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APM: the Universal Autopilot

Posted by Chris Anderson on December 20, 2011 at 3:30pm

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I just had to a share a bit of pride that I got checking out the latest release (1.1.11) of the Mission Planner. Look at all those vehicles APM now supports!!! To say nothing of all the hardware-in-the-loop simulations at the bottom left of that screen. And ArduRover, ArduBoat, and coming soon, ArduBlimp (successor to Blimpduino) and ArduTank (!).

I think we just need to add ArduSub and ArduRocket and we've got the entire world of vehicles covered. Not bad for $200 ;-)

This why we call APM the Universal Autopilot. As far as I know, this sort of one-autopilot-does-everything has never been accomplished before. So proud of the dev teams!

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Comments

  • John Lundberg December 27, 2011 at 1:51pm

    Chris: That's sounds great.  thanks for the info and help.

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson December 27, 2011 at 10:52am

    John: Yes, with a physical board you can simulate with a "Hardware in the loop" sim, which does not require any programming (you just load the code with one click in the Mission Planner, just like flight code)

  • John Lundberg December 27, 2011 at 10:26am

    Chris:  Thanks for the reply.  What I was wanting to do was to simulate the board running and adjust some code values so I could see the affect.

    Do you suggest waiting until I get the APM2 so I can run an actual board?  That should still allow me to "simulate" a flying bird right?

    Thanks again.

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson December 27, 2011 at 9:09am

    John: don't worry about it. That SIL code is just a fun side experiment for advanced Python and Arduino developer types. It has no relation to the normal ArduPlane/ArduCopter code. The actual board doesn't require any programming at all. 

  • John Lundberg December 27, 2011 at 6:19am

    Hello everyone.

    I'm trying to get some help setting my system up to run  "Software in the loop" but I'm not getting any answers. is there another place to ask for help or does this mean that no one has done this?

    My problem is I can't seem to compile the SITL mode. I'v followed the instructions but this is the error I get

    ArduPlane>make -f ../libraries/Desktop/Makefile.desktop 

    ../libraries/Desktop/Desktop.mk:58: *** ERROR: cannot determine sketchbook location - please

    specify on the commandline with SKETCHBOOK=<path>. Stop.

    I've done a SET in windows for the path location with no luck.

    I'm getting a little frustrated and worried that I will have a new 2.0 paper weight coming in soon.

    Should I just wait until the board comes in?

  • Brad Hughey December 26, 2011 at 7:56am

    In APM v1, there was a bit of an issue with mechanical vibration inducing noise into the sensor signal(s).  Has the incorporation of the monolithic MPU-6K mitigated this concern?  How much mechanical isolation is appropriate for the new version?

  • whynotflydisquad December 26, 2011 at 12:03am

    oh Hardware in the loop i see

  • Don Brooks December 25, 2011 at 11:57am

    Have you read the manual? Specifically, this part.

  • whynotflydisquad December 25, 2011 at 11:50am

    whats the HIL simulator do ?  how do you use it ??

  • Anish December 24, 2011 at 2:31pm
    @f1 1/8 th scale would do, that has been my initial test platform :) so far
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