If you didn't have enough robot thrills, spills and chills at the Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition yesterday, or just want to fly your multcopter in a fun low-stress competition, join us today in for the DIY Drones "Multicopter Rodeo", nearly Boulder, CO. It's just like the Sparkfun competition, but for rotary wing UAVs, and open to all.
We're going to be meeting at 10:00 am on Sunday the 17th at this site, which is about 15 minutes from Sparkfun (Google Street View shown, along with adjacent archery range). Autonomous multicopters and helicopters of all types are welcome, and the competition will consist of timed completion of a course, with extra points for autonomous takeoff and landing within a marked area.
Prizes and refreshments will be provided, but mostly it's an opportunity to geek out with other aerial robotics fans and tune code for optimal performance. Low stress, high fun -- everyone welcome (and free!).
Comments
Michael and Samantha Oborne's photos and videos from the Multicopter Rodeo are now up!
Congrats to Jason, Randy and Phillip for the outstanding runs!
We have been really lax in dealing with "winners" - LOL. Based on my observation of the contest flights, and unless there is objection, I am going to pronounce the winners as:
1 - Jason, with 2 fully auto flights right around 2 minutes and with the auto landings within 7 paces of the spot landing "spot". Jason also had a few additional fully auto flights with landings outside the maximum 10 pace spot bonus area.
2 - Randy, with 2 fully auto flights in the 2:30 minute range, with auto landings but no spot landing bonus
3 - Phillip, with a nearly fully auto flight with the big heli. We were blown away with how quick it took off down the course after takeoff. But a bit of hunting around the third waypoint and a bit of time settling down for landing slowed the overall flight to 2:42 and he had a bit of semi-autonomous human interaction dealing with the winds during the landing phase.
Overall, I thought these were great performances in really tough conditions.
Not really stealing... as a lot of the ideas come from a publish academic thesis paper.
Nice Jason, "stealing" ideas from a pro grade system like the one from Phillip is nice!
Even with the wind your path looks ok, we need to remember what it used to be. And your mission was performed fine and completely, this is not small thing.
Good seeing every one.
Here is my run:
I was a few paces off in the landing, I just don't remember exactly. Run time was 2m04s and boy was it windy!
I was impressed by Phillip's (nice to meet you!) performance so I went and re-wrote the crosstrack error correction algorithm to be less like the planes and more heli specific. It should hold a line much better now. I'll be testing later this week.
I also added a new feature based on Phillips' comment about "hedging" Basically if you start to lean too much into the wind that you can't hold altitude, the copter will begin to level out as you come down, giving you more lift and preventing a crash.
Jason
I just wanted to give a quick thanks for the DIYDrones crew for arranging this event. I had a great time meeting and learning from all of the more experienced folks that were there.
Nice pictures! looked really a fun crew. Happy people after crashes is always nice to see (but quite rare!)
Congratulation Samantha and Michael! I guess you did not take these wedding pictures yourself this time!
Hi Alan thanks :) Didn't realise I hadn't set download permissions, fixed now. If you go to whichever photo you want and click "Actions" above the photo you should be able to view all sizes!
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
of 4 Next