Coinciding with FAA's Part 107 going into effect we at insitu are releasing Inexa Control, our ground control station software with the Unmanned Vehicle Plugin for ArduCopter which enables control of all Arducopter / APM:Copter based quadcopters. This is very exciting for us at Insitu bringing professional aviation tools to all of you in the DIYDrones community.
You can buy Inexa Control here: insitu-web-store.myshopify.com/products/inexa
In the next few weeks I'll be posting various videos and documentation on Inexa Control covering the basics of Inexa Control, using simulation mode with the Augmented Video Overly System, and using Inexa Control with quads using Arducopter / APM:Copter.
That's all for now!
May your GPS always synchronize with your barometer
Comments
@Gary FLARES is a pretty sweet octocopter, it'll be a great day to see FLARES perform uas operations to help first responders along with Inexa Control!
@Greer, I heard you chaps use Arducopter in that big ScanEagle dropper FLARES??
Madly exciting times in this world.
FLARES - Flying Launch and Recovery System from Insitu on Vimeo.
Hello James. Right now the plug-in in specific to ArduCopter but in the coming releases we'll be expanding that support to ArduPilot / APM. Fixed wing support is a must given that not everything can be accomplished with multirotors!
Good question James. I would love to see Arduplane supported! Multi rotors are great to pop-up and provide greater situational awareness to a localise area (Melbourne's metropolitan fire brigade in Australia have been using ...!) but for any kind of coverage or persistence, you need a fixed wing. There is a reason a ScanEagle was used in the video...
This is the best 3D VR application I have seen yet and a superb use of Microsoft's Hololens.
It is very unfortunate that at this time the use of it for any UAS operation appears to be outside the scope of 107 and would require a special waiver for non-LOS operation.
It is also appears to be going to be a long road to getting drones accepted by the fire agencies as so far there reactions to UAS have been 100% hostile with the exception of one fire service coordinated overflight of a California Forest fire.
I suppose the reality is the fire agencies will eventually acquire them for their own use, but right now they ground their entire aerial fleet if they spot a single Phantom.
And Boeing Scan Eagles aren't all that much cheaper than their manned aircraft.
I do realize that your firmware is useful for many other uses as well, but the FAA LOS thing does seem to be a significant issue for widespread adoption of your system for aerial use anyway.
Ground based robots, maybe not so much of a problem.
Best regards,
Gary
These guys are used to seeing what we're doing with drones, but that was the first time I've ever seen all of them get excited about using drones on fires.
You're definitely on the right track for what we want to see, Greer. Keep it up!