Sky-Drones.com unveils SmartAP 4 Autopilot - the latest generation flight control system for multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles of various configurations and sizes aimed at the wide range of applications. The main feature of the system is the capability of fully autonomous flight including take off, waypoints flight, landing and much more. The core is based on powerful 32-bit microcontroller ST Microelectronics® STM32F4 and 9-axis Inertial Measurement Unit. The latest UBlox® GPS module with integrated 3-axis magnetometer and pressure sensor can be connected externally for autonomous flight capabilities as well as wireless telemetry module for system configuration, mission planning & control and in-flight monitoring via specially designed SmartAP Ground Control Station and Configuration Tool. SmartAP 4.x supports any type of multirotor UAV with outstanding flight performance, reliability, navigation and control precision. Compact size and weight makes integration of the system fast and easy, various I/O interfaces allow creating the applications for interaction with 3rd party electronics and payload.
General specifications
- Powerful microcontroller 32 bit 168 MHz STM32F4 ARM Cortex M4
- Compatible with GPS/GLONASS receiver (UBlox NEO8, GPS/GLONASS, up to 24 sats, 10 Hz) active antenna
- Up to 12 PWM I/O support (5V out)
- USB interface for configuration / firmware update
- Various communication lines (UART, I2C, SPI)
- MicroSD, 4-bit SDIO interface for data-logging / parameters storage
- Backup battery for RTC
- 2x ADC inputs for battery voltage / current monitoring
- Electromagnetic sound audio indicator
- 3-channels LED support (up to 500mA / ch)
- 2-channels solid state relay
Flight performance:
- Extremely stable flight in stabilize (user control), position hold (semi-autonomous control) and auto (fully autonomous navigation and control) modes
- Native support of SmartAP Ground Control Station and Configuration Tool
- Accurate GPS Position hold (up to 40cm), manual position override
- Accurate Altitude hold (up to 10 cm), manual altitude override
- Fully autonomous waypoints flight
- Return to home mode
- Failsafe detection and event triggering
- And many more…
Available flight modes
- Stabilization
- Altitude Hold
- GPS Position Hold
- Loiter
- Return to Home
- Autonomous Waypoints Flight
- Guided / Follow me
- Take off
- Landing
Processor
- ST Microelectronics STM32F427VI
- 32 bit 168 MHz ARM Cortex M4
- Hardware FPU
Sensors
- 2x 9-axis IMU InvenSense MPU-9250 (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer)
- 2x Pressure sensor MS5611 (integrated and external)
- 1x 3-axis magnetometer HMC5883 (external)
- 1x UBlox M8N GPS Module (external)
Interfaces
- 12x PWM I/O
- 1x PPM / SBUS Input
- 1x SBUS Output
- 1x Power Input port
- 1x LED Output port
- 3x UART
- 2x I2C
- 1x SPI
- 1x USB Mini-B
Size
- Length: 63mm
- Width: 42mm
- Height: 16mm
- Weight: 21g
More information at http://sky-drones.com/
Comments
How much with flight control only?
Marc, thanks! Yes, this is basically the main idea of the product, easy to set up, just plug and fly.
Side by side comparison and more flight demos are coming soon. Russian market is not very big actually and it's quite difficult to work on it, so the majority of SmartAP users are in the US and Europe. Generally the system is used for aerial filming, photography and surveillance. Auto tuning is not really necessary since the flight performance is very good even with the default settings. RTK support is planned for the nearest future. Intelligent mapping interface is currently in development and will be released in the next version of SmartAP GCS.
Yes, of course, the words will be backed-up soon, hope we'll be able to get attention of the community.
'Looking forward to the side-by-side comparisons!
Dwgsparky, UAS_Pilot, No, not yet, fixed wing and traditional helicopter support is kept in mind but I can't say any exact time frames regarding this.
Kirill
It looks good. I think there is a market for the people that just want something that is more plug and play.
We do need to see it in the wild, obviously. Where are your major markets now? Russia? What is your current user base like? Will this tune itself for different platforms? Can you use RTK? Will it perform the same mapping functions as a Pixhawk?
You know, of course, that you are going to have to back-up claims of higher reliability and better performance with this crowd here. It is always great to see new options though, so best of luck in breaking out.
Will this work on traditional helicopters too?
Hugues, it's generally based on log files data as well as just visual side by side comparison.
Reliability is higher due to lots of test-bench hardware and software simulations which helped to reveal and fix all possible issues even before the actual flying.
Kirill, you are an impressive guy to create both software and hardware autopilot!
On what data do you claim it is more stable and more precise in navigation than ardupilot ? What about reliability of the code and hardware vs a Pixhawk with ardupilot?
Avionics, thank you very much! Appreciate your words a lot.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next