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Two planes and one pilot ?

Posted by Riccardo Kuebler on July 12, 2011 at 12:33am

Hi,

 

yes, I did it : pilot two planes at the same time :p

 

 

The main plane is a FunCub equipped with UavDevBoard and on board tracking video camera.

The second plane is a stock EasyStar, carrying another UavDevBoard, only to send its position.

I took off with the FunCub and put it in autonomous mode. Me having in my hands two RC transmitters, my son kindly launched for me the EasyStar and I drove it all the flight long.

The hardest part was try to stay in the camera turret range. The FunCub speed is set to 50km/h, but even at this speed it is a challenge to follow it and stay in front, with a fully stock EasyStar.

At the end of the flight (FunCub autonomy), my son asked to land his plane :)

I landed the FunCub.

 

Many thanks to Bill Premerlani, Ben Levitt and Pete Hollands for great continuous support and all the smart UavDevBoard community ...

 

Best regards,

 

Ric

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Comments

  • Riccardo Kuebler July 13, 2011 at 5:06am

    Hi Bill,

    you are too much kind !

    Formation flying : you for sure don't know boredom ;D

    I will be pleased to work with you again, you are a continuous example for me.

    Best regards,

     

    Ric

  • T3
    William Premerlani July 13, 2011 at 4:15am

    Hi Ric,

    Thanks for posting your progress. You are "aces". I look forward to working with you to implement formation flying.

    Best regards,

    Bill

  • Jeffrey Torella July 12, 2011 at 4:50pm

    now could you set this up for a stalk and evade kind fo like exersize for a antidrone drone program"?

     

  • Riccardo Kuebler July 12, 2011 at 12:13pm
    Great idea, Simonl, thanks !
    Ric
  • simonl July 12, 2011 at 11:53am
    Inspirational - nice work. (hmmm, solo "dogfighting" anyone?!)
  • DaveyWaveyBunsenBurner July 12, 2011 at 4:39am

    Thanks Ric,

     

    This is awesome, I'm hoping to squeeze a UAVDevboard into a mini skywalker so this will be fun to try!

  • Riccardo Kuebler July 12, 2011 at 4:27am
    Davey,
    the target plane send its position to the tracking plane via Xbee.
    The code is in the last featured code (MatrixPilot 3.1, http://code.google.com/p/gentlenav/downloads/list).
    You have to set the target UavDevBoard code in

    #define SERIAL_OUTPUT_FORMAT SERIAL_CAM_TRACK

    here in the code:
    http://code.google.com/p/gentlenav/source/browse/branches/MatrixPil...

    and the tracking plane code

    #define CAM_USE_EXTERNAL_TARGET_DATA 1

    here in the code

    http://code.google.com/p/gentlenav/source/browse/branches/MatrixPil...

    Best regards,

    Ric
  • DaveyWaveyBunsenBurner July 12, 2011 at 3:57am

    Riccardo,

     

    Can you provide more technical details on how this is working? Is this a code mod or a standard part fo UAV DevBoard? How do the planes commuicate? etc etc!

     

    Any info appreciated!

  • Riccardo Kuebler July 12, 2011 at 3:27am

    directly between the two planes, Michael.

    Ric

  • Developer
    Michael Oborne July 12, 2011 at 3:01am
    was the targetting relayed via the ground, or was it just between the 2 planes
This reply was deleted.