3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on April 12, 2008 at 3:29pm

So cool! Now just interface it with a RC transmitter, and you've got a great FPV setup...

Comment by dincer hepguler on April 14, 2008 at 7:45am

Hi Andrea,
i tried many Arduino sketches for nunchuck and servos but yours is the best one. very responsive... i am now trying to use your setup other way round. i will not use this for Gimbal camera but instead i will use the nunchuck servo response for actually stabilizing the plane. only rudder and elevator control. i have to find a way to stabilize the altitude... trying... as of your Thermal Sensing idea, can we use the Z-axis of the accelerometer For g sensing upwards? furthermore can we combine this with an on-board thermometer?... must think over... just brainstorming... :)

dincer

Comment by Andrea Salvatore on April 14, 2008 at 11:19am

Ciao Dincer,

thanks!

That's exactly what I'll do: use a Nunckuck as a controller for my RC airplane. Maybe the next post will have a simple schematic of it. It's very easy to implement and it can be used as a 3channel radio command. But more intuitive, in my opinion.

I made some test and the Nunchuck z-axis is not usable. I'll use an accelerometer and a gyro (on an IMU board) on the airplane for the autopilot (maybe I'll put a compass too). The Nunchuck is more than enough for piloting.

I'm thinking about having an LCD display attached to the microcoputer (that's in the case I'll use a Gumstix). That could give me the possibility to have telemetry, GPS control/programming, Nunchkuck control all in one box. That'd be cool.

Why do you want to add a thermometer onboard? For thermals? As I told you probably I'll test an infrared thermal array to "see" thermals. Hoping it's good enough for it. I doubt but it's a test that has to be done.

Lot's of brainstorming :D

Ciao,

Andrea

Comment by dincer hepguler on April 15, 2008 at 10:10am

hi Andrea,
indeed i checked the Nunchuck data with Tod Kurt's NunchuckPrint sketch which can be found at http://todbot.com/arduino/sketches/NunchuckPrint/ and see that z-axis response is weak, only fast vertical movements can be read from the z-axis but still i think it can be useful to some extent. maybe for altitude correction. but i also saw that yaw reading (x,y) is also weak. how do you think we can make it more sensitive? why are you considering Gumstix for better lcd display? there are cheap and simple displays are awailable for Arduino. i even saw an old Nokia 3110 display attached successfully to Arduino on the internet...

still brainstorming... lol..
wish you luck and success...
dincer

Comment by Andrea Salvatore on April 15, 2008 at 10:49am

Ciao Dincer,

as I told you the Nunchuck z-axis is almost unusable, or I've not been able to use it. But the x and y-axis are those that I used. If you uncomment "// printNunchuckData();" line you can see the reading and can see the values of the x and y-axis variation as you move the Nunchuck, and better understand how they are used then.

The Arduino can be attached to display but usually they are not that "graphic" oriented. Usually they are 1, 2, 4 text lines that can be used via serial or i2c protocol.

When I talk about a Gustix with LCD display I talk about a real LCD screen 4.3" wide with touchscreen overlay 16bit or 18bit colour.

Not to mention that the Gumstix can managed 2d and 3d graphics quite easily. That's a whole different thing, but I'm sure that'll start with something "simple" as an Arduino + 4 lines serial LCD screen that I already got at home.

But I'm preparing a more detailed post about that and there'll be more accurate in describing my controller project.

Cheers,

Andrea

Comment by dincer hepguler on April 16, 2008 at 7:14am

Andrea,
i just realized that the code you posted here is not the same as you havbe sent me... also this code gives errors while compiling... first include sentences are incomplete... some more errors.. pls check it out... :)

best wishes,
dincer

Comment by Andrea Salvatore on April 16, 2008 at 7:58am

Dincer,

thanks there was a problem when pasting code. An "<" is interpreted as an HTML tag an not as a "minor" operand :)

Now it should be ok and the same code you got.

Please check. Thanks!

Andrea

Comment by Craig on April 16, 2008 at 12:06pm

Andrea,

Very nice design. I am interested in mounting a similar system for aerial herd checks. I like the feature of locking the camera in place. How would you suggest mounting the system in such a way where the aircraft can still maneuver but keeping the video locked on a fixed location?

Thanks,

Craig

Comment by Andrea Salvatore on April 16, 2008 at 12:29pm

Craig,

the lock inplace has been implemented as at first the pan&tilt camera was meant to be installed on a qudricopter, so able to stand still (almost) at a certain position. And in that situation the "simple" lock of the camera does the trick.

But for airplanes it's totally different. You want a "lock on target" and it's definetly not an easy thing to do with cheap equipment.

But if I'd have a low budget to implement something similar you have to do use a different equipment.

First you have to put a 360° servo at the base (for panning). If you think to install the mechanism at the bottom of the airplane (best position for lock-on-target camera) you should do the same for tilting servos as well.

Second, you should use an intelligent camera. A programmable one, as the CMUCam3 for example. Face recognition/following algoritms has been already developed and I think it can be possible to do the same for a lock-on-target one at certain conditions for the target, as colour, speed etc.

It would be very interesting to develop such a system. I'm not going to do for my UAV, not for now :)

Hope to have helped you and if you decide to develop something similar let me know, and let me know how I can help you,

Andrea

Comment by Craig on April 16, 2008 at 2:02pm

Andrea,

Appreciate the response! I will definitely let you know. And if you have any other suggestions on good video/still cameras (and if any have decent zoom capability), please let me know. I'm currently looking into ways to automatically identify herd animals in various terrain and zoom in to conduct herd counts as well as basic physical assessments. Cheap is good, but for my own learning curve, any info would help. I have only basic electronics and programming experience...most of my experience is in health, veterinary medicine, and web-based applications.

Thanks again!

C

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