I would like to build an autopilot system, for oceanographic surveys, which is launched by the shore setting the coordinates and once it arrives at its destination switch off and is carried away by the currents. Once the mission is ended up again and come back to the starting point. We have an idea about the hull and the engine. It seems possible manage with Ardupilot system but what hardware components do I need and which are the best for this application? I'm just starting out with autopilot systems and I still have a lot to learn. Thanks
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in theory you don't need any radio link since your ArduBoat can do that job following preloaded set of instructions.
What matters is the speed of local ocean currents and the distance travelled while motors are off to calculate if energy saved in batteries can make your boat to get back to the starting point.
I would suggest to use ArduDrone to fly to the planned destination to throw a number of flashing balls you can track with camera mounted on your drone and to follow free flowing
balls with camera and geotracking to calculate local speed of ocean current.
Given the job with ArduDrone is successfully completed you can calculate the capacity of batteries installed on your ArduBoat to match max. time for your study.
Otherwise if radio link is lost, your ArduBoat is lost (no telemetry = no geotracking)
@Darius Jack What you can say about the cost of ArduDrone and flashing balls test? A colleague of mine is working on the design of mechanical, propulsion and energy consumption. When I have something concrete I'll let you see.
A Pixhawk with the 3DR compass/GPS will serve you well. What distance will the boat be away from shore? You may want to use a RFD900 system in place of the 3DR telemetry for greater range of telemetry and commands through Mission Planner.
0.5+ miles is tough for something close to the surface of the water. In our experience, the XBee 900Mhz/2.4Ghz radios only work to about 100m from an antenna 4" off the water surface. Anything you can do to raise your antenna higher will help.
If you want to go much further distances I'd look at the satellite radios from RockBLOCK. They'll work anywhere in the world and we've used them from the surface of the water.
I have got about 3/8 of a mile on the stock 3DR stuff before my packet loss made me a bit uncomfortable. No problems with the RFD900. I use an antenna tracker with directional antennas on a tripod that is elevated about six feet. Boat antennas are 12" ish above the water.
Thank you very much for your precious advices. @David Boulanger I'm thinking about the solutions that you have provided to me. At first I thought about a communication system GPS / GPRS for monitoring the route during the passive transport. Can I record the route with the system you propose? If is positive which is the available frequency record?
You can monitor the route in real time and it also gets recorded in the logs. Are you familiar with Mission Planner? The Pixhawk itself has a SD card recording information and via the 900Mhz link data is stored to your computer. I hope I made some sense here.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Frank > David BoulangerNovember 17, 2015 at 7:13am
Do you know if PixFalcon Micro PX4 Autopilot has the same performance of Pixhawk and is compatible with Mission Planner Software?
I read is the scaled down version of the Pixhawk. Do you think is suitable for my purpose?
There has been a recent evaluation of the PixFalcon and it is really designed for a small quadcopter.
The PixFalcon power module is integrated into a four motor power distribution board and the radio is very small and does not provide a really robust signal.
It does work with Mission Planner, but I do not recommend the PixFalcon to meet your particular set of requirements.
Replies
Frank,
in theory you don't need any radio link since your ArduBoat can do that job following preloaded set of instructions.
What matters is the speed of local ocean currents and the distance travelled while motors are off to calculate if energy saved in batteries can make your boat to get back to the starting point.
I would suggest to use ArduDrone to fly to the planned destination to throw a number of flashing balls you can track with camera mounted on your drone and to follow free flowing
balls with camera and geotracking to calculate local speed of ocean current.
Given the job with ArduDrone is successfully completed you can calculate the capacity of batteries installed on your ArduBoat to match max. time for your study.
Otherwise if radio link is lost, your ArduBoat is lost (no telemetry = no geotracking)
@Darius Jack What you can say about the cost of ArduDrone and flashing balls test? A colleague of mine is working on the design of mechanical, propulsion and energy consumption. When I have something concrete I'll let you see.
Frank
Frank,
A Pixhawk with the 3DR compass/GPS will serve you well. What distance will the boat be away from shore? You may want to use a RFD900 system in place of the 3DR telemetry for greater range of telemetry and commands through Mission Planner.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Regards
Frank
0.5+ miles is tough for something close to the surface of the water. In our experience, the XBee 900Mhz/2.4Ghz radios only work to about 100m from an antenna 4" off the water surface. Anything you can do to raise your antenna higher will help.
If you want to go much further distances I'd look at the satellite radios from RockBLOCK. They'll work anywhere in the world and we've used them from the surface of the water.
-Rusty
I have got about 3/8 of a mile on the stock 3DR stuff before my packet loss made me a bit uncomfortable. No problems with the RFD900. I use an antenna tracker with directional antennas on a tripod that is elevated about six feet. Boat antennas are 12" ish above the water.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Thank you very much for your precious advices. @David Boulanger I'm thinking about the solutions that you have provided to me. At first I thought about a communication system GPS / GPRS for monitoring the route during the passive transport. Can I record the route with the system you propose? If is positive which is the available frequency record?
Frank,
You can monitor the route in real time and it also gets recorded in the logs. Are you familiar with Mission Planner? The Pixhawk itself has a SD card recording information and via the 900Mhz link data is stored to your computer. I hope I made some sense here.
Regards,
David R. Boulanger
Do you know if PixFalcon Micro PX4 Autopilot has the same performance of Pixhawk and is compatible with Mission Planner Software?
I read is the scaled down version of the Pixhawk. Do you think is suitable for my purpose?
Thanks in advance
Frank
@Frank,
There has been a recent evaluation of the PixFalcon and it is really designed for a small quadcopter.
The PixFalcon power module is integrated into a four motor power distribution board and the radio is very small and does not provide a really robust signal.
It does work with Mission Planner, but I do not recommend the PixFalcon to meet your particular set of requirements.
Regards,
TCIII AVD
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