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]
I feel so bad for saying this, but your waypoints are not 200m apart. The length indicated (108m) on the bottom left hand corner of GoogleEarth is for the entire length of that line (not only to the half way point). Your waypoints are no more than 130m apart!! If you would like to confirm this, use the ruler in Google Earth to measure out the distance - also have a look at my plot on the previous page to see the difference.
Here's my entry: Sixty seconds! ArduPilot 2.3 beta code with an EasyStar (brushless upgrade). As you can see from the scale, the waypoints are more than 200m apart, and the 60 seconds is measured from the GPS track (it's actually probably a bit less than that, but those are the two GPS readings before the first waypoint and after passing it again at the finish). Pretty high wind (around 20 mph), but I cranked the throttle to about 70% for the run to ensure that I'd make good headway upwind to keep the GPS directional vector true.
As you can see, the wind was definitely affecting ArduPilot's navigation, pushing it off the optimal line several times. Crosstrack correction has not yet been added to the code, but once we put that in, I expect AttoPilot-like tight patterns. In this case, I don't think the sloppy pattern following hurt my time much, but for something like aerial photography you'd want better precision.
BTW, the secret to a fast run is a high throttle setting (duh!). Rather than tweak the ArduPilot throttle settings for the wind I had the throttle in manual mode for this run but didn't touch it during the run as you can tell from the audio track.
Here's the video of the run. The required "fun" element was two of my daughters, who chased each other around me while the plane was doing its thing:
Here is my first attempt at 65 seconds. Entry to waypoint #1 could be much better. My setup is an EasyStar with a Paparazzi autopilot and a video transmitter. The flight plan was based on simple circles around the waypoints, existing at specific headings. For some reason the IR sensors were acting up on this flight, probably due to the overcast sky and low visibility. I do not think I can do much better in terms of time but, the track can definitively be improved. Sorry only airborne video, if you look carefully you can see me have fun on the landing strip :-)...
Thanks!! sorry, no video on this plane just yet... but here is the kml file.... This in on an easy star with the attopilot. She is not built for speed hahah... I will also try this with my ardupilot when it's up and running on my multiplex mentor.
Comments
Damn, are you sure? If so, that's totally confusing. (But no worries, if so, I'll do it again. And I'm really not trying to win this!)
I feel so bad for saying this, but your waypoints are not 200m apart. The length indicated (108m) on the bottom left hand corner of GoogleEarth is for the entire length of that line (not only to the half way point). Your waypoints are no more than 130m apart!! If you would like to confirm this, use the ruler in Google Earth to measure out the distance - also have a look at my plot on the previous page to see the difference.
Here's my entry: Sixty seconds! ArduPilot 2.3 beta code with an EasyStar (brushless upgrade). As you can see from the scale, the waypoints are more than 200m apart, and the 60 seconds is measured from the GPS track (it's actually probably a bit less than that, but those are the two GPS readings before the first waypoint and after passing it again at the finish). Pretty high wind (around 20 mph), but I cranked the throttle to about 70% for the run to ensure that I'd make good headway upwind to keep the GPS directional vector true.As you can see, the wind was definitely affecting ArduPilot's navigation, pushing it off the optimal line several times. Crosstrack correction has not yet been added to the code, but once we put that in, I expect AttoPilot-like tight patterns. In this case, I don't think the sloppy pattern following hurt my time much, but for something like aerial photography you'd want better precision.
BTW, the secret to a fast run is a high throttle setting (duh!). Rather than tweak the ArduPilot throttle settings for the wind I had the throttle in manual mode for this run but didn't touch it during the run as you can tell from the audio track.
Here's the video of the run. The required "fun" element was two of my daughters, who chased each other around me while the plane was doing its thing:
Video uploaded to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGBGM_5Cvzo
Log files (can be replayed in Paparazzi GCS)
VassilisT3Log1.zip
Screenshot of the track:
Thanks!! sorry, no video on this plane just yet... but here is the kml file.... This in on an easy star with the attopilot. She is not built for speed hahah... I will also try this with my ardupilot when it's up and running on my multiplex mentor.
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