IR-LOCK Sensor for Precision Landing, etc

We finally have a progress report on the integration of the IR-LOCK (Infrared Pixy) vision sensor with Pixhawk. A group of students at the Georgia Institute of Technology is using the sensor for their 'Package Delivery Drone', which requires precision landings. They plan to use GPS to travel to a waypoint, and then use the IR-LOCK sensor to land precisely on an infrared beacon. Recently, they were able to get an IRIS+IR-LOCK to auto-hover over an IR beacon (see videos).

Other applications for IR-LOCK/Pixhawk are in the works (or at least in mind):

Search&Rescue (auto-search for emergency IR beacons)
Moving target following
Aerial surveying (I will be able to post a relevant video soon)
... your thoughts/ideas are welcome :)

We are in the process of making the IR-LOCK/Pixhawk interface more developer-friendly. The current developments (by the student group) are based on an IR-LOCK sensor 'driver' and codebase discussed on this FAQ page (link). A 'more official' implementation should be under development soon. The relevant discussion is here (link).

Small IR 'Pods' can be detected by the IR-LOCK sensor at about ~30-60ft. The IR-LOCK sensor reports the (xy) position of IR targets to Pixhawk at 50Hz.

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Comments

iw28 February 18, 2015 at 9:52am

Just thinking if it would be possible to use a wii ir camera like this one
this also output very high speed of the x, y coordinates of IR light and a third parameter indicating the size of the IR light. they communicate with I2C and requries few components.
Thomas Stone February 18, 2015 at 5:24am

@Glenn

I have followed and backed the OpenMV project. Since they switched to the M12 lens mount, we should be able to provide 'IR-LOCK' support with this mod kit (link).

I don't know if the OpenMV will offer any advantages (over Pixy) for this application. Maybe the price/size/'programmability' could be better. I like the OpenMV project, but it's hard to beat the Pixy's 50Hz blob detection.
Thomas Stone February 18, 2015 at 5:05am

@Hugues

The IR-LOCK work is based on the popular Pixy vision sensor. The sourcecode for our modified 'IR-LOCK Pixy' firmware is here:

http://irlock.com/pages/archived-files

And all of the quad control work is based on ArduPilot/Pixhawk.
Thomas Stone February 18, 2015 at 5:00am

@Leonard

Thanks! The students have been using the loiter controller. The range is based on the barometer, and the angle is based on a lens calibration. Then, the 'x and y errors' are derived from those measurements. It is only in a proof-of-concept form right now, but the results are promising.
Thomas Stone February 18, 2015 at 4:56am

@Jake

Thanks for the feedback! Charging stations was actually one of our first thoughts for neat applications. The student's package delivery project should work out some of the technical surrounding many precision landing applications.
technicus acityone February 18, 2015 at 4:46am

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/258964655/ir-lock-infrared-tar...

IR-LOCK: infrared target tracking for Drones & DIY Robotics

Simple and accurate target tracking hardware for Drones & DIY Robotics. Works in bright sunlight and even complete darkness.
Glenn Gregory February 18, 2015 at 4:43am

The Openmv project on kickstarter should be capable of this too.
Jake Stew February 18, 2015 at 3:12am

Looks like the IR-LOCK is a Pixy with an IR filter. So all the source is GPL. This is very good!
Jake Stew February 18, 2015 at 3:07am

> How will this be made available? Open source?

Looks like it's in the ardupilot repository. So it's GPL!
MR60

Hugues February 18, 2015 at 1:00am

This opens new uses possibilities. That's exciting. How will this be made available? Open source?

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