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]
Okay, just in the nick of time I got one more shot to fly again very late this afternoon as the wind subsided, so this is my official entry, which meets the criteria of passing outside the waypoints. I tweaked my flightplan/route for the northeast breeze to make sure it went where it was supposed to so my time was a little longer than the first run, and therefore my official entry time is 1:31.
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I am still figuring out how to link the KML file here, and I will upload the video to youtube, hopefully before midnight PST.
Holy cow! That blistering enough for you, Gary? I never would have thought that a heli could move that fast. Given that this is a potential first place finish, we'll have to review the KML carefully, but at first glance it looks very impressive! Piccolo is a great autopilot and there is probably some justice in knowing that an autopilot that cost more than all the autopilots used in this contest combined put in equally good performance.
And here is our second entry! For this one we used a Guided Systems autopilot (based on Piccolo) on a Maxi Joker helicopter. Like the Twinstar, we pushed this helicopter to its limits. We set the max pitch/bank angle to 43 degrees and increased the head speed to 1400rpm. Griffin joined us for this flight test. We achieved ~54 seconds on the first run, ~53 seconds on the second run, and 51.79 seconds on the last run. We reached a maximum of 58.59 knots (30.14 m/s) in the course – a new speed record for the helicopter! It was pretty exciting watching this bird flying around so fast. To celebrate our victory, we commanded the helicopter to perform an auto land.
Here is the the Google Earth image of our run:
Again, we did not have an onboard video camera. However, this time I was on the camera the whole time, the reason for the great video! Ok, maybe its not a great video, I shake a little too much.
We are going to make a last minute entry or two! :) For our first, we used a Procerus Kestrel 2.2 autopilot integrated on a Multiplex Twinstar II. I think we might have been pushing the aircraft to its limits with the batteries we had. After 3 days and 30+ runs we had a few puffy batteries when we were done. Unfortunately we couldn't get the aircraft tuned right for fast speeds and 90 degree banking turns and thus were unable to beat Vassillis's time. The fastest time we recorded was 59 seconds.
The KML file has the path when the aircraft was flying in full autonomous mode.
Unfortunately, we do not have an onboard camera so we put a camera on a tripod and tried to have it pointing at the aircraft. We had a fun time. Definitely cool watching the plane doing 90 degree banked turns. :)
Comments
Not sure how to handle the KML link properly so here is a Word file with the GPS log:
DIY GPS log challenge one.doc
YT Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGA-mySHPrE
Photo of the Telemaster with PicoPilot:
.I am still figuring out how to link the KML file here, and I will upload the video to youtube, hopefully before midnight PST.
Rusty (glad I didn't try the Mikrokopter)
DIY Drones Competition MaxiJoker Guided Systems Piccolo HD from jared_of_atlanta on Vimeo.
Here is the the Google Earth image of our run:
Here is the KML file zipped up
Here is the CSV file of the flight log zipped up
Here is the video we created
Again, we did not have an onboard video camera. However, this time I was on the camera the whole time, the reason for the great video! Ok, maybe its not a great video, I shake a little too much.
The KML file has the path when the aircraft was flying in full autonomous mode.
Here is the KML file zipped up
Here is the XLS file of the flight log zipped up
Here is the video we created
Unfortunately, we do not have an onboard camera so we put a camera on a tripod and tried to have it pointing at the aircraft. We had a fun time. Definitely cool watching the plane doing 90 degree banked turns. :)
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