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Continuation of my FX-61 Phantom build configuration. (this part has the BoM at the end)

The other wing is just stock. Look at that horrible stock servo, it’s transparency only serves to taunt me by showing the horrible plastic gears that are dying to eat each other to bits. I would like to change them ASAP – safety-wise I really think they are the weakest point in the whole system.

The 433 telemetry radio antenna folds flush with the body. Extending it does not increase the RSSI but it looks cool, and looking cool is just as important as flying well when you’re impressing people at the park.

As much as I dislike adding weight, fibreglass tape definitely buys its way on-board! It seems that every single edge that I didn’t tape now has a dent on it :\ Taping the wingtips and rudders is essential. I always seem to bash them during transport. I laminated the LE (Leading Edge) with strips of A3 hot laminating film using a household iron. It’s not easy to get it on without damaging the foam with the heat (it bubbles up like orange peel if it gets too hot). For that reason I only did the straight sections, and will fibreglass tape the curved outboard LE section.

Ideally, about 20% chord from the LE is laminated with film and then the LE radius is covered in fibreglass tape. Alternatively, don’t crash.

The TE (Trailing Edge) never gets damaged on my aircraft.

I use a second hand Futaba FP-T8UP, and I love it. Great build quality. It only has 7 custom mixers, but I have not run out yet.

I don’t have a 3D printer or CNC mill so thought I would have to settle for a sub-optimal hack to attach my tablet to the transmitter. Surprisingly, a headrest mount attaches easily to the Tx handle and works very well. An hour of chin scratching whilst surfing the web can sometimes pay off it seems – the mount works great and was only £5.99 delivered.

I don’t take a laptop to the field. I plan my mission at home, then use an Asus Nexus 7 tablet for telemetry while flying. Droidplanner is okay, but annoyingly it disconnects when the signal is too low but doesn’t try to reconnect. I have to manually spam the connect button, and it’s getting annoying now. Is there a solution?

The plane balances nicely. CG is very sensitive to placement of the huge battery, but there’s plenty of space. Velcro is not enough to secure the battery, so I use squares of grippy pad on the tray to firmly stop the battery from slipping. With everything in (autopilot, video gear, no payload) it weighs 1350g.

Grippy pad is the rubber-like material marketed as a dashboard phone holder. It is truly amazing, you should get a bit just to play with it if you have never felt it. When it’s clean it sticks almost as well as sellotape when used on a smooth material like plastic. I use it to attach the radio to my tablet, because it’s not permanent and leaves zero residue.

I like to leave space in front of my battery so that in a crash it can slide slightly allowing the grippy pad absorb the impact rather than crunching into the nose and killing itself.

The phantom has a stupid bell shaped moulding around the motor. I cut the bell shape away. The purpose of the bell is unclear to me – the aerodynamic effect of its shape is to promoted radial flow across propeller, but that reduces efficiency. Plus, it blocked the root portion of the blades.

I balanced the motor using the trim balancing technique, using a laser plus a portion of DVD taped to the tip of the rudder to measure vibration amplitude. I have not seen any videos of trim balancing being used for RC models, it seems to be reserved for gas turbines despite being rather simple. Perhaps a video tutorial is in order.

I found the stock propellers to be impossible to balance. I thought I was being an idiot, but on closer inspection I found that the plane of rotation of the blades is not orthogonal to the axis of the hub, causing dynamic imbalance. In other words, the blades can be statically balanced to perfection and the prop CG can be bang in the middle of the hub, but the blades will teeter when spun and cause vibration. I’m not just being picky, the dynamic imbalance in my blades is very powerful!

At the moment when I come in to land I have to stop the prop on approach, and hope for it to stop in the horizontal position to avoid hitting the ground, otherwise I have to tweak the throttle until it does. The sooner I switch to a folding prop the better. I will also be switching to a 10” prop in hope of reducing noise, because at the moment this model is far too noisy for it’s power.

Okay, here's the most important bit: Money! 

