Starting very shortly, 0900 Mountain AVC 2013.
Chris Anderson and co are there to be covered in glory having flown an autonomous take off then out over water to drop a tennis ball on a spit of land, fly under a hoop and finally land all without the aid of a net.
What could possibly go wrong.
Live stream here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/autonomous-vehicle-competition
I'm hanging out as sUASNews on twitter there.
Comments
@ Dave C - that was just amazing to see your practice autonomous ball drop! Great stuff!
And with a catch like that, you're bound to make the Ashes squad. (;
Nathan: excellent! Thanks for the info; delighted to hear it.
Hey Chris, Roadrunner took first in the micro category, and Minuteman took second in the peleton, both using the trusty ArduPilot "uno". Not as sexy as it's big brother, but still capable.
A few videos
Simulated Sparkfun AVC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS62ARl4-OU
SparkFun AVC 2013 - AC3 results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_vwC1r3k2g
AVC - FPV of the aerial mission route
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oPC1yJymrg
At 30m/s in auto carrying 9000mah it pulls about 60-70amps, so i reckon i could go for about 10mins, ish. It's perfectly capable of carrying 20000mah, but would be pulling more like 90a, So best case at this speed would be around 18mins. So theoretically i could fly out for 540 seconds (about a mile) and back again and still have enough for a victory flip. (if my sleep deprived brain isn't messing with me)
However if i throw it into ACRO and go full welly, I'm pulling 120amps (poor power module) so at full speed (about 80mph) I wouldn't quite make the mile out and back, but what i did make would be at big heli speeds.
I'm planning on testing exactly this, max speeds and also going for better efficiency (Bigger props, lower KV, 'proper' motors.
I'll keep you posted.
Obviously I get a bit more fun at sea level than at the altitudes of boulder!
Dave, what is the power usage like at those speeds? Just curious how it compares to a heli. I was surprised it can even go that fast in the first place, so now I'm wondering how long it can do it?
Oh I just realised i never posted my practice runs, check this out for an autonomous ball drop :)
Mines' a 1980. Just got it back from rebuild. Its now a stage4 rally spec, with 130 BHP (from the standard 38) straight cut dogbox etc etc. It's a mini monster!
Once again thanks guys for facilitating one of my proudest moments. And that 30m/s run (Leonard i checked it, it was indeed doing 30m/s) was a sight to behold, I wish I started at that speed and worked up. I will test it to destruction when i get back, lets see how far we can push this inertial :)
That was my favorite part as well Leonard. They were pushing so hard, but also showed amazing accuracy at speed.