Companion computers

Some non-technical reasoning I believe in strong decouplig of the autopilot and the companion (this doesn't mean they can't live within the same box). However plug&play is a great plus, as this means that I (final user) can buy an Iris / Pixhawk / whatever and in a second moment I can add the companion as a second layer of computation, while all the underlying settings remain the same. This mantains a very attractive learning curve. In a third moment I can even switch to a more powerful companion as new needs / new supercomputers arrives.

In this group we've been dealing with companions fore a long time. Now @Randy opened a repo called "Companion" https://github.com/diydrones/companion. A very big thank you for this! I invite everyone to contribute.

SUGGESTION ABOUT COMPANION REPO:

COMMON (this is a directory with common scripts. @Randy maybe also a simplified version of balloon fineder could fit here: colour_finder_web.py ). I'll put also VPN scripts, gstreamer (@Bernt please contribute!!) I can also contribute with 4Gmetry .py scripts.
UBUNTU / ODROID XU4 this is what we're doing here at 4Gmetry until now.
UBUNTU / JETSON TK1 this is the supercomputer. As the main usage will be computer vision, I think that we should give a look at http://elinux.org/Jetson/Computer_Vision_Performance as suggested by @Bill_Bonney
n OS / BOARD combinations
PERFORMANCE this includes performance tests across the above combinations.

What do you think?

Stereolabs ZED is a fully-integrated depth and motion tracking platform that offers everything you need to deploy applications that perceive and unde…

Not tried *yet*

Been looking into vision systems such as:
Lidar Lite v2

Zed Camera

Velodyne HDL-32E (See if I can get a loan)

Also Diy routes:
Kinect (4.5m range??? hmmm)

Bosch Laser Measure mod

Velodyne is, I guess, the gold standard for up to 100m range point cloud, Zed camera at 40m, Bosch laser mod upto 100m, Lidar lite v2 at 40m, then the cheap kinect hacks.

I'm interested if the Kinect has limited range because of it's camera or ir emitter, or both? Maybe it's possible to replae with 1080p sensors, I can get kinect in a garage sale for a buck.

Maybe Lidar lite v3 will include 32 laser line sensing, and we can just spin it :)

There's of course the software 3d route if mapping is all that's required (Agisoft works on a decent computer, just takes a while).

Replies

- benbojangles > Thomas Stone November 15, 2015 at 12:43pm
  
  Did you utilise the mini pcie slot? While I wait for my Tk1 delivery, I'm trying to think up ways of not clogging up the single usb port.
  
  If I go the pcie route, i'll be sure to add my driver files to the Git.
  
  Have you tried the Zed Camera? I hear it has 20m depth range.
  
  Stereolabs - Capture the World in 3D
  
  Stereolabs ZED is a fully-integrated depth and motion tracking platform that offers everything you need to deploy applications that perceive and unde…
- Volta Robots > benbojangles November 16, 2015 at 8:06am
  
  @benbojangles
  I didn't try the ZED! Had you? Seems super interesting, it's a MUST peripheal with Oculos / Cardboard!
  I'm super interested in this, and I'm collecting experiences
- benbojangles > Volta Robots November 16, 2015 at 9:07am
  
  Not tried *yet*
  
  Been looking into vision systems such as:
  Lidar Lite v2
  
  Zed Camera
  
  Velodyne HDL-32E (See if I can get a loan)
  
  Also Diy routes:
  Kinect (4.5m range??? hmmm)
  
  Bosch Laser Measure mod
  
  Velodyne is, I guess, the gold standard for up to 100m range point cloud, Zed camera at 40m, Bosch laser mod upto 100m, Lidar lite v2 at 40m, then the cheap kinect hacks.
  
  I'm interested if the Kinect has limited range because of it's camera or ir emitter, or both? Maybe it's possible to replae with 1080p sensors, I can get kinect in a garage sale for a buck.
  
  Maybe Lidar lite v3 will include 32 laser line sensing, and we can just spin it :)
  
  There's of course the software 3d route if mapping is all that's required (Agisoft works on a decent computer, just takes a while).
- Volta Robots > benbojangles November 16, 2015 at 9:35am
  
  Yes but now i felt in love with Zed. Because of:
  1. price
  2. virtual reality application
  3. light and simple
  
  USB 3.0 is perfect; the question are:
  1. output format
  2. precision/accuracy
  3. can I turn around objects? I mean flying around a house?
- Gabriel Enzo > Volta Robots November 16, 2015 at 11:24am
  Silvio, Ben,
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ZED!
  
  To answer your questions:
  
  The ZED outputs low latency side-by-side stereo video on USB 3.0. Depth is computed on a companion computer such as Jetson TK1.
  
  You can check out ZED accuracy in the videos on our Developer page.
  
  While the ZED stereo camera will not match the accuracy and range of a high-end 3D LIDAR, it is perfectly suited for obstacle avoidance and 3D FPV.
  
  In a partner project with NVIDIA, we even used the ZED for 3D mapping on a DJI Matrice 100. You can check out the video here.
  
  Hope this helps!
  Developer Center - Stereolabs
  
  ZED SDK lets you add depth and motion sensing to any application. Learn how stereo vision creates exciting new opportunities for developers.
- Volta Robots > Gabriel Enzo November 16, 2015 at 12:09pm
  
  Dear @Gabriel,
  thank you for joining!
  I think that this community could represent a big opportunity for ZED; here you can find the top class developers, that could develop/integrate technology that could lead sells.
  
  Thanks @benbojangles for introducing ZED, such a great product.
  
  We're also extremely interested in ZED for our companion computers!
- benbojangles > Volta Robots November 16, 2015 at 12:19pm
  
  It (zed) looks good/interesting/thought broadening, potentially a combined unit for both faster point cloud visualisation (than agisoft), and more thorough coverage for obstacle avoidance than say Lidar lite.
  
  But... if it's just for obstacle avoidance, then it's competing with Lidar lite, if it's just for 3d visualisation, then it's competing with a Mounted camera (in my case a canon sx230) + Agisoft.....Agh! Reality bites.
  
  btw hello Zed!
- Thomas Stone > Gabriel Enzo November 16, 2015 at 11:34am
  
  Hi Gabriel,
  
  Thanks for joining the forums.
  
  We are currently brainstorming the development of a miniaturized carrier board for the TX1 module. Ultimately, this will allow your ZED sensor to be used alongside the Pixhawk, as well as other flight controllers that are popular in this UAV community.
  
  http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/companion-computers/
  
  http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-optional-hardware/
  
  The carrier board discussion is primarily over here: http://bit.ly/1NzWRwn . Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated.
  
  Best,
  
  Thomas
  
  IR-LOCK
- benbojangles > Volta Robots November 16, 2015 at 10:47am
  
  I think the zed is limited not being able to cover 360 degrees, i think 4x zed cameras would be needed for true obstacle avoidance, but the computing power..... :(
  
  Perhaps a rotating Lidar lite with more line sensing is better?.. Or maybe rotating/ servo sweep zed with imu sync.
- Patrick Poirier > benbojangles November 16, 2015 at 11:07am
  
  Get an ASTEC then :-)...

of 4

This reply was deleted.

Volta Robots

Replies