Randy is one of the key members of the ArduCopter team, and has been leading the traditional heli part of it, along with integrating optical flow sensors into the ArduCopter code (look for a product we may be offering in that space soon).
He's also a great example of the international nature of the team. If you thought Jani was pretty exotic, as a Finn living in Thailand, Randy is a Canadian living in Japan!
Name: Randy Mackay
Home base: I live in Tokyo Japan. It's always interesting as it's a very different culture (from mine) and although it can seem very similar to the west on the surface, the differences come to the surface all the time through unusual foods, people's reactions to events, and many other ways. One challenge though is finding open spaces to fly but where there's a will there's a way!
Day job: I make financial risk management software for a Swiss investment bank. Struggling to find a cross over with DIYDrones..nope, there isn't any.
DIY Drones Role: My primary responsibility is getting the Traditional Helicopter code up to the same level of performance as the Quad. Frankly, it's a real challenge. Although probably faster and more maneuverable than a quad, heli's are very unstable, control inputs affect more than one axis and when thing go wrong, repairs are expensive and time consuming. Still, it's lots of fun and we're getting there. Beyond the trad heli, I've added improvements here and there mostly in the magnetometer and sonar code.
I love being a member of the arduCopter team and working with the talented engineers that Chris has introduced in this series, it's just so much more effective than going it alone.
Background: My obsession with computers began with a TRS80 that my mother brought home and a book of Basic games that you had to type in yourself..and of course they were riddled with bugs which needed to be fixed before you could actually play them! Years later I received a BSc in Computer Science from McGill University.
I got into RC cars with my best friend from elementary school, and then much later RC Helicopters.
The combination of the two passions, programming with RC was natural step as i suspect it was for many others DIYDroners. Specifically Jack Crossfire and his vicacopter was the catalysts that made me jump in.
Other interests: I'm very interested in optical flow and the possibility of using it for improved position control, altitude and object avoidance. I'd also like to find an alternative to the current sonar and barometer sensors for altitude hold - perhaps a laser range finder? Also keen on 3D printed parts.
Comments
Hi Randy ,
I want to creat code which can make the motor slow down about two seconds.I have sew your code in APM libraries.Can you help me with this code ?
Any help would be greatly appriciate!
Thanks! APMlover
Sorry, there got something lost in my first post.
Hello Randy,
I am digging through the Arducopter 2.9 code right now and try to figure out the exact control logic for the motor outputs. Within the AP_MotorsMatrix.ccp file there's a function called output_armed(). Within that function you use 3 arrays - _roll_factor, _pitch_factor and _yaw_factor. I would like to know what the initial values (especially for a quadrotor in x-config) for those variables within the Arducopter Project are.
Thanks for your help!
Hello Randy,
I am digging through the Arducopter 2.9 code right now and try to figure out the exact control logic for the motor outputs. Within the AP_MotorsMatrix.ccp file there's a function called output_armed()config) for those variables within the Arducopter project.
Thanks for your help!
I tried to verify the Optical flow sensor test program for my apm 2.5 but it is showing " no matching function for call to AP_OpticalFlow_ADNS3080_APM2::print_pixel_data()" please help me to slove this problem and also can you please tell me where is flowSensor is defined?
Thanks
Ravi Kishore MV
Is it true that the optical flow sensor can not work on APM2.5, because almost 5 to 7 people said the same thing to me. But still i got confusion that how other are getting good results with the test code and OFS and APM2.5.
Venkat,
Yes, I've heard that as well. There must be some bug in that sketch. I'll have a look at it at some point before the AC3.1 release. Also feel free to raise it as an issue on the issues list. That'll help me remember it.
Great Job Randy, You are the man for the heli project. Trust we will get it sorted soon.
Greetings,
Hein
@Ravi, Great, the more the merrier! the main thread for the heli stuff is here.
hi andy, i have a align 450 SE and APM 2560, i would soon be working on arduheli. i have all the hardware needed.
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