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  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson July 26, 2009 at 8:02am
    Krzysztof,

    This sounds great, but how are you handling the regulatory aspects? The 1000m flight you show is illegal (without a COA) in the US and almost all of Europe, as far as I know. Are you going to limit which countries you're selling to? Obviously a fully-ready UAV is export controlled under ITAR. I know we would be unable to sell such a thing across national boarders here.
  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak July 26, 2009 at 2:43am
    I would say this is bringing DIY one level up. I am dreaming about playing with aerial automated vision. This is one of the best development platforms for this: put the plane on loiter home for 20 min and play with debugging your vision hardware. The whole nose of easystar is yours for the PCB!
  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak July 25, 2009 at 4:35pm
    Hi, sorry for late response, I missed your post somehow.
    This specific version of autopilot is designed to fit rudder+elevator+throttle planes.
    It uses GPS, barometric altitude, 6DOF IMU (3 axis gyro, 3 axis accelerometer) , has 2 output triggers for servos or TTL (camera shutter) and temperature sensor for compensation.
    Uses 3 main servo inputs (rudd, elev, thr), 1 autopilot enable, 1 autopilot mode (forced return-home or tuning modes), up to 2 remote trigger inputs.
    It has USB connectivity and 2 logs: one for events (trigger positions and low-rate logging, around 1000 positions) plus multi-file (flight) log storage for realtime black-box data (frequency 32Hz upwards, around 80 variables, up to 8MB of data, typically 53min at 8Hz).
    All sensors, servo hardware override and servo pins fit on one sturdy, flat PCB that is mounted in the fuselage under the wing of planes like Multiplex EasyStar and similar.
    The package includes simple mission simulator + IMU viewer, and RVOSD serial output (the OSD can be bought separately and is optional equipment).
    The autopilot features 921kbps serial port via USB with user's console and accepts typed commands.
    This way also altering the settings is possible.
    The whole project has been tuned for specific platform and the first hundert examples will be sold installed and flight-tested in a classic EasyStar RC plane, hence the name EasyUAV.
    The whole purpose of the project is to deliver a WORKING solution for those wanting to get an airborne photo from defined positions. Mission payload is 300...350g (this includes camera power!), endurance around 15-20min.
    The autopilot provides all features from mature autopilot: relative or absolute waypoints, using dx/dy in km or dheading, distance, relative to takeoff point or to previous waypoint, advanced triggering (delayed position logging, independent active lenght and repetition rate, distance-flown-based waypoints), guaranteed no-loiter around waypoint navigation, variable (64-1024) number of waypoints (eats event log data space).
    The EasyUAV is sold fully tuned and flies out of the box just after setting up and connecting your battery and RC receiver, but the additional intent is to provide stable and forgiving UAV tuning platform. The advanced user can modify all the tuning parameters bases on serious implementation of PIDs using integration limiters, range limiters, filtering options etc. There is nothing wrong with tearing the autopilot apart and installing it on any astable platform, but it is wise to learn the system first.
    First batch of EasyUAV will be available for sale in mid-august. The price tag will be around twice the cost of a fully featured thermopile-based autopilots.
  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak July 19, 2009 at 1:32am
    Let's look at it from another point of view. It is clear that UAV at that price range will not be used from dedicated airfiled. Because the need to keep wings level, the only thing that is achievable in as system without 3D wind speed mapping, is anemic loiter above groundsite or a parachute that will cause many mishaps due to hasty assembly during pre-flight. As EasyStar has very nonlinear response in function of throttle and airspeed, it is already an achievement to have a loiter area around 100m (elongating to 200m in case of wind). The rest is luck, you need a clean landing site. You can also look at that this way: whatever happens, the autopilot provides reilable descent. If there is a party nearby, you are free to attend.
  • Joseph Glanville July 18, 2009 at 6:21pm
    "unbelievable luck" Tree avoidance system/ :P
    I wonder if that is marketable? :P
This reply was deleted.