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]
I was >this< close to completing. I had everything written and debugged, but I made a fatal error in the field. The wind was pooring over Candlestick Point about 25 mph but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I got it flying for about a minute;the telemetry humming along. The plane all over the place and I tried to trim it out. Then I thought, I'll just turn on the stabilization. I had thoroughly tested my stabilization code and it works like a charm in high wind. Unfortunately, as the plane stalled, I flipped the 3 position switch past stabilization into Autopilot. The plane was only 20 feet above the ground before it took a header into the pavement. Ugh...
I just repaired the tail section with a new enlarged rudder and will give another fly tomorrow.
Well, I was hoping to get in a cleaner run today, but the wind never let up. So once it got dark I decided to throw in the towel and process the data from yesterdays run.
The run may not be valid which is why I wanted to get a cleaner run today. You'll notice one of the turns in the lower left actually goes the opposite way around the WP. I figure I still went around the WP and didn't cut the corner, but I'll go with whatever the judges say. It's been a great course to work the bugs out of my system. Not there yet but getting closer.
I'll mention that the Way Points are actually 216 Meters apart. Also the Home WP was not used in the run, it just shows where I started from and where the WP's are referenced to. I have the option of specifying absolute Way Points or relative Way Points. This particular run was using relative way points which was fortunate for me. When I got to my usual cleared off dirt area I found it infested with motorcycles. Not wanting an audience or the possibility of hitting someone I continued down the dirt road for an area of opportunity. This was far from a prime spot, but I decided to give it a go. I had to land on that little dirt road where the home WP marker is. I skimmed a couple creosote bushes, but got away with a decent landing and no damage.
Getting closer to getting a competitive machine - but not really there yet.
I've been analyzing my flights using a telemetry to Google Earth KML converter. Here is a taster:
You can view the attached kmz files for this picture by downloading them to your own copy of Google Earth.
(Best to turn off all the placemarks for flight 12 once it's loaded. Then turn them on one at a time, to follow the flight.)
Why without going above xxx feet? This is only US restriction.
Maybe somebody wants to make 3 scans 800m each, using 3-stage rocket?
VLOS is also a requirement based on LOCAL law (even if local is where half of aviation industry is located).
We are about technology here. The range funnel was NOT for VLOS,
this was for preventing using RC blimps + luck, and applying fair rule that you should not land in completely random place.
I agree, I can not think why there should be any restrictions on the pattern, number of cycles or climb per cycle. The objective should be simple: achieve the maximum possible cumulative climb without going above 400' and while staying within a certain range from the pilot (VLOS?).
Comments
I was >this< close to completing. I had everything written and debugged, but I made a fatal error in the field. The wind was pooring over Candlestick Point about 25 mph but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I got it flying for about a minute;the telemetry humming along. The plane all over the place and I tried to trim it out. Then I thought, I'll just turn on the stabilization. I had thoroughly tested my stabilization code and it works like a charm in high wind. Unfortunately, as the plane stalled, I flipped the 3 position switch past stabilization into Autopilot. The plane was only 20 feet above the ground before it took a header into the pavement. Ugh...
I just repaired the tail section with a new enlarged rudder and will give another fly tomorrow.
Heading Plot:
I have the excel file with all sorts of data if anybody is interested.
Total time according to my internal timer 208.65 Sec.
UTC time 191042 to 191411 = 209 Sec.
Brian
The run may not be valid which is why I wanted to get a cleaner run today. You'll notice one of the turns in the lower left actually goes the opposite way around the WP. I figure I still went around the WP and didn't cut the corner, but I'll go with whatever the judges say. It's been a great course to work the bugs out of my system. Not there yet but getting closer.
Here is the T3-2 Mission 24.kmzKMZ FIle
I'll mention that the Way Points are actually 216 Meters apart. Also the Home WP was not used in the run, it just shows where I started from and where the WP's are referenced to. I have the option of specifying absolute Way Points or relative Way Points. This particular run was using relative way points which was fortunate for me. When I got to my usual cleared off dirt area I found it infested with motorcycles. Not wanting an audience or the possibility of hitting someone I continued down the dirt road for an area of opportunity. This was far from a prime spot, but I decided to give it a go. I had to land on that little dirt road where the home WP marker is. I skimmed a couple creosote bushes, but got away with a decent landing and no damage.
Altitude plot:
Heading Plot:
I've been analyzing my flights using a telemetry to Google Earth KML converter. Here is a taster:
You can view the attached kmz files for this picture by downloading them to your own copy of Google Earth.
(Best to turn off all the placemarks for flight 12 once it's loaded. Then turn them on one at a time, to follow the flight.)
flight12_pos.kmz
flight12_vec.kmz
My time is around 5 minutes 47 seconds and I'm not yet hitting all my marks.
Further photos over at
Telemetry file attached for the record.
flight12.TXT
Maybe somebody wants to make 3 scans 800m each, using 3-stage rocket?
VLOS is also a requirement based on LOCAL law (even if local is where half of aviation industry is located).
We are about technology here. The range funnel was NOT for VLOS,
this was for preventing using RC blimps + luck, and applying fair rule that you should not land in completely random place.
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