I worked out the cost of the drone (just aircraft, no ground equipment) as described in the above build log to be £540

The breakdown below includes some of the hardware, but also other tools and consumables. The full breakdown of absolutely everything is available upon request if you really want it.

Thanks for reading, and if anyone in Bristol wants to fly then let me know!

This is a description of the configuration of my FX-61 Phantom FPV Flying Wing EPO Airplane 1550mm (PNF) V2

The whole reason for me to get this plane was to get started with autopilots. I have chosen the HKpilot32, a pixhawk clone that comes with the same accessories as the pixhawk and a 4GB microSD installed. 

The GPS + compass module is mounted on an anti-vib polymer that is marketed by Specialized as ‘Bar Phat’, a vibration damper for bicycle handlebars. The Mobius camera lens module is also loosely secured using bar-phat for anti-jello, and not fixed firmly so that it can pop into the fuselage if hit.

The embedded nuts are used to fasten a tray that goes over the pixhawk. I should have used metal nuts because if the nylon threads are stripped, I am screwed since the nuts are epoxied in.

The PLA plastic is marketed as Polymorph, and is a granular plastic that melts into a malleable mass when submerged in hot water. Great for making funny shapes like antenna root clamps. The radio PCB is floating, supported by the antenna. I tried fixing the PCB using 3M VHB tape and leaving the antenna floating, but the tape kept detaching.

Note on 3M VHB: it is a spectacular double sided tape, but the full strength is only realised if your apply about 15psi pressure for a few hours – I'm too cautious to clamp a PCB to some foam with that much pressure.

The carbon tray was freehand cut with a dremmel clone. It opens up a lot more space, leaving the whole rear volume clear. In my opinion, it’s important to have the payload area at the centre of gravity, so I don’t waste time balancing the plane when I add or remove a payload.

The VTx (video transmitter) is powered straight from the balance port, which I learned is a great way of RUINING your battery. I crashed into a tree and everything stayed intact, so the VTx carried on sapping power and drained my battery down to a few mV, since it doesn’t have undervoltage protection. So that battery is now a flammable paperweight.

I also learned the hard way that the arming switch will become gummed up with glue and seize if you just throw it into a gluey hole. So after a number of years with a scalpel I picked all the glue out, wrapped the switch case in tape then glued it again. It’s fine now.

The fantastic Mobius camera has been a very pleasant surprise, especially considering the cost. The fact that you can extend the lens module out of the main camera is very nice! I have the camera set up to start recording & outputting video as soon as it receives power, which is ultimately from the pixhawk power module which I trust far more than the horrible noisy stock ESC.

The Phantom v2 now has detachable wings, but the attachment solution is not elegant at all. In fact, it’s horrible! The screw is hard to align, plus it’s made of rubbish playdough steel. Needless to say, the blind nut which the screw goes into became detached, sigh -.-’ I will replace it with a chunky nylon screw ASAP.

I made quick connects using a bundle of servo extenders. It works okay-ish. The connectors are too tight to disconnect 3 at once, so I have to manually plug/unplug each one. It’s no big deal, but it’s not the simple snap-in dream. There are good multiplex quick-connects out there, but they don’t have enough contacts for a servo and a VTx. Next time I will try DSUB connectors with a locking latch.

Note the connectors are loosely held in place so they are free to move in order to survive wing-off crashes.

The VTx is cable-tied to an embedded carbon rod on the suction side. It does not lie straight on the foam, there are spacers to create an air cavity. I thought I would build an air cavity in in case I discovered the VTx gets too hot. If that turns out to be the case I could vent the cavity for some cooling flow.

The circular antenna protrudes, but not lower than the wingtip skid so it shouldn’t be a problem. I actually spent a long hangover-ridden Saturday thinking about antenna placement. I wanted to protect the antenna. The wing suction side must stay clean to keep me happy, so I thought about putting the antenna near the tail to keep it protected, but that would be too close to the other electronics. I decided the current location was the best. I chose the spanwise distance by figuring out the maximum rolling moment I could balance with just the offset battery, because I hate adding unnecessary weight (i.e. balance weights on the other wing tip).

