Thanks to the good ideas of Gary Mortimer and others, we're now launching a Trust Time Trial contest. The idea is simple: you set up four waywaypoints, spaced 200m apart, on your own field and time your UAV completing the course. Upload the data in the comments here. Best time on Sept 1 wins (I've got a prize this month--a new FunJet kit).
In the future, we'll add complexity and stricter standards to the trial, but this first one is easy:
1) Must complete the pattern as shown above, totally autonomously (go into auto mode before waypoint 1 and exit after you hit waypoint 1 again). The four points are arranged in a square, with 200m on a side (obviously the two diagonal paths are longer). Any aircraft/autopilot allowed. It doesn't matter how close to the waypoints you get, as long as you pass on the outside of them.
2) For this first one, altitude is not graded.
3) Fastest time to hit all points and return to 1 wins (one lap). Must provide GPS track with timestamps and on-board video. (If you don't have/can't afford a small onboard videocamera like the FlyCamOne 2, we'll let it go this time. But in the future: video or it didn't happen!)
4) Must also demonstrate that fun was had. Kids, picnics, silly hats, marching bands, something.
GPS tracks are best achieved with an onboard GPS datalogger, like the i-Blue 747 or smaller Sanav ML-7. But if you don't have one or don't want to add the weight, you can just capture the GPS track from your telemetry stream, although you'll have to figure out how to convert it to KML format to export to Google Earth (see below). If your Ground Control System has a built-in map+track function, a screen shot of that is fine, but it should be possible for people to check to confirm that your leg lengths are at least 200m.
Evidence data should include these four things:1) Total time, along with aircraft and autopilot used. A photo of the aircraft would be nice.
2) Screen capture of path exported to Google Earth or an equivalent, annotated with waypoints and where autonomy began and ended. Here's a sample from Dean Goedde (waypoints and autonomy not marked):3) GPS datalog file, any format
4) Onboard video, embedded from YouTube or Vimeo. [Not absolutely required but requested]
While I'm not going to formally submit what may be the record for the slowest time, I thought I'd share my results in the spirit of the competition - having fun! I was intrigued to see what I coult get out of my Electric Telemaster with an Ardupilot (v1.1 and slightly modified) and got a 1:59 and a 2:01. I don't have the gains tweaked that well but then again, the plane is set up primarily for loitering slow fpr fpv flight and the gains work just fine as a failsafe RTL, the primary reason for having the Ardupilot in that aircraft.
Just for grins, I'm including the Google Earth ground track and you can see how well it makes some turns and how poorly it makes others, but it does move along the general path. I think some of the variation was the wind (5 to 10 mph with a plane flying at about 20), and some of it happens because of the 30m tolerance on waypoint capture.
I'm hoping to take a stab at this with the UAV DevBoard in a Twister so we'll see if I can get that to behave better.
I needed to zoom in, you have set a high mark for ArduPilot with IR sensors to match !
Now I really need to get Sparkfun Atomic 6df interfaced to ArduPilot !!
Comments
Just for grins, I'm including the Google Earth ground track and you can see how well it makes some turns and how poorly it makes others, but it does move along the general path. I think some of the variation was the wind (5 to 10 mph with a plane flying at about 20), and some of it happens because of the 30m tolerance on waypoint capture.
I'm hoping to take a stab at this with the UAV DevBoard in a Twister so we'll see if I can get that to behave better.
Now I really need to get Sparkfun Atomic 6df interfaced to ArduPilot !!
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