APM:Plane 3.6.0 released

The ArduPilot development team is proud to announce the release of version 3.6.0 of APM:Plane. This is a major update so please read the notes carefully.

The biggest changes in this release are:

major update to PX4Firmware code
major update to QuadPlane code
addition of MAVLink2 support

Updated PX4Firmware

The updated PX4Firmware tree greatly improves support for the new Pixracer boards as well as improving scheduling performance and UAVCAN support. It also adds OneShot support for multirotor motors in QuadPlanes.

QuadPlane Updates

The QuadPlane changes are very extensive in this release. A lot of new features have been added, including:

improved automatic weathervaning
greatly improved support for mixed fixed wing and VTOL missions
automatic RTL with VTOL land
VTOL GUIDED mode support
greatly improved transition code
new tuning system for VTOL motors
extensive upgrade to logging system for much better flight analysis

The new QuadPlane features are documented at:

http://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/quadplane-support.html

Please read the documentation carefully if you are flying a QuadPlane!

Tiltrotors and Tiltwings

This release has initial support for a variety of tiltrotors and tiltwing configurations. So far testing of these types of aircraft has been limited to simulations and it should be considered very experimental.

MAVLink2 Support

The new MAVLink2 support will allow for greatly expanded MAVLink protocol features in the future, and includes support for signing of MAVLink connections for the first time, making them secure against malicious attacks. I will do a separate blog post on upgrading to MAVLink2 soon. MAVLink1 is still the default for this release, but you can enable MAVLink2 on a per port basis by setting SERIALn_PROTOCOL=2.

Credits

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release. Tom and I have been delighted at the number and quality of contributions across the community, and to the extensive testing and flight logs that have been provided.

We would also like to give a special thanks to UAV Solutions for sponsoring the development of many of the new QuadPlane features in this release and Airphrame for development of the improvements to the landing code. We'd also like to thanks aAVIonix for providing hardware for testing of ADSB features.

Special thanks also for the great contributions by many long term contributors to the project. Major contributions to this release have been made by:

Peter Barker
Lucas De Marchi
Gustavo Jose de Sousa
Leonard Hall
Paul Riseborough
Francisco Ferreira
Michael du Breuil
Grant Morphett
Michael Oborne
The PX4 development team

among many others. Tom and I really appreciate the effort!

Some of you may also have noticed that Tom Pittenger from Airphrame is now co-lead with me on the fixed wing support for ArduPilot. Tom has been a major contributor for a long time and the dev team was delighted to appoint him as co-lead.

Other Changes
Detailed changes in this release include:

added motortest for all quad motors in sequence
merge upstream PX4Firmware changes
new AC_AttitudeControl library from copter for quadplane
modified default gains for quadplanes
new velocity controller for initial quadplane landing
smooth out final descent for VTOL landing
changed default loop rate for quadplanes to 300Hz
support up to 16 output channels (two via SBUS output only)
fixed bug with landing flare for high values of LAND_FLARE_SEC
improved crash detection logic
added in-flight transmitter tuning
fix handling of SET_HOME_POSITION
added Q_VFWD_GAIN for forward motor in VTOL modes
added Q_WVANE_GAIN for active weathervaning
log the number of lost log messages
move position update to 50hz loop rather then the 10hz
Suppress throttle when parachute release initiated, not after release.
support Y6 frame class in quadplane
log L1 xtrack error integrator and remove extra yaw logging
limit roll before calculating load factor
simplify landing flare logic
smooth-out the end of takeoff pitch by reducing takeoff pitch min via TKOFF_PLIM_SEC
added support for DO_VTOL_TRANSITION as a mission item
fixed is_flying() for VTOL flight
added Q_ENABLE=2 for starting AUTO in VTOL
reload airspeed after VTOL landing
lower default VTOL ANGLE_MAX to 30 degrees
Change mode to RTL on end of mission rather then staying in auto
implemented QRTL for quadplane RTL
added Q_RTL_MODE parameter for QRTL after RTL approach
reduced the rate of EKF and attitude logging to 25Hz
added CHUTE_DELAY_MS parameter
allow remapping of any input channel to any output channel
numerous waf build improvements
support fast timer capture for camera trigger feedback
numerous improvements for Pixracer support
added more general tiltrotor support to SITL
only save learned compass offsets when disarmed
support MISSION_ITEM_INT for more accurate waypoint positions
change parachute deployment altitude to above ground not home
added AP_Tuning system for QuadPlane tuning
added initial support for tiltrotors and tiltwings
added LOG_REPLAY and LOG_DISARMED parameters
added Q_GUIDED_MODE parameter
major update to QuadPlane documentation
added MAVLink2 support
fixed origin vs home altitude discrepancy
improved Lidar based landing glide slope
fixed throttle failsafe with THR_PASS_STAB=1
prevent EKF blocking during baro and airspeed cal
allow for ground testing of parachutes with CHUTE_MINALT=0
fixed elevator stick mixing for above 50% input
added QuadPlane ESC calibration

Happy flying!

Once again another fantastic Quadplane update! Thanks Tridge, Tom and team!

A couple of questions (as always!)