Instead of digging a cavity for the VTx, I simply cut a whole chunk out of the wing, cut that core to the right shape, then glued it back in. I am pleased with how clean the VTx installation is, the only protrusion is the cable tie.

(reached image limit - see part 2)

High-res .pptx version

Aeriality version 1.1 is out now, check it out at www.aeriality.io.

But, first things first, thanks everyone at DIYD for your support. I've had over 100 downloads of the Aeriality software so far, and lots of great interactions with people in the community. You all rock. 

What is Aeriality?

Aeriality is a program that takes your aerial videos and creates orthophoto-like strip-map images.

It turns this...

Into this...

You can see several longer examples here. 

It gets great results in minutes instead of hours, and it is a lot simpler than stitching still photos. Its fantastic... as long as strip-map imagery is something you're into. If not, thats cool too. I won't judge.

I've added some awesome new features for the latest release (and hopefully only a few new bugs).

New in Aeriality v1.1:

Automatic Processing and Alignment - Just load up your video, select the start time and stop time, and then hit the sweep button. You don't have to enter your camera settings or flight speed any more, Aeriality automatically figures that out, and then it goes and makes you a nice image. It also lines up the image within the strip to account for any side-to-side or roll motions.

And:

Free Videos Every Month - Its free! Well, a little bit free (engineers gotta eat too). Use it free on up to 3 videos each month. And make unlimited images from each video.

Aeriality is improving all the time, and there are plenty of features in the development pipeline including geo-registration and multi-strip stiching. But I am eager to get this out there as it is, to let you all try it and see if it does something you like.

What do you think?

thanks,
Taylor

PS you can get Aeriality here www.aeriality.io

Our £30k Kickstarter campaign to take our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission to Spaceport America hit its target last night, and we thank all those of you from DIY Drones who chipped in to help the cause.

Our plucky Playmonaut - the rocket-powered Vulture 2 spaceplane's pilot - kicked off the celebrations yesterday, as you can see above. Rest assured, he's now back in training for the historic flight.

There are still a couple of days to run on the campaign, so get down to Kickstarter if you fancy some exclusive LOHAN merchandise. Other than that, it just remains to say see you in New Mexico!

After a few weeks of administrative processing it is finally here, the "Attestation de conception de type" (Type certificate) allows the 3DRobotics IRIS to fly legally in France in scenarios S1, S2 and S3. S3 meaning it can fly in urban areas as well !

We're working with the DGAC on revision 2 of the type certificate to get the IRIS+ approved.
The IRIS+ looks like a great enhancement of the 1st version and we can't wait to receive ours to try it out. Along with the Gopro 3, this is a great setup, looking more and more like a tool than a toy.

Working out of the box, easy to fly and carry, capable of 4K video and benefitting from all the features of the Pixhawk controller, no doubt the IRIS+ will be a great machine for numerous jobs.

With more lightweight sensors coming up (multispectral and thermal cameras, LIDARS, etc) the IRIS+ may also proves to be pretty versatile.

Now if Teradek or Paralinx could make a 4K, sub-milliseconde latency, lightweight wireless video transmitter... (providing that the GoPro does indeed output 4k over HDMI).

Here's a quick recap of S1, S2 & S3 scenarios :

S1
Max altitude : 150 meters (490 feet)
Max horizontal distance from pilot : 100 meters (330 feet)
Max Take Off Weight : 25kg (55 lb)
Outside of urban areas
The pilot must maitain visual contact with the UAV at all time

S2
Max altitude : 100 meters (330 feet)
Max horizontal distance from pilot : 100 meters (330 feet)
Max Take Off Weight : 25kg (55 lb)
Outside of urban areas
FPV flight allowed

S3
Max altitude : 150 meters (490 feet)
Max horizontal distance from pilot : 100 meters (330 feet)
Max Take Off Weight : 4kg (8.8 lb)
Over urban areas (as defined by OACI maps)
The pilot must maitain visual contact with the UAV at all time

S4
Max altitude : 150 meters (490 feet)
Max horizontal distance from pilot : unlimited
Max Take Off Weight : 2kg (4.4 lb)
Outside of urban areas
FPV Mandatory

More informations about the scenarios can be found here (french) : http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/tableau-synthese-aeronefs-telepilotes.pdf

escadrone.com/drones/3dr-iris

...Study published last week in the Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, that describes an algorithm that can classify land cover types with minimal nudging from humans.

