I am unsure whether to use carbon fibre 10.5mmsq beams or aluminium. A kit for this would be a bonus.
I yet port and implement aeroquad firmware : i2c / Hexa Mixertable / 1 Channel PPM Decoder
Testing ArduImu and it work fine,too .
Develop first variable pitch qaudricopter :)
We're working on a hybrid Quad . VTOL airplane .
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/
Regards
Roberto
Way to go Jose, Ted and Chris
--jp
Thomas, this code supports counter-rotating props without modifications (my actual quad has EPP1047 counter rotating props...) I am also thinking in a flexible way to support + and x configurations...
Ted, yes I am open to colaborate :-)
Jose.
Can't wait to start working with the board! The AeroQuad software should be a quick port since we already have common code that supports the Duemilanove and the Mega... it's pretty cool that we are all apart of the Arduino family!
Ted (Mikro from AeroQuad)
Ardupilot Mega will be a winner for quadcopters.
Cool features of Ardupilot Mega and new sensor shield for quads:
- Arduino based
- USB port for programming/debugging
- ATMega1280, 128K program memory, lot´s of analog and digital I/Os
- 8 channel PPM encoder (with 1us resolution)
- 8 Servo Outputs (Hardware interrupt supported). We can easily modify the frequency for the ESC´s up to 400Hz. Resolution 1us.
- Support different GPS (Ublox, NMEA, ...) using standard arduino libraries.
- 16Mbit EEPROM Datalogger to record flights (very usefull for debug also)
- Dedicated two way serial port for telemetry
- External 12bit ADC. Sampling frequency is now 400Hz.
- Invensense gyros (better with vibrations)
- Absolute pressure sensor (Bosch)
- Port for external 3 axis magnetometer
- Output to trigger camera (Relay switch for cameras, lights or payloads).
- Status leds and input switches
I have tested the Ardupilot Mega with the beta sensor shield in a quad (60cm size) with very good results (I ported the ArduIMU quadcopter code). I have started the tests for the navigation algorithms.
I think this could be a very nice solution and users will have an added value for his money becuase the same hardware could be used for planes and quadcopters...
Jose.