The LPS technology of Novadem (Local Positioning System) allows for the first time to perform fully automatic inspection of structures. Based on its own terrestrial beacons network, the LPS technology reaches a centimeter-level accuracy while being independant from the satellite coverage.
Aix-en-Provence.

Novadem, manufacturer of micro-UAVs for civil and military applications since 2006, is the french leader of UAVs intended for structures’ inspection. Among its customers are major players in the field of inspection such as SPIE Batignolles Technologies, EGIS or SETEC DIADES. « Some of our customers have been using the U130 micro-UAV for more than five years. Consequently we have acquired an in-depth knowledge of the needs linked to the use of UAVs for complex structures’ inspections », explains Pascal Zunino, Director of Novadem. Some of these needs include the precise positioning of the UAV close to and even under structures. Indeed, in these conditions, the GPS cannot get measures because of the lack of satellites in view. Operators have no other choices but to perform these inspections in manual piloting mode, making it difficult and even dangerous. Moreover, the analysis of pictures to find and locate the structures’ defects is long and tedious. To face this challenge, Novadem has developed during two years the technology called LPS.

The Novadem LPS technology is close to the GPS technology but instead of using satellites, it uses terrestrial beacons which create a local positioning network under the structure. This network can easily be extended by adding beacons, each of them covering a 200 meters radius area. As a result, the solution is fully independant from the satellite coverage with unreached capacities so far :

 A positioning precision of 10 centimeters in the three dimensions.
 A fast acquisition with 25 measures per second.
 A constant quality of measurement and constant signal availability.
 A position measurement independant from the evolution area (brightness, type of surface,…).
 A user-specified origin of measurement.

These performances give new perspectives to inspections performed by UAVs thanks to flights that can be 100% automated even under structures. It is now possible to ensure the repeatability of the inspection over time. As a result, the security and efficiency of missions is significantly increased compared to a manual piloting. Add to that a more precise georeferencing of pictures allowing to optimise the flight plan on the areas to inspect and to rationalise the volume of data, thus simplifying the processing.

With the LPS technology, Novadem allows for a breakthrough in the field of inspection by allowing the automatisation of flights and the georeferencing of data in environments without GPS coverage. Difficult inspections will no longer be reserved to experts in piloting but accessible to all. The use of the LPS technology can satisfy indoor (buildings, tunnels,…) and outdoor inspections (wind turbines, high-tension pylons,…). The LPS technology will be soon experimented with big players of the sector and will be commercially available in the course of 2015.

from: Novadem Press Release

and www.suasnews.com

Hi,

I am pleased to inform that UgCS 2.1 is out now. All versions including UgCS One are available.

There is of course UgCS Open which is free and will suit needs of most of hobby users who fly drones for fun.

With UgCS version 2.0 one has ability to search for locations via text search and our new 3D map engine supports different sources of maps. Custom map sources can be added in configuration tab of the software.

We have retained multi drone support even for Open version thus you can work with scenarios involving multiple vehicles.

UgCS runs on MacOS/Linux/Windows and supports most of popular autopilots such as 3DR AMP/Pixhawk, DJI Naza(Phantom2)/Wookong-M/A2, ARDrone, Mikrokopter

Here is full list of changes from 2.0 to 2.1 http://ugcs.com/release-notes

Thank you,

UgCS Team

Call for VTOL test pilots! The PX4 standard firmware (master branch, downloadable via QGroundControl) supports first VTOL vehicle (duo-rotor, tail sitter). This video demonstrates the transition from hover - fixed wing - hover. Contact: http://px4.io/vtol.

Additional vehicles are currently in testing, including a BirdsEyeView FireFly Y6 (tilt rotor) and a Quadshot (quad tail sitter). The main benefit during initial bring-up of VTOL support of the TBS Caipirinha is its small size and high operational safety, combined with the inherent ruggedness of a flying wing airframe.

As the PX4 flight stack (running with the PX4 middleware on Pixhawk) is unified platform without separate multicopter or plane codebases and using the same command & control (arming, logging, safety) state machines and mission management for all platforms, its perfectly suited for VTOL development. Adding VTOLs didn't mean to introduce a new vehicle category, rather, it mostly meant adding a new mixer, a VTOL transition controller and some minor tweaks.

Note these are initial results leveraging existing multicopter and fixed wing controllers spiced with a VTOL transition controller - the dev team is meanwhile experimenting with model predictive controllers. But even this initial baseline implementation works quite well and is ready for some flying.

From the Google Earth blog. This doesn't have an effect on the mobile GCSs, such as Droidplanner, but could affect some desktop GCSs that use the Google Earth (rather than Google Maps) API.

Google has announced the deprecation of the Google Earth API (also known as the Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API).

