Aldo is a friend of mine. 33 years old, he is on a wheel-chair since 2004 after a serious motorcycle accident. Aldo is very active and clever; with his hi-tech wheel- chair controlled by a mouth operated joystick he is able to drive the wheel-chair itself and to control tv, Personal Computer, Tablet, etc.
Aldo is very fond of flying objects and he was willing to try RC. We tried several solutions for mouth operated RC control without any success.
Recently, thanks to
- bluetooth integration in his "Wheel-chair control board" to control an Android tablet
- new Arducopter versions on APM (thanks dev team!)
- new Ardupilot version with virtual joysticks on tablet (thanks Kevin!)
we found a solution that seems to work pretty well.
In order to test AldoCopter solution we used
- DIY 450 quadricopter with APM control board and Arducopter 3.1
- a traditional RC radio control for tutoring and emergency control - 3DRradio 433mhz link
- Samsung Galaxy Tab (USB OTG cable) and Andropilot 1.9.3 (with virtual joysticks)
- bluetooth link between Galaxy Tab and wheel-chair control board for android mouse control
- Arducopter set-up with reduced pilot speed (WPNAV_LOIT_SPEED=200 - PILOT_VELZ_MAX=150)
Of course Aldo can pilot in LOITER only using one joystick at a time jumping from roll/pitch joystick to throttle/yaw command...but this is what a lot of "normal" people do using RC control :)
Yesterday we've tried this configuration in a small park near Aldo's home. Aldo has never tried to fly an RC object so we made it simple. Take off was in traditional way using RC control. When copter was in LOITER Aldo took copter control simply mouth clicking on tablet virtual joysticks. He has been able to control autonomously the copter doing slow and small movements. Next step will be a test in a wider space where Aldo will be able to fly farther and use much simpler AUTO and GUIDED mode.
This is the maiden flight video. It is not a great video as we were so worried about the new system that we didn't care to produce a better footage....but perhaps this video is more true and it documents in a more real way the very first AldoCopter flight.
For sure this is not yet a real "flight" but we are now certain that what we were dreaming of can be done and we are happy to publish this post as it can be of inspiration for other friends that share the same problems...and the same dream. :)
Comments
Hi there!
I've been doing research in alternative radio controls since 2012. More than two years ago we created the mouth operated 4D-Joystick which gives full control about 4 analoge and 4 digital channels. Just visit the 4D-Joystick Homepage for further information.
Gerhard
Hi Chuck!
I'm happy to find other people interested in this area.
The control board on the wheel-chair has a sort of bluetooth mouse emulation in order to use the same joystick to drive the wheel-chair and to move a mouse on a PC...Android tablet uses the same BT mouse emulation to control andropilot virtual joysticks.
Don't know what kind of sip&puff module is used....if you're interested monday I will take some picture and I'll post here. Do you have any documentation of your eye tracking project? very interesting!
Luciano
Luciano,
I am working on a similar project for someone with partial hand control (no motor control), do you have any information on the "bluetooth integration in his "Wheel-chair control board" to control an Android tablet"? Also I would be interested to know what "sip & puff" module you are using.
I have been working on a combination of the "sip & puff" module for executing a command with eye tracking for the mouse. Basically you look at what you want and puff to select, this is on PC not Android.
Great project guy's !!
Great work!
really good work guy's :)
Roberto - a more wise statement!
Great Work Luciano and Aldo :)