The problem, from a computational standpoint, is that hyperspectral sensors are too good at their jobs. Where most visual data assigns a single value (like color) to each pixel, hyperspectral data pixels each have hundreds, even thousands of values (see image to the left). Statistically, this makes each pixel seem unique to the computers tasked with classification. This is known as the Hughes effect, and it’s a huge problem because it cripples the potential of using hyperspectral data to rapidly update our knowledge about the condition of the earth’s surface.

Even if they can’t label the land cover types, hyperspectral imaging algorithms are usually able to put like pixels into groups based mostly on their proximity to one another. In the new study, the authors combined this clustering method with another technique that uses a small number of training samples to label each group of pixels.

more: 

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/science-graphic-of-the-week-algorithm-that-decodes-the-surface-of-the-earth/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924271614002020

Until recently my main TX was a Turnigy 9X and I (like many others) was using a hacked in 6 position POT switch to select modes on my various aircraft. Unfortunately the 9X has died so has been replaced by a shiny new 9XR. Rather then hack apart the 9XR (too pretty) I wanted to experiment with using the existing controls to select modes on my aircraft. I have seen several tutorials on this but none met all of my requirements below. Apologies if I have simply rediscovered something already posted by someone else.

1. Not relying on guessing the position of the continuous POT switches
2. Gives a easy to read visual indicator of current mode
3. Uses only a single radio channel
4. All performed with the default software and hardware – no flashing/hacking required

The method I used was to combine the 3 position switch (ID0/1/2) with the Aileron Dir switch. Between these two switches there are six possible combinations which neatly matches the 6 modes of the APM ecosystem.

I am using an 8 channel system and wanted to only use one channel for mode. To do this I created a “fake” channel 9 representing the position of the aileron switch which I then mixed with the results of the 3 position switch to achieve 6 switch combinations.

Instructions

Step 1 – On the SETUP 02 page for the model in question change the Proto setting to add additional channels to the model (10CH in my example). As the hardware I use can only send/receive 8 channels these will be ignored by the TX/RX module.

Step 2 – on the MIXER page for the model Set the following Mixes (note that all values are minuses)
    CH5 -100% CH9 ID0
            -35% CH9 ID1
            -10% CH9 ID2

    CH9 -125% FULL AIL

This sets up the three position switch on channel 5 and then applies a large offset to the value from this switch based on the position of the Aileron Dir switch (CH9). The result is 6 possible channels as per the picture below that map neatly to the PWM inputs required by the APM. Note that you can set the actual mode to be whatever you want in MP.

One important note to consider – This switch combination has 2 very easy to use “panic” modes. At any time you can flip both switches up or both switches down with one movement that doesn't require much thought. I suggest you make sure that suitable modes are set up for these. My setup is to have FBWA (perhaps Stabilise for copter) when both switches are up and RTL when both switches are down. This came in handy the other day for me when due to a bad throttle calibration I had a copter shoot into the air uncommanded as soon as it armed - all I had to do was whack both switches down and let the APM do the rest all the way back to landing.

In theory the same mix should work on any TX with these capabilities. I hope this is helpful to people and happy to discuss or take feedback if there are better ways.

This is both adorable and really cool. From IEEE Spectrum:

As much trouble as humanoid robots are to build and control, we keep on trying to make it work because it's easiest to operate in a human environment if you can do the same things that a human can. There are some good arguments for why it makes a lot more sense to modify our environments to better suit robots, but the fact is, if you can pull it off, humanoid is still the best way to go.

