I am pleased to report that ArduPilot ground station ( LabVIEW ) team is getting up and going.Our first objective is to clean-up the code a bit, make it more robust, and easier to add new functionality.Over time request for ground station features have been mentioned in few threads, and I would like to consolidate them in one place.What ground station features would you like to see or change?For example:1. kml logging : log lat, lon, alt2. voice synthesis : periodically announce status (way point, alt, speed); announce status through selected flight levels3. A choice of different graphic layouts, specially for the Horizon Indicator, something that would resemble more real aircraft instruments4. Change colors to get more contrast on sunny days5. Label baud rate settings for different GPSs so you don't have to remember (uBlox=38k; EM406 = 57k)6. Distribute the executable as a .app (not just .exe) so that Mac users can try it.7. Object tracking - once we have video support8. Show a 3d model representation of the plane9. online & offline maps support (google maps, OziExplorer,...)10. Data logging - preferably user selectable parameters- add your request
@Jonathan and Mark B. - I love iMAQ's functionality and vision toolkit, but yes, it does require a license ( just went through that at work...). So openCV, or some sort of .NET integration, or ....This is a good subject to think about - we are taking ground station development one step at the time so video integration is not on the top of the list (but we all can see it coming :) )
jon- yes, the imaq toolkit would require runtime licenses. So the best option would be to develop our own algorithms (or if you are feeling really sadistic- wrap the openCV libraries in VIs. Not a laughing matter!)
@automatik, LabVIEWs iMAQ (image aquisition) toolkit provides object tracking support, but unfortunately I think it needs a run time license in order to be used in deployment. I'll take a look.
On another note, i'd like to see video recording capabilities along with sensor recordings synced via timestamp. so you can scrub through a recorded flight video and understand what sensors and servos were reading.
@wilkomedic - there might be object tracking support once we have video feed included into ground station. Just a note that object tracking in itself is a complex (but fun) project...
when i was working at irobot, we implemented a 3D picture control in labview to show a 3d representation of the packbot (unmanned ground unit), using its accelerometers, compass, and imu, we could display the direction and tilt of the robot on the screen as well as what the arm/payloads were doing. it was quite useful to determine what angle the robot was at or what direction it was facing during operation.
with labview's 3d picture control, its easy to allow the user to load a google sketchup model of their drone...giving the user interface a customized feel towards their hardware.
obviously this is similar to the horizontal indicator, but it's easy to implement along with it. just a thought...
Ken- This would have to be a version of the GCS without the google earth view (there are user32.dll calls to get google earth into GCS), but it is possible.
Chris- The ability to remember baud rate has been implemented in my local branch build (i'll update SVN at some point) so you only have to set it once.
@automatik, the GCS baud rate must be set to match the GPS you're using (as must the Xbees). Everything else remembers its baud rate; only the GCS must be set each time you use it. So making it easy to remember which setting to use would help.
@ Chris,
"Label baud rate settings for different GPSs so you don't have to remember (uBlox=38k; EM406 = 57k)"
I think this GPS functionality request should be for firmware - ground station receives and process data from Xbee's serial port ( GPS data is part of it but groundstation doesn't talk to GPS directly). Or am I missing something?
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On another note, i'd like to see video recording capabilities along with sensor recordings synced via timestamp. so you can scrub through a recorded flight video and understand what sensors and servos were reading.
with labview's 3d picture control, its easy to allow the user to load a google sketchup model of their drone...giving the user interface a customized feel towards their hardware.
obviously this is similar to the horizontal indicator, but it's easy to implement along with it. just a thought...
Chris- The ability to remember baud rate has been implemented in my local branch build (i'll update SVN at some point) so you only have to set it once.
"Label baud rate settings for different GPSs so you don't have to remember (uBlox=38k; EM406 = 57k)"
I think this GPS functionality request should be for firmware - ground station receives and process data from Xbee's serial port ( GPS data is part of it but groundstation doesn't talk to GPS directly). Or am I missing something?
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