What would you like to see in a thermal pan tilt platform to make it effective for UAV usage?
I am with a company called SPI Corp and we manufacture a low cost multi sensor pan tilt platform called the M1-D. The M1-D initially was developed for use on ground vehicles but due to its light weight, small size and low cost it has become very popular with folks in the aerial imaging world including both manned and unmanned craft. We are anxious to make this an even better product for UAV usage especially in the low cost market. We are reaching out to the UAV community for help in this endeavor (especially you guys at DIY Drones). What we would like to know is what technical features would make our system even better for use in UAV's? If you could have anything you want in a low cost UAV Gimbal imaging system what would you ask for? What would be the bare minimum you would need to make the M1-D pan tilt thermal camera a workable UAV solution? Current imaging systems are extremely expensive. It is our hope that by starting with our current low cost solution, and with a little help from the community, we can come up with a low cost UAV solution that will enable everyone to incorporate advanced imaging into their UAV project.
Our current system specs:
Fully enclosed pan tilt gimbal
Sensor Payload - Thermal Imaging, CCTV and Laser Pointer
Diameter of ball - 4.5"
Diameter of base - 5"
Height - 6.5"
Weight ~ 2lbs.
Pan - 360 degree continuous
Tilt - 90 degree
Pan Tilt Speed - Pan: 0.05~220°/sec; Tilt: 0.03~140°/sec
Video Output - Analog Composite single line NTSC or PAL
Communication Camera Control - RS/485 PELCO-D protocol
Inverted Mounting - Yes capable
Hardware specs such as size and weight are obviously difficult to change. What are the key features that you would need to integrate into your UAV project? Are there specific interfaces that are commonly used? Please post comments and let us know what you would like to see in the M1-D to make it even better for UAV imaging.
We look forward to your input.
Thank you
Randall Kolchins
SPI CORP
Comments
Mr. Randall K., i am Andreas, and i am currently working on UAV platforms. For video purposes, specially on rolls like surveillance it is very good to have a video downlink so you can do real-time assets and quick decisition making. And it is even more efficient, in mission performance terms, that your IR imagery platforms is equiped with an outonomous rutine for paning the gymbal, so the operator could be focus on evaluating the video feed that he is getting rather than operating the video platform and, at the same time, evaluating the video feed. The arduino has and interface with radio receivers, so yes, we use radios to send commands to the APM
A third degree of rotation freedom would be good to be able to compensate all 3 axis movements of the aircraft.
Stepper motor is fine because it didn't weight much. You better start with fixed wing aircraft because not much issue with stabillity during cruising. Autopilot will handle this. For beginning, I just hope you can comeout with stand alone system that can intergrated with rc pwm receiver signal for PTZ control. Also the video can be transmit using normal type vtx we are using now. Just get a set of rc radio systems and makes it works together. In fixed wing UAV operations, someone else will handle this camera while pilot and GSS will be busy with others thing. I want to thanks for asking us on developement process of this awesome camera.........
Stepper motor is fine because it didn't weight much. You better start with fixed wing aircraft because not much issue with stabillity during cruising. Autopilot will handle this. For beginning, I just hope you can comeout with stand alone system that can intergrated with rc pwm receiver signal for PTZ control. Also the video can be transmit using normal type vtx we are using now. Just get a set of rc radio systems and makes it works together. In fixed wing UAV operations, someone else will handle this camera while pilot and GSS will be busy with others thing. I want to thanks for asking us on developement process of this awesome camera.........
Randall, regards your question about surveys. Yep - I'm not at the moment, but if the tool was available then many in my field globally would be excited by this. Obtaining approval for use of aircraft from our national aircraft safety regulator would be the only obstacle then.
Picture the scenario - if we were running surveys over a parcel of land (or an island) and we wanted to know how many of the individuals of the target species (and others) were present. These surveys need to be repeated using the same routine over and over and over again if the outcome (and decisions that follow) are to be valid.
The autopilot in the aircraft can be configured for this repeated flight plan. - albeit with some acceptable and known error due to winds etc and would be GPS track logged
In this case, the recording made would be viewed at a later date and counts made of what and where animals were observed. But this requires that the video image is of suitable quality to undertake this determination accurately. Can I reliably distinguish between heat signature of a rat, cat, rabbit, goat, sheep, bird? The ability to accurately identify what species we are observing is obviously critical.
Alternatively, other users may wish to fly via the FLIR (i.e. via the FPV) if the project is aimed at more at seeking out particular individuals of a species. Let's call this 'hunting' but it is equally just as important for simple observational work - by way of example, can I search the hotspots on a cliff line and determine if the object is a 'good' seabird or is it a 'bad' invasive rodent. This is where mounting the unit on a multi-rotor would be very powerful.
MJ
Yes some are collecting ground based data, especially with the FLIR.
I concur with others that a simple non-actuated package with the optics/electronics would be ideal.
I think I'm definitely in the minority, but I'm interested in a digital video interface. The M1-D says "optional Digital Interface" can you elaborate on what that means?
Mark
We are very familiar with those cores but they are not low cost. 640 is out of the question in this price range. So does everyone agree that the primary use for this would be FPV night operation? Is anyone collecting ground based data with the imaging for surveys and such?
oh thats fine, I thought it was the board not this thread.. and as a business owner I completely understand the need. Yeah the camera mount imaging payload would be ideal with the 1/4-20 base. The best imaging camera I have found for UAV is the FLIR Tau2 640 and with a 7mm lens you get a 90 FOV.. nice thing with that unit is you can switch out the lense in the field pretty easily with stored configuration data for the different lenses. Depending on application one could swap in say a 25mm lens for a more zoomed in FOV. I think a narrow FOV would be hard to fly under unless you are line of sight to the craft.. the point of this sort of package is the night time use and flying under FPV (first person view). The Tau2 is also pricy in the 8k range which for most is high depending on application.
I would use it mostly for terrain when doing line of sight night flying. I really don't think a massive fov is necessary and would make it tough to judge depth. It could also easily accompany a cctv camera if someone wants a really wide fov for normal flight.
I agree that the best would be a module with out the gimbal for lower cost, higher compatibility.
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