Today Marco doing a great test with his Hexa and VRBrain he used firmware Arducopter32 2.9.2b developed by official DIYDRONES Team and ported on VRBrain and supported by VRI Lab Team.
The Dev Team doing a great work :) The main advantages of VRBRain is that is 30x faster of standard APM 2.5. The main difference is processor: VR Brain use STM32F4 168 mhz and integrated FPU . APM used a standard AVR 8 bit processor at 16 mhz.
On VRBrain the scheduled time task is respected at 99% , we have 80 % of cpu time in idle and 3/4 flash free for future development of firmware and 1 year of test by our VRI flight team.
With this feature you have a great smoth flight and the attitude is processed at 500 hz , sensor is update at 1 khz instead of 250 hz in APM 2.5.
In this test the VRBrain is controlled directly by AndroPilot. The application is available on Google Play and supported by Android 4.x Pad and Smartphone.
The AndroPilot is connected to VRBrain by 3DR radio telemetry module directly connected to USB port of ASUS Pad.
In video is possible to see the guided mode and Follow me functionality available on AndroPilot application.
The AndroPilot use internal GPS Pad for position of Marco and send every some times and when Marco move the new point to drone that follow Marco during his travel in the field.
I think that this result is very impressive . The integration of different technology is developed very good , It's only an early stage prototype but the result is yet very good .
The board use by Marco is VR Brain 4.0 with enclosure and 3DR Ublox GPS the quality of fix is very good.
Thanks to Marco , Emile , Randy and the other guys of devteam for this great result. Thanks to Kevin for his great CGS Android Application Andropilot.
For more info of VRBRAIN :
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-brain-v4-0
Original blog post:http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-vr-brain-first-test-with-andropilot-in-guided-and-foll
Best
Regards
Roberto Navoni
Comments
Hi Robert,
if you want download our enviroment and compile the VRBrain code is simple ... you can found this link :
http://vrbrain.wordpress.com/installing-and-compiling-the-code/
We yet prepare ready to use .dfu file for our user so you need only st tools for upload by usb the code.
The enviroment that we use is called VR Universal Ide is a ready to use enviroment you need only download the eight file and unrar in a directory that going inside and execute eclipse .
Could be good put in a short name directory the enviroment as C:\job for example we see that if you put the enviroment on desktop you can have problem with the lenght of file name.
If you need support can ask to me or Emile in skype my account is : virtualrobotix
@Marco yes Robert is the best for check VRBrain on a helicopter ... ;) @Robert if you need a board is available :)
Best
Roberto
So we can just compile Master for VRBrain now, using that hacked version of Arduino they cooked up? I'm behind the curve on this stuff. On the PX4 I just uploaded using that fancy new thing on MP where it grabs the latest.
Kevin, it's possible to make a sound to the tablet when you press the screen for add the next point in the guided mode or during flight planning with waypoints so that it is more intuitive that you added a point?
The little popup that appears is a bit hard to see because it remains under the finger.
Another little problem: im my zone the maps by Google I think it was geotagged with an error of about 6 meters down compared to North, it would be nice to be able to enter in Andropilot two value "X/Y" to correct this error in the areas where the map is not very accurate, the value could be centimeters error on the axis of the North, the other on the East, for example "-600 / +200" = the map moves downward of 600 cm and to the right of 200 cm, or something like that, something at a visual level to move the map with the finger where you actually put really the drone.
Ps: i've the same error in the Planner, of course, I will suggest the same thing to Michael on the dev list.
If the error can be corrected inside the ArduCopter code with two parameters then the change to the software would be unnecessary.
Roberto, I think you found it, who better than Robert?
Hi Robert ,
we have two revision of code available ... only for arducopter whe have old library implementation before the ap_hal lib on that revision we are aligned at 2.9.2 without inav on x and y .
We have also finish the implementation of AP_HAL library so now is possible to take standard arducopter or arduplane or ardurover developed for ap_hal library and compile on vrbrain , so now is a lot more simple mantain aligment with the 8 bit revision.
Yesterday we test the Arduplane on VRBrain and all work fine ... we don't have beta tester on helycopter ;)
Best
Roberto
@Kevin are you see online our app VR Radio ? It's a complete radio system with all the feature available as a standard rc radio. You can choose the radio mode , can choose the exponential setup , reverse ecc ecc ...
Could be nice add this application to your application and send the data directly using mavlink instead to use second channel with a ppm module as is possible to do now.
The only limit is what happen when disappear the radio console ? The application switch automatically the drone in loiter or guided mode ....? The Joypad is nice but how you solve the problem of gas ... normally the zero is not in the middle as in joypad .
Best
Roberto
Cool stuff guys.
Roberto, what's the latest status on building for VRBrain? Does it now work simply by building Master with HAL for VRBrain? Or do you still have to "port" every release to work on it?
I tried screen based fake joysticks but didn't really like them. Perhaps someday such support will be added (probably integrating Arthur's code). However, I did add support for real gamepads and flying a vehicle with something like this is actually pleasant.
VR Brain has the loop cycles much faster, then the stabilization is much better, like with PX4.
Hello Marco, Did you know if the flight perform would be the same with the regular amp hardware with the Atmel's ATMEGA2560 microcontroller than the ARM CortexM4F inside of the Vr Brain?
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