Even for flying airplanes.

If this sounds crazy to you, it sounded crazy to us too, until we saw it basically working at an IROS presentation.

The little robot in the picture above is a PIBOT, a small, very low-cost humanoid (actually a Bioloid Premium from Robotis). It's been slightly modified to be able to work the controls of a scaled-down, simulated aircraft cockpit, as in the pic above. PIBOT is able to identify and use all of the buttons and switches and stuff that you'd find in the cockpit of a normal light aircraft designed for humans:

Most of the inputs come from the simulator itself (roll, pitch, yaw, airspeed, GPS location), although the robot does use vision for some things, like identifying the runway using edge detection. And this is all it takes, according to the researchers, who state that: "PIBOT can satisfy the various requirements specified in the flying handbook by the Federal Aviation Administration."

You can see PIBOT rocking a simulation in the video below, and for you pilot-types, appended is a comprehensive description of what the robot is doing. Remember, this is all autonomous.

The airplane is initially parked on a runway of an airport. The robot prepares the flight by 1) pulling throttle to zero-point, 2) turning on the battery, 3) the altimeter, 4) the avionics, 5) the fuel pump, and 6) start the engine while pressing the switches on the panel. Then, PIBOT grabs the two control sticks for flight control and brakes are released. When the heading of the airplane aligns with the runway within an error less than 5 degree and its speed exceeds the taxiing speed, the second sequence begins and PIBOT increase the power. The airplane takes off at a proper speed and PIBOT controls both pitch and speed so that the vertical velocity of the airplane reaches the initial rate of climbs. At a certain distance from its departure, PIBOT starts Sequence 3. The airplane turns to the opposite direction, while maintaining its speed and altitude at their given references. In this sequence, PIBOT performs straight-and-level of flight, turns and climbs. In order to land on the runway, PIBOT turns the airplane while decreasing speed when it establishes an enough distance from the expected landing point. This is sequence 4, base leg. Final approach starts at the sequence 5. PIBOT aligns the aircraft with the runway and gradually pitch down at a slower speed. When it flies at around 20 feet above ground, it flares and gently lands on the ground.

Your question right now is probably the same as ours was: "when are you going to get it out of the simulator and flying a real plane?" That work will be presented at a forthcoming conference, but they're doing it already, and you can see a little teaser in the picture at the top of this article: the Macbook on the right is playing a video showing a little humanoid robot at the controls of a small-scale model biplane, flying it fully autonomously with its grippers on the controls.

The robot looked wasn't doing the best job keeping the model plane stable, but being a robot, it doesn't get airsick and puke all over the instrument panel like I would. It can do takeoffs, follow waypoints, maneuver, and make a final approach to landing, although at this point, it still needs some human help for the final touchdown. By the time the researchers publish, however, the 'bot may have nailed that too: there are still some perception challenges to solve, but they're getting very, very close.

A Robot-Machine Interface for Full-functionality Automation using a Humanoid, by Heejin Jeong, David Hyunchul Shim and Sungwook Cho from KAIST in South Korea, was presented yesterday at IROS 2014 in Chicago.

A friend outside of DIYD passed on a link to a thought-provoking post by Michael Sacasas. His observations are around people and Google Glass. However as I read this remarkable writing I thought of parallels to the fast-growing topic of civilian drones. How they make us feel, those of us who make or buy. How others feel when they are aware of a drone near them in the sky, on the ground, on the water. How they feel when they read, watch, or hear anything about drones in civilian life. When this blog post rolls off the home page, you can find it cataloged under 'UAS for other applications'.

This article is part three in a series, describing some of the inner workings of an autopilot system - even though the description is specific for this particular system, a lot of principles are generic and can be used to describe a variety of auto pilot systems.

Today we take a look at the maneuver system.

Maneuvers

For each type of vessel, there is a library of maneuvers. Some are common for all vessels and some are specific for a specific type of vessel or configuration.