This has been expected, given that Google earlier announced that Chrome was dropping support for the Google Earth plugin due to security concerns with NPAPI, one of the technologies that the plugin is based on.

The plugin will continue to work in browsers that support it until December 12th, 2015.

Because of its usefulness, we hope that Google will release an alternative to the Google Earth plugin. Many plugin users have already started to migrate away from it to other technologies, such as the Google Maps API, or Cesium, but there is nothing yet that really replicates the best features of the Google Earth plugin.

Google does hint, at the end of their announcement, that there may be good news ahead :

Google Earth has a proud legacy, which continues with the new Google Earth for Android, powered by a brand new renderer. 3D is in our blood, and while we can’t announce anything just now, we look forward to sharing more exciting product news in the future.

For a project my group is currently undertaking with media lab Asia, we had to fabricate a UAV that could be used as a data mule in case of disaster(Delay tolerant networks).
Decided to go for an H frame and designed the following frame on Autocad. motor to motor distance is 525 vertical (as in image) and 575 horizontal.

I then decided to have the plates CNC cut, but the vendor only sold sheets of limited sizes, thus i had to get back to the drawing board and cut up the frame into 3 pieces for both top and bottom.

felt like adding another top plate (bottom right in picture) which would rest on vibration dampening and would house the APM and other components for the project (Raspberry PI etc).

Told the shop to use G10 2mm thick (Green Indian Glass Fiber) as it was about the cheapest option, At this point i realize that was pretty much the biggest mistake i made in the build, the weight of G10 2mm seemed to be too high.

had to modify the shape a little to save an odd 150 grams, also let go of the 3rd plate. still looks nice enough, but was worried about the shape, the law of symmetry was my guideline in most other past builds, here it does not apply too easily.

blue lines indicate the COG and COT (I was confused about the two, still am).

Build in progress

Decided to extend the esc wires and also modify the power distribution board so that it fits inbetween the plates, have since put on the flight controller board, AUW was around 1400g with a 3500 mah battery, quad seemed to have a tendency to drift forward more than backwards.

Had issues with Auto navigation as the quad tended to start acting erratically when in auto flight mode, sometimes not even moving towards the waypoints, and move around in circles when in Loiter mode. have corrected that to some degree by adjusting the PID settings, although still not optimal, will upload links to video and the completed quad as soon as i find a image hosting site to use. (have reached my maximum here :-P )

Credits to my partner Junaid Petkar, he did most of the work but he does not mind giving away bragging rights to me. :-)

Dear members of the drones community,

For one more year... the time has come! 

The Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich just released the "Autonomous Christmas Lab 2014" video! Watch and share! Robots are indeed excellent Christmas companions! 

Happy holidays to all of you!

It's been a long while since I posted my last blog post about this project and there have been some progress though veeery slow. The last two months I have very little time to work on this.

Anyway, thought I should at least post the latest vid.

This was filmed a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately I can't record on my laptop when using the Oculus so I had to place a camera on a tripod in front of it :)

As you can see in the video there is a significant lag (about 400ms) on the video, I have to work on that as well as the h264 encoding.

Thanks to Patric Duffys excellent posts about "How to build a High-Definition FPV UAV using a Rasperry PI with HD camera, using a high speed WiFi link" here and here I found a really nice way to transfer HD video down to my GCS which can then show it on my Oculus Rift. On the picture below you can see it mounted on my quad.

The setup I'm using here consists of:

* Odroid-w (Raspberry PI)

* Raspicam clone with M12 lens mount and a 160 fov lens

* Fatshark servo gimbal

* Ubiquiti Wisp-station M5 for 5.8 GHz wifi in air

* Ubiquiti Rocket-M5 for 5.8GHz wifi on ground

Here is the raspicam, gimbal and Odroid-w with docking board for ethernet.

Here is the Ubiquiti Wisp-station M5 mounted on top of my battery plate.

On the Raspberry I'm using FFMPEG to stream 1280x960 h264 video to the GCS and also in my application FFMPEG is used. Right now I have around 400 ms latency on the video link. Though using gstreamer I can get it down to about 100ms,

Hello DIY Friend's,

This is my latest video, QAV250 Carbon Fiber Edition, Building TimeLapse Log, i hope you enjoy! 

Here is my Setup

Lumenier QAV250 Carbon Fiber Edition
OpenPilot CC3D Atom
Tiger Motor 12A 600hz simonK ESCs 
Lumenier (Tiger motor Rebranded) FX2006-13 2000kv motors
Gemfan 5x3 props
Lumenier CS-600 super camera
IBCrazy 5.8ghz cloverleaf ULTRA antenna 
Lumenier 1300mah 3s lipo
Mobius action cam 1080 30fps
Spektrum DX8

P .00215 .00245 .00610
I .00400 .00505 .00520
D .000040 .000040 .000020

And 35% Expo un my TX

I made this quad just for speed Racers, so maybe i'll add some more 4S emotion in the future... Any advices to increase my speed and stability are welcome!

