We have developed a version of the SurVoyeur mk-II, the 'c' version, which has a new nose housing a gimballed, stablized EO and IR camera combination.
This gimbal houses the FLIR QUARK 640 X 512 pixel Thermal camera, fitted with a shutter to enable flat field correction, and also houses the Sony EX11 Colour Block Camera.
Both camera are fully controllable from the ground station, colour modes, zoom where applicable, AGC, etc.
The gimbal is stabilized and fully steerable from the ground station. We are currently working on making accurate fitment jigs to bore-sight the cameras to the IMU, to enable accurate line of sight determination to allow automatic tracking of designated 'targets'.
Here are some photos of the various parts of the Gimbal, and the Gimbal fitted to the aircraft.
The two cameras with the QUARK shutter mechanism: The assembled Gimbal:
Pre-assembly:
A short video of the gimbal in motion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xlB0HXT520&feature=youtu.be
Flight times are 70minutes at sea level 25deg C, 55 minutes at 1600m ASL, 40deg C.
Additionaly an 18mpixel Canon stills camera, stablised in roll, is fitted in the belly bay , under the wing, as was in the original mk-II aircraft.
search for SurVoyeur on DiyD for other blogs on mk-I and mk-II if interested...
The Nampilot.
Comments
Brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi there Pransh,
All the casing parts are made from fibreglass/resin, using molds .
Regards
Joe
what material have you used for the gimbal casing ?
Nikhil,
What camera are you using ( FLIR- TAU, Quark, etc) and what is the lens that you have fitted - From that info we can work out the field of view and therefore the ground coverage related to flight height AGL. This will give the ground movement rate per image pixel per unit time and then we can see at what speed the blur becomes unacceptable.
Regards
Joe
Hi Nikhil,
I am not to sure what effect you are referring to - there is certainly blur related to the camera frame rate and the rate at which the ground features pass in front of the camera, but flying at 18m/s and at 100meters AGL we do not notice the 'blur' at all. This type of artifact is related purely to the speed of movement of the ground features being imaged. At 30meters AGL and 18m/s flight speed, the image is quite un-viewable. However, a huge contributer to image blur is vibration, common on gas powered aircraft and multirotors. Since our plane is electric, single well balanced prop, we do not have a problem.
Regards
Joe
Martin, no flaps on takeoff. We use them on landing to flare down gently. Landing starts from 160meters away, at 20meters AGL. Flare starts at 6meters AGL. At launch the launch point is recorded an used for the touchdown aim point - in calm WX generally we touch down within 6 meters of that point, fore or aft..
Joe
Wessie ( from RSA?)
The gear is from RS components -
I take the aluminium servo arm from the servo, cut the arm from the spline hub, fit the hub to a shaft machined to snugly fit inside the spline, with a screw ( as you would fit it to the servo) and place the shaft ( 6mm diameter) in the lathe. I machine the hub down to 8.5mm diameter. Then I machine an 8.5mm rebate into the recipient gear, and snugly locktite the hub into the gear. Thats it - I have searched for splined gears/hubs/pulleys, to no avail. I have for the larger servo splines made a hardened splined shaft and use that to force a spline into the correct size hole in the gear hub. Just not easy to make the spline for the smaller servo shafts.
Not a multi turn servo - not needed - the servo is programmed for 180deg rotation and that is more than enough for use in a fixed wing in that mounting - The 180 forward and rear is far more than needed but we turn the camera lense backwards on launch and land to be out of the way of flying bits.
The 3 blade prop - yes that was part of a multitude of prop size pitch and motor kv tests - I ended up making the hub since I could not easily get one in Namibia or RSA..
Joe
Question re the tilt mechanism (open to everyone for answers.)
How do you fit a gear/toothed pully on the servo output spline?
I assume you are using a multi-turn servo there too?
Now there is something you dont see everyday! A 3-Blade folding hub. Cool
Great work!
Gisela & Joe Noci
Please PM me. I am very interested in your Gimbal.
What kind of hardware/software is used to make the tracking part work ?
Also what is the cost of the components ? The cameras ?
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