A maneuver can either be of a simple nature, like turning right until another maneuver is issued by the autopilot, or a more complex maneuver that has some logic embedded (timing etc.) or is changing flight path dynamically based on data from sensors etc…

A maneuver can be synchronous or asynchronous, meaning that it either does something quickly (ie: issue a roll correction command) then terminates, or it does something that takes a while (ie: navigates the drone to a waypoint) which it does in it’s own thread and reports back to the main system when it’s finished. Asynchronous maneuvers has a built-in kill switch, which can be activated by the autopilot if certain conditions arise - ie. the rangeguard system triggers, the statemachine wants to change state etc., or the maneuver simply takes too long to execute. Maneuvers can also be temporarily paused.

Example - The simple maneuver

Suppose the drone is in the air and you’ve just activated the freeflight mode (which means that the drone is controlled manually by the operator). If you issue a turn left command, the system issues a turn left maneuver. Since the maneuver only does one thing, send a left flap down, right flap up command to wing servos, the maneuver is considered simple and only takes a few milliseconds to perform. The drone starts to turn and will continue to do so until the operator issues another command or the auto-part of the autopilot takes over for some reason.

The advanced maneuver

Once it’s time to get the drone safely back to earth (and we are talking a flying wing here), the autoland maneuver is executed. This maneuver could be a simple turn-off-the-engine-and-lets-hope-for-the-best type of thing, but I’ve made it a bit more dynamic.

The strategy is to let the maneuver store the planes heading and try to keep that heading all the way until the plane has landed. Furthermore we want to keep the engine running (a little bit) until we are a few meters over ground to have some thrust for steering.

The maneuver is asynchronous, because we want it to terminate when the plane is safely on the ground and the state machine can transcend to the safe state.

The maneuver starts by subscribing to the telemetry coming from the plane sensors. This ensures that each time the telemetry is updated, the autoland maneuver is fed the new data.

The maneuver then stores the current heading and locks in on it, by applying correctional turns if the plane starts to point off that heading with more than 10 degrees.

At the same time it tells the engine to spin slowly (approx. 15%).

Then it waits for the altimeter to tell it that it has sunk below 2 meters altitude. When it does, it turns off the engine completely but keeps applying correctional turns if the plane starts to head outside it’s chosen heading.

The maneuver also listens to the gyros and accelerometers. When no forward motion is detected for a period of time (a few seconds), the maneuver considers it’s job done, and issues a maneuver done signal back to the main system, which will trigger the state machine to change to safe mode.

One curiosity is that maneuvers can utilize other maneuvers to get their job done, ie. the general "flying through waypoints" maneuver, uses the simpler "fly to one waypoint" maneuver to get to each waypoint.

Next time

Initial flight testing, log analysing and optimization

Previous posts

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/an-autopilot-in-the-clouds-part-2

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/an-autopilot-in-the-clouds-part-1

With our partners AES. This is a great way to really quantify performance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3odtsy6l_KE

Using Orthomosaic and Digital Elevation Model to create 3 D model is nothing new. But normally it will require lots of computing power and knowledge. Skyline's TerraBuilder and TerraExplorer make it easy for the average people to make 3D video from an orthomosaic and DEM. For sure there are lot's of other functions within the software, I think just a 3D fly around video create by my recent aerial mapping work will enable my client understand his land better as he can view the area at difference angle and prospective.

I just learn some very basic function and will need proper training to fully utilised the powerful software. I find very limited resource in the net to help the learning process. Any idea ? 

i am flying a long range quadcopter with APM 2.6 external compass etc..my question is how can i modify RSSI voltage reading of the APM since my RX at maximum signal is 1.5volts..? and in full parameters list it seems to have only 3.3V and 5.0V ..

It ll needs to have buffer ?

my receiver is Rmilec 4047lite

AirbotServices fixed wing is based on the well known XUAV Talon EPO frame. This plane has a standard wingspan of 1720mm . Although its wings are quite wide (total wing surface is 60 dm2 - much wider than most other EPP/EPO frame), when fully loaded with cameras and large batteries, the plane's all-up-weight can reach more than 3 Kg.

