Description: This platform was inspired by the realization that almost all the hardware you need for a functioning UAV is contained in the high-end cellphone in your pocket: GPS, camera, two-way long-distance wireless data communications, onboard computing and storage. Why do the tricky hardware integration when some cellphone maker has done it better themselves? By using a Windows Mobile phone, a UAV becomes a software, not a hardware, project. (You can see the phone strapped to the bottom of the plane in the image above; the sensor to the rear of it is for the FMA co-pilot.)
Features: Control the UAV (dynamic waypoints, camera commands, "come home", etc) by text message! Plane can return GPS-tagged imagery in real time by MMS (also stores it onboard for later downloading). Phone steers the rudder along GPS waypoint path, circling on command, and controls the throttle to maintain altitude. Separate FMA co-pilot stabilizer on the ailerons and elevator keeps the plane flying level.
- Airframe: Hobbico SuperStar (49" wingspan, $109). [If you want much better performance, you can upgrade it to a brushless motor and a LiPo battery]
- Autopilot: HP iPaq 6515 Window Mobile smartphone (GPS, 1.2 megapixel camera, discontinued but widely available for less than $200 on eBay.)
- Stabilization: FMA Direct FS8 Co-Pilot (infrared sensors, $115)
- Interface: Rentron serial-to-servo board ($77)
- iPaq to serial cable ($20)
- Custom software: VB.net code running on Windows Mobile, using HP's GPS, Cameraphone and text message libraries. It's still a work in progress, but you can download a beta version that shows basic functionality, here. (Copy the CAB file to your iPaq and run it from the file manager to install the program. It requres the Rentron board and serial cable listed above to do anything useful.). The VB source code is here, so you can modify it for your own needs, including adapting it for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and other GPS-enabled WM phones. Documentation coming soon.
Comments
Yeah I still have an old Ipaq 6500 that I bought to put in a plane!
I should have sold it before the iphone came out. It was still worth $2 then! :)
SMS messages sometimes can take *hours* to arrive. The SMS service of any carrier can be erratic, and I've observed this on ATT, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. I'm not the only one; a quick search found:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-53170.html
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-51083.html
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-52038.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1044840.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/402413.html
http://www.wirelessforums.org/uk-telecom-mobile/t-mobile-sms-delay-...
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=64f856f513f5...
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=33d0db7d2a6b...
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86949
Lovely idea, this, but I'd suggest adding a routine that keeps the autopilot from going further than, of, say, 1/4 mile from launch point, and having it return to launch point and circle if no message is received for x minutes...
I'm loving the mobile/cell phone method of autopiloting a plane. I'm currently developing a drone in the style of the Honeywell VTOL craft .
http://www.honeywell.com/sites/aero/Surface3_C2BCFDD45-93F1-A559-92...
I was wondering if the mobile/cell phone based system can be modified to work on a VTOL platform?
Also there's option to use older Symbian phone which doesn't need signing at all, with some 104MHz CPU, which should be enough for all tasks.