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Controlling the speed of automated missions in real time with UgCS

Posted by Artūrs on April 16, 2015 at 1:00am

Greetings, 
Some interesting news from UgCS Team.

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We have modified the firmware based on ArduCopter v3.2 firmware for it to allow us to control the speed of the vehicle in an automated mission in real time through the throttle channel on the RC remote.


How it happens:

1. Install the new firmware through Mission Planner. After installing, make sure you recalibrate the compass.

2. Create a mission in UgCS, upload it to the vehicle and start flying.

3. As soon as the vehicle is in “Auto” flight mode you will be able to control the speed of the vehicle with the throttle stick of your RC remote.

The speed can be changed between 0 m/s (when throttle is set to zero) and 10 m/s (when throttle is set to maximum) and anything in-between. For instance, when the throttle on the RC remote is set to 70% the vehicle will fly at approximately 7 m/s.

The behavior of the vehicle in other flight modes is not altered in any way and they work as normal

A few notes:

  • This has been tested to work on a Pixhawk flight controller on the Iris+ platform.
  • The change in speed is not instantaneous. By default the acceleration of the vehicle is limited to 100 cm/s2. It can be changed via Mission Planner by increasing the parameter “WPNAV_ACCEL” to a higher value, e.g. 500, which corresponds to 5m/s2.
  • The vehicle will still automatically slow down before sharp turns.

 

This feature of variable speed control can be used in fields such as aerial photography, sports videos, monitoring industrial and agricultural objects and other. If you are interested in this, feel free to contact us!

Safe flights,
UgCS Team

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Comments

  • Zidlov April 21, 2015 at 12:31am

    Mixed up the actual name of the function. It's called WPS_Speed. You can find it in the dropdown list for ch6 options. I remember testing it about two years ago and it worked well, apart from the fact that I crashed because I thought it was a good idea to program a mission in 10 meter height with trees around...

    You can assign a min and max value for ch6 in the extended tuning tab in mission planner and then you can control the vehicle speed with a knob or your throttle stick if you configure your radio accordingly.

  • Artūrs April 20, 2015 at 1:51am

    Zidlov,

    Can You please give some more explanation about the already implemented possibility to control Nav_Speed with a knob? I mean if this feature works in Auto Mode too?

    Silvio,

    Sure, we will publish our customized firmware in short time.

    Regards,

    Artūrs

    UgCS Team

  • Volta Robots April 18, 2015 at 4:29am

    Excellent work Arturs! I'll test soon

  • Zidlov April 17, 2015 at 11:34am
    What's the difference between this feature and the already implemented possibility to control Nav_Speed with a knob on channel 6?
    If one wanted, one could a mix in the radio to output the throttle stick on channel 6 when auto-mode is engaged. Wouldn't that do exactly the same?
  • Artūrs April 17, 2015 at 1:48am

    Hello Benjamin,

    We are not sure if it will appear on main branch at all.

    But we will sure publish our developments to public repository, so it will be available for public.

    Regards,

    Artūrs

    UgCS Team

  • Benjamin Pelletier April 16, 2015 at 8:58am

    This looks like a great feature; do you think it will make it into the main branch any time soon?

This reply was deleted.