Posted by Chris Anderson on September 29, 2009 at 2:08pm
[UPDATE: This one proved a bit harder than we thought, so we're going to extend the deadline by two weeks, to 12:00 midnight PST on Sunday, October 18th.
Also, here's a preview of next month's contest: Break the Stanford team's UAV altitude record of 7,142 feet by doing at least 24 circles with a 300ft climb and descent in each! (This won't really beat his official record, because there won't be an official judge there. But you'll get bragging rights, at least). I'll announce full details on Oct 19th]
The first Trust Time Trial (T3) contest was a great success. Lots of entries, nail-biting competition, awesome performances and lots of learning for all.
Now comes round two. The difference this time are as follows:
--Three laps
--3D waypoints. (must hit altitude targets as well as lat/long)
The prize this time is a Global Hawk kit.
Winning entries must be posted in the comments below by midnight PST on Sunday, October 4th 18th.
Rules:
1) Must complete the pattern as shown above, totally autonomously. Go into autonomous mode before waypoint 1 and stay in for three laps. The four points are arranged in a square, with 200m on a side (obviously the two diagonal paths are longer). Any aircraft/autopilot allowed. It doesn't matter how close to the waypoints you get, as long as you pass on the outside of them.
2) Altitude must be within +-10m of given altitude at each waypoint. It doesn't matter what your altitude is in between waypoints. All altitudes are either above launch position or the contestant's specified "safety altitude".
3) Fastest time to complete three laps and hit the 3D waypoints wins. Must provide GPS track with timestamps and on-board video. (If you don't have/can't afford a small onboard videocamera like the FlyCamOne 2, we'll let it go this time. But in the future: video or it didn't happen!)
GPS tracks are best achieved with an onboard GPS datalogger, like the i-Blue 747 or smaller Sanav ML-7. But if you don't have one or don't want to add the weight, you can just capture the GPS track from your telemetry stream, although you'll have to figure out how to convert it to KML format to export to Google Earth (see below). If your Ground Control System has a built-in map+track function, a screen shot of that is fine, but it should be possible for people to check to confirm that your leg lengths are at least 200m.
Evidence data should include these four things:
1) Total time, along with aircraft and autopilot used. A photo of the aircraft would be nice.
2) Screen capture of path exported to Google Earth or an equivalent, annotated with waypoints and where autonomy began and ended. :
3) GPS datalog file, any format
4) Onboard video, embedded from YouTube or Vimeo. [Not absolutely required but requested]
Here is my first entry, 236 seconds and within 5m from the altitude targets (at the waypoints). Same setup as last month (EasyStar with Paparazzi, no I did not have time to build the FunJet :-). This run was at about 60% throttle. I will probably give it an other try (weather permitting).
Following is a plot of the requested and actual altitude:
I hope to do some runs this weekend. Weather in Berkeley was appalling last weekend, and the weekend before that I had technical problems. I'll try an ArduPilot EasyStar (with uBlox), ArduPilot Superstar (with uBlox) and an Attopilot Formosa (kinda POS plane, but it's what Dean recommended!). Something should work ;-)
oh yeah and I had one stuck aileron servo so I had some serious zoolander effects going on... (could not turn left)
I replaced both servo's so it should fly better today.
OK thank, I did increase the elevator gain because it was lagging greatly.. I actually increased all gains even the throttle gain because it is not holding the airspeed I have programmed in. Once I can get it to hold the airspeed I want I will turn it back a bit.... and adjust the airspeed between sections like you say... as I go down in elevation I could pull it back. Thanks for the tips I am giong for try #2 this morning.
I am not likely to shave 200 seconds off my time however so I am really doing this to tune my plane better ;-)
You are going so fast during dives that you would need really aggressive elevator down (things might get hairy).
Maybe let the prop spin, add lots of ballast to the ez and limit its airspeed in the settings.
There is my attempt. I definately have some tweaking to do on my gains etc. But it worked. Attitues were not hit and the time was about 500 seconds.
Here is the log file for anyone who likes to look at numbers
ok I am programmed in.... ready for a flight tomorrow... I am not in this to win... just to enter and have fun.... so to me the rules and distances can be (and should be) whatever the person putting on the contest wants.... if I don't like it... I won't enter... so dream up whatever you want guys... we can try to fly it...
Comments
Following is a plot of the requested and actual altitude:
Google Earth KML
Excel spreadsheet of relevant data
YouTube video (unedited)
I replaced both servo's so it should fly better today.
I am not likely to shave 200 seconds off my time however so I am really doing this to tune my plane better ;-)
Maybe let the prop spin, add lots of ballast to the ez and limit its airspeed in the settings.
There is my attempt. I definately have some tweaking to do on my gains etc. But it worked. Attitues were not hit and the time was about 500 seconds.
Here is the log file for anyone who likes to look at numbers
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