Automatic/Q_WVANE_GAIN Does this mean the new quadplane code can determine wind direction and actively point into the wind using quad yaw? That's awesome!
New quadplane tuning - Roughly what does this tune? Does it do both quad motors and wing flight tuning, or what is the recommended tuning process atm?
Quadplane ESC calibration and motor test - Sweet! Have lost lots of hours trying to get this right and trying to fault find ESC's etc. Hopefully the parameters will make it to MP soon to make things easier, as some QPlane features tend not to load.
With tiltrotor/tiltwing aircraft support, I realize this is experimental still, but I was wondering if it will be possible to allow the use of unconventional setups for this as well. One particular configuration I'm interested in is a tricopter setup, where the rear tricopter motor is fixed (doesn't pivot/roll for yaw in hover) but the two front motors can pitch forwards/backwards for yaw control in hover, as well as go horizontal to transition to forward flight. The advantage is one less motor overall by adding one extra servo, but with the result two motors can also tilt in the direction of forward flight. I'm hoping to achieve greatly improved yaw authority in hover with this configuration, which seems to be an issue for quadplanes in wind as well as improving streamlining of the overall VTOL airframe propulsion. Thrust vectoring steering in combination with tilt rotors could potentially mean no control surfaces will be necessary for the wings, saving a couple of control servos in the process. Potentially it could both tailsit for sensor orientation, or land on its belly as well. From what I can tell the only requirements for control would be to reduce the tail tricopter motor speed only after transition to forward flight whilst the tilt rotors remain on, and that the rear rotor can assist in elevator authority as required. Any feedback welcome.

Regards JB

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Comments

Developer

Andrew Tridgell June 10, 2016 at 11:00pm

@JB, yes, it does active weathervaning if you enable it. See:

http://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/quadplane-weathervaning.html

I tested it in 22 knot wind yesterday and it worked very nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkYuYE6Pe5U

on tuning, there is this document:

http://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/common-transmitter-tuning.html

but that documentation is not complete yet. The tuning code now also monitors the controllers itself looking for oscillation and will sound an alarm on the buzzer if you get controller oscillation while tuning. That is needed as quadplanes can look stable but actually be oscillating like mad internally due to the damping of the wings.

On the tricopter tiltrotor, it does support a tricopter with fwd motors tiling, but not using the fwd motors tiling independently for yaw control. It always tilts the two fwd motors at the same angle. I think your proposal is a good idea, but is not implemented yet.

Weathervaning and Wind Hold — Plane documentation
JB June 10, 2016 at 9:43pm
Once again another fantastic Quadplane update! Thanks Tridge, Tom and team!

A couple of questions (as always!)
1. Automatic/Q_WVANE_GAIN Does this mean the new quadplane code can determine wind direction and actively point into the wind using quad yaw? That's awesome!
2. New quadplane tuning - Roughly what does this tune? Does it do both quad motors and wing flight tuning, or what is the recommended tuning process atm?
3. Quadplane ESC calibration and motor test - Sweet! Have lost lots of hours trying to get this right and trying to fault find ESC's etc. Hopefully the parameters will make it to MP soon to make things easier, as some QPlane features tend not to load.
4. With tiltrotor/tiltwing aircraft support, I realize this is experimental still, but I was wondering if it will be possible to allow the use of unconventional setups for this as well. One particular configuration I'm interested in is a tricopter setup, where the rear tricopter motor is fixed (doesn't pivot/roll for yaw in hover) but the two front motors can pitch forwards/backwards for yaw control in hover, as well as go horizontal to transition to forward flight. The advantage is one less motor overall by adding one extra servo, but with the result two motors can also tilt in the direction of forward flight. I'm hoping to achieve greatly improved yaw authority in hover with this configuration, which seems to be an issue for quadplanes in wind as well as improving streamlining of the overall VTOL airframe propulsion. Thrust vectoring steering in combination with tilt rotors could potentially mean no control surfaces will be necessary for the wings, saving a couple of control servos in the process. Potentially it could both tailsit for sensor orientation, or land on its belly as well. From what I can tell the only requirements for control would be to reduce the tail tricopter motor speed only after transition to forward flight whilst the tilt rotors remain on, and that the rear rotor can assist in elevator authority as required. Any feedback welcome.
Regards JB
Developer

Andrew Tridgell June 10, 2016 at 8:36pm

I forgot to mention in the release notes that this release also has a lot of fixes for EKF2, many thanks to Paul Riseborough!
Digital Wings June 10, 2016 at 7:48pm

Thank you so much for all the quadplane code. I really enjoy the quadplanes more than anything :-)
Rana June 10, 2016 at 7:39pm

Wow, excellent Tridge, Arduplane360 is really a great update !
Tim V June 10, 2016 at 7:10pm

Great work guys!!!
Developer

Andrew Tridgell June 10, 2016 at 6:45pm

I've created a category for Plane 3.6 on the discourse server too:

http://discuss.ardupilot.org/c/arduplane/plane-3-6
Developer

Tom Pittenger June 10, 2016 at 6:22pm

great! I think there were about 1600 commits on master since last release. Lots of stuff going on, very active project.

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