Thanks for watching!

One of the attractive Andruav features is that besides the built-in FPV features and multi drone tracking, is the ability to provide a telemetry over internet between your drone and your GCS. The connection uses mobile internet which means that telemetry range is unlimited.

The above video uses a multiwii board from HK with a bluetooth module. the module is connected to Andruav-Drone mobile. Andruav Drone communicates using Mobile network via Andruav server to Andruav GCS. Then I useEZ-GUI to connect using TCP to Andruav GCS mobile.

As we can see still you can make remote camera shooting and read Andruav Drone sensors independent of quadcopter multiwii board. Still you can use othe Drone-GCS and track the same quad, or you can quad other drones using the same Andruav - GCS using the many-to-many Andruav communication.

You may download Andruav from here 

For info how to use and setup is here

I needed an easy way to access data from the MaxBotix ultrasonic sensors using Python, so I wrote this little package, which you can download from github. It runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X in Python 2 and 3.

After reading this recent NY Times article, we developed a page with the intent of quickly raising awareness of newbie quadcopter product buyers of all ages. Below is a copy of most of the page’s content (as of this DIYD blog post). Have you seen a webpage that you prefer? If so, now is a good time to find the link(s) and share with your comments.

We know you are excited to launch your new drone.
Before you send it into the air, please take the time to follow these 7 steps:

1. Read every step in the manual/instructions. No shortcuts!
2. Read these brief guides from the United Kingdom,  Australia,  Canada, and the United States.
3. Go to the middle of a large open space, far, far away from airports, airstrips, roads or buildings.
4. Complete every step before you are almost ready to launch your new drone. No shortcuts!
5. Look around. Hear any airplanes or helicopters? If so, wait for quiet. See anyone nearby? If so, wait until other people are far away.
6. For now, fly it below the tree-tops. Way below 400 feet (120 meters). Practice takeoffs and landings. Can you hold your drone in one place in the air? Move it where you want it to go?
7. Go recharge that battery, follow the manufacturer's recommendations to fix the crash damage, and remember it is your responsibility to fly as safely as possible, according to the laws and regulations of your country or location.

Why should I follow those 7 steps?

• You don't want your new drone to fly away, never to be seen again, do you?
• You don’t want to hurt yourself, a friend, a family member, or someone else.
• You don’t want to hurt valuable property (a building, a car, a boat, a pet, … ).
• You don’t want to be a painful, expensive example of what not to do with a drone.
• You want to have some fun with the least risk, least cost, and not annoy anyone. Yes?

Where can I fly it with less risk? Ideally your drone product:

• Shows airports, airstrips, and restricted airspaces to avoid. Today, most drone products do not automatically “sense and avoid” a collision with a hospital helicopter, a small airplane, or a commercial passenger jet that is landing or taking off. Always check one of these websites before you launch, plus search the sky and listen for other aircraft:
  • Don't Fly Drones Here (Zones to avoid in the United States, as offered by Mapbox.com)
  • Fly Safe 'No Waypoint Zones" and "No Fly Zones" (Zones to avoid, as offered by DJI.com)
  • 2014 State Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Legislation (US only, offered by NCSL.org)
• Warns you before you reach 400 feet (120 meters) altitude.
  • If not, do not fly much higher than tree-tops. 
  • It is easier to fly your drone where you can clearly see it, and where it is pointing.
• Provides “failsafe” features to minimize your risk if or when the drone:
  • Loses contact with your remote control (RC radio, phone, tablet, laptop);
  • Loses signals from the GPS or other satellite navigation system (try entering your location in Satellite Predictor);
  • Is losing battery strength and may crash soon without intervention.

Where can I fly it legally?

• Ideally, the drone manufacturer or supplier has provided information about what is legal in the locations where you intend to operate your drone.
• Learn about the current laws and regulations where you intend to operate your drone. Start with the brief guides from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Find and read your local laws, which are often more strict. References:
  • 2014 State Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Legislation (US only, offered by NCSL.org)
  • The Drone Law Journal (offered by Peter Sachs)
  • If in doubt, don’t operate your drone.
• UAviators.org offers a wiki describing travel and laws information by country (note the Disclaimer).
• For more information about transporting a drone system, see Traveling with a civilian or commercial drone system.

