Hi guys!
Want to share what we have been working on lately, it is an autopilot shield for Raspberry PI. It is called Navio and has everything what you will usually find on an autopilot platform. A powerful platform like Raspberry gives many opportunities like streaming video, 3g,wi-fi, ethernet connectivity and possibility to run computation intensive algorithms like Kalman filtering or RTK GPS. RTK or real time kinematics is one of the main features of the board, it is equipped with a GPS capable of providing raw data output: carrier phase, pseudo-ranges and ephemeris. Processing this data against a stationary receiver increases GPS positioning accuracy to centimeters. A radio link between the two is required, but you anyway have it to GCS. If network RTK is available in your area, you can use corrections from the internet over 3G thus eliminating the need in second receiver.
Our plans include porting APM to Raspberry Pi + Navio.
Features:
MS5611 barometric pressure sensor
MPU9150 (MPU9250 on future models) 3-axis gyro, accelerometer and magnetometer.
ADS1115 16-bit ADC
PCA9685 PWM extender to control servos
u-blox NEO6T GPS module with raw data on SPI, we saved the only UART on raspberry for Xbee or different telemetry.
13 servo connectors
Pixhawk compatible UART, I2C and SPI connectors
RGB LED – just because we love them
What we wanted to know if there is any interest in platform like this, because we have everything ready for manufacturing and to keep the cost down we need to manufacture as many as possible. We have written tutorials how to use the board and are now preparing them for publishing, all code for the board will be released under open source license. Some more pictures and details are available on our website.
Comments
@Alain
Thanks! We will!
@ Bill Bonney
We are excited too!
You are absolutely right, usually the antenna is mounted on top of the body on a large ground plane.
One more thing, as NEO6 is pin to pin compatible with NEO7, I'd advice using NEO-7N or even NEO-M8 instead.
PS: i was thinking that you will get a much better response from the GPS antenna if you put it on a 40mm to 50mm square ground plane. Check the data-sheet, but i'm positive thats the config they use for testing the best signal reception
Count me in as well, sounds a promising
all the best and keep up the good work
Alain
@Tridge
Thank you for your support. We highly appreciate your amazing work on pushing Linux autopilots forward.The issue with 9150 on I2C was on our mind, but when we started this project the supply of 9250 was limited, and we decided to go for 9150, for the final version we will use 9250 on SPI.
@Dominik Daners
Thanks! We've seen some drone projects that used Raspberry Pi where people had to struggle with lots of sensors hanging on wires and Navio makes it simple.
The car is Himoto Mastadon, Raspberry with Navio fit under the body perfectly)
@Chuck Durham
Thank you! We will be posting updates on the project, and will try our best to deliver soon!
@Randy
Thank you! We are well familiar with Tridge's blog post and his speech, it gave us a lot of confidence to continue Navio project.
@Carlos Orozco
Our thoughts exactly! Thank you!
@Luiz Miranda
Thank you!
@Tom Pittenger
Thanks! We totally agree with you on the MPU topic, final version will be with SPI sensor. We wanted to make it easy to fit in most platforms, so the form of a shield came naturally.
I agree with you @Tridge, the first thing I thought of when I saw the 9150 number in the spec was "Why would they choose the I2C-only version!" I say 9250 or bust. Otherwise, nice board and great evolution of the platform. I like how it is a shield and not an add on like when using a Beagle or oDroid.
count me in too..sounds good to me..
Emlid,
Looking good! If you look at Tridge's "Peek into the future" blog post you'll see he discusses porting AC to Linux so your project is facing in the right direction. best of luck.
I assume the MPU9150 is on I2C? (I see no mention of SPI in the datasheet). That could be a real problem for the copter code, as the 400kHz limit of I2C and the contention on the bus from other sensors will make getting high rate gyro/accel values very difficult. I think it means you will have to use the on-sensor filtering only, and pull data out of the FIFO at the main loop rate. That is likely to be a significant limiting factor.
You could probably fly plane and drive a rover OK with that, as both are happy with a 50Hz main loop. The current APM:Copter code runs the main loop at 400Hz, which I don't think will be doable with I2C gyro.If you make the main loop run at 100Hz instead then I think you may be able to get it to work OK, although it will still take some very careful coding!
Good luck with the project!
Cheers, Tridge
@MD
Well, the hardware prototypes are ready, and all we need now is to get enough preorders to make a large batch.Probably trough Indiegogo campaign. The tutorials are on their way, but there are almost endless applications for the board, we will keep them coming at a good rate. If you want to get one of the prototypes, you can drop me a PM with a project you have in mind.
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