APM 2.6 Collegiate Competition Function Question

Posted by Zach Etier on April 1, 2015 at 10:11am

Hello DIYDRONES,

I am a senior in mechanical, and aerospace engineering. For our senior design, my team has designed a pylon racer that air drops a 1/16 scale car. We get a score bonus if our team uses autonomous for the ground mission. I currently have the APM 2.6 tunned "as well as I can" for  30 mph for a pylon type course. The problem I am having is for the air drop our car is inside a box that is attached to a parachute, because we do not know of the orientation the box will be in when it lands. the car turns its wheels towards the first waypoint and gets stuck in the box. Is there a way to program either with a transmitter (Futaba 8FG) or a function inside Mission planner, to give a little forward throttle when first switched to auto mode? Or any other suggestions would be much appreciated! 

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Replies

  • Developer
    Grant Morphett April 1, 2015 at 6:36pm

    Try this page

    http://planner.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-other-mission-planner-feat...

    Something like (assuming CH3 is throttle)

    Script.SendRC(3,1700,sendnow)  // throttle up to move forward

    Script.Sleep(2)  // wait 2 seconds for rover to drive forward out of box

    Script.ChangeMode('AUTO')   // go into auto mode and do mission

    Thanks, Grant

    • Zach Etier > Grant Morphett April 3, 2015 at 12:55pm

      Grant,

      This is exactly what I was going for. Thank you so much for the information!

  • Tony Holt April 1, 2015 at 11:35am

    Hi Zach,

    This may be too crude and primitive for you but ......

    Have you considered making the box walls hinged at the bottom. Then you can either:

    Rely on the weight of the car on the parachute to keep the sides up until it lands or

    Use a cord on the top of the box walls to retain the box shape and then a servo to cut the cord after landing.

    In both cases the buggy would then force down the box sides and not get stuck.

    I'm sorry if the above appears stupid but good look and all the best.

    Tony

    • Zach Etier > Tony Holt April 3, 2015 at 12:55pm

      Tony,

      great ideas, sadly we have already designed the box and already have made the molds for them. again thank you for your response!

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