John (D.) Githens with Doug (R.D.) Starwalt

(Link to full webpage content)

I came across this interesting video:

As you can see in the video they have managed to control the coaxial design without using a swash plate and all the complicated mechanisms required for that. It looks like this is an excellent concept for very light weight systems. I do wonder how easy this can be scaled up into a device that can actually carry any additional equipment. This could be useful to obtain the under 2 kg UAV weight for the Canadian regulations.

  Guyz i'm so happy to let you know that Atas Defiance - an fpv racer airframe is now available at http://www.dronematters.com/multirotors/300mm/quadcopters/atas-defiance-265-frame-1206.html

I'm extremly proud to say that DroneMatters.com have an exlusive distribution rights for the airframe, this distributer has raised the bar in quality and customer support so many times its just ridiculously awesome!

AtasSphere might eventualy consider openings for other retailers.

Beta kits are being shipped so we are very excited to hear what fpv enthusiast have to say about it, stay tunned! :)

We are geniuely interested in delivering proven airframe to the market, this is the reason why we decided to call the first Batch a Beta one, airframe as is is the final solution!

However this does not mean in any way you cannot order the kit if you want it now, you can preorder yours today! :D

Few more Photos :)

Today we attended the first LA Drone Expo in Downtown LA at the Sports Arena. Hosted by the UAV Systems Association (UAVSA), the event was an overall success with an excellent turnout, great exhibitors, and informative presentations.

A brief disruption occurred during the keynote speech by Austin Blue when a group of 6-10 protesters stood up in the crowd and began shouting and waving signs that said things like “Child Killer” and “Drones Kill.” A couple of them unfurled a large cloth banner on which they had painted ”DRONE FREE LAPD." The chants ranged from “Shame on you Austin Blue” to “Hands up don’t drone” (which aside from not making any sense is kind of an insulting mockery of the Michael Brown protesters) and lastly “drone free LAPD, no drones LA” which they continued shouting even as police and venue security staff patiently and peacefully ushered them to the side of the stage and finally out a side door of the arena. I managed to get a couple of videos with my phone – one of the initial protest and another of the group chanting and mouthing off to police as they were being asked to leave.

Aside from this it was an awesome event. Looking forward to the next one. More video and a bunch of pictures of the event, vendor booths, etc can be found here: http://quadcoptergarage.com/la-drone-expo-protest/

http://vimeo.com/105579612

Dear All,

Just returned back from the field and somehow one of our works is documented and filmed. This work is part of our larger research on the political-ecology of river in Borneo where land-use change and forest change is part of the research. The lack of the reliable, high-resolution and accessible map for the local communities, NGOs even for governmental offices at local level has been one of the problem contributing to the mess of spatial planning in Indonesia which has lead to the land-tenure conflicts and deforestation. We were at some places in Indonesia to do our research on understanding this rapid transformation and part of it is using DIY drones (we call it MaTA, it is the shortening of UAV in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia), while it means also The Eyes).

The film is called "Dayaks and Drones" and as far as I understand it has been screened during the Indigenous People meeting in New York last September (I was still in the rainforest by that time :)). Dayaks are the indigenous communities living in Borneo (Indonesia and Malaysia). There are hundreds of Dayak sub-tribes thus hundreds of completely different languages. The Dayaks are the people well-known as the Forest Farmers and Forest Protectors (they use forest and its surrounding wisely). They prefer to live in the upstream of the river deep down in the forest and they usually live in a longhouse (consists of several "apartments" ). They have their customary laws to protect their customary forest. One of the Dayak sub-tribes, The Iban, is well-known by their tattoo culture, one of the most beautiful in the world.

We will continue our mission again early next year and this time still some (lots) of works in Borneo but we also will go to Papua and Sumatera where the forest (and of course the people and other species) are also having high-pressure from some expansions of various activities. We work together and established what we call at the moment as "Community Drones" where we teach mostly the young people of the local communities how to develop and use the drones and the maps / video they get to protect their area/forest/ecosystem in the way with  more detail, more accurate and more accessible spatial data. At the moment we use both multicopter (sometimes the forest is just too dense) and fixed-wing.

We would definitely like to thanks this forum for all the inspirations and spirits and knowledge of course also to some people that have been keen on supporting in many ways : Chris of 3D, Ed (Peace Drone is an amazing airframe! we will use it for sure), Conservation Drone, Nguyen (for helping a lot with the FX-61 settings), Flight Riot (for the amazing amount of information in mapping with UAV).

Thanks again,

Best,

R

Multirotor vibration

DynexHobby provide solutions for hobbyist and professional photographers to help reduce vibrations on their platforms. We have created a tutorial on this subject and provide a few simple ways you can avoid the "jello" problem.

You can read the full article here.

In future articles we will demonstrate how you can measure structural resonance of your multirotor.

Enjoy