As a result, in this standard wingspan configuration, the Talon requires to maintain a quite high airspeed not to stall, and also to use long and large landing spaces.

Therefore we wanted to test and try the optional (should be mandatory) wing extensions. These extensions increase the wingpsan to 2 meters.

Configuration:

-Pixhawk with APM:plane version 3, geofencing enabled (this is a great feature by the way!). See picture showing the geofence and one rally point in the field:

-T-Motor 3510-700Kv, 13x8 Graupner prop (that gives a 1Kg of thrust at 50% throttle which represents at least 30% of the total weight of the plane, as recommended by the specifications)

-Mobius camera in front dome (no gimbal - hard fixed, therefore some jello in the video)

As a result of these wing extensions, we were amazed how slowly we could fly (less than 20km/h without even stalling), maintaining a relatively good maneuverability. But we were even more suprised on how easy it was to land, on very short distances.

We have discovered and played succesfully with a "discovered by chance" landing method, batpized "cork screw" landing, which consists in slowly descending the plane in a spiral (very low throttle) to the ground which provides a way to land in a small surface area (for example if you do not have a runway at your disposal). Contrarily to what you could think, this method, using the wing extensions, is not reserved for experienced pilots; I am myself an utlra noob Arduplane pilot (actually my first flight...).

Has anyone else played with APM/Pixhawk alternative landing methods (like triggering a chute, for example ?) 

Cheers,

Hugues

Congrats to APM:Plane user Charles Devaney, who just shared the Drone Social Innovation Award! From Robohub:

The first winners of the inaugural “Drone Social Innovation Award” are a landmine detection project and a project providing aid to disaster victims in the Philippines. The two drone projects were selected from dozens of applicants and will split the $10,000 cash prize.

These projects represent some of the most exciting and important ways people are using drones to make the world a better place,

said award organizer, and Drone User Group Network founder, Timothy Reuter.

The $10,000 cash prize was created to ‘spur the creative use of low-cost drones for socially beneficial causes’. Entries ranged from people using drones to teach STEM skills to kids on the autism spectrum, collecting whale snot for marine conservation research, and recording the size of protest movements in countries that are trying to suppress dissidents.

What’s most exciting to us about this technology is that as drones become cheaper and easier to use we are seeing innovation being driven by individuals and non-profits in addition to the traditional government and big business users. 

Reuter said.

Entrants were judged on the depth and breadth of their project’s social impact. And all drones had to cost less than $3000, with the idea that other individuals or community groups could replicate the initiative.

Award winner Charles Devaney, the Global UAV Program Director at Linking the World, said:

Our work has focused on using UAVs to provide NGOs and first responders with imagery for immediate situational awareness in disaster response settings such as after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. We decided to participate in this competition to share the work we were doing with a wider audience. The prize money will help us update our equipment for the upcoming storm season, and to expand the countries we are able to support.

This past week I was luckily involved with the first ever Drone Zone/UAV Challenge that was part of the annual National Championship Air Races in Reno Nevada. The contestants where flying quads and hexacopters raging from micro to around 700mm in size. There were three events. Weight lifting, obstacle course and speed course.

Stead, Nevada is one of the 6 FAA locations for unmanned aerial testing. This is the reason for promoting UAV and drones.

The Challenge course was located right in front of a hangar. A net placed all around prevent any flyaways. The net also limited the size of the event.

The weight lifting event required participants to take off and hover over a weight and try to hook small u-bolt on the top of a weighted bottle. The second event was an obstacle where you had a small slalom course then fly through a window and finally a hoop. Many crashes occurred and some broken props. The final challenge was the speed course which somewhat mimicked the Reno Air Race course. You had to complete 5 laps and you were timed. The small 250 size quads had an advantage here, not to mention the pilots of these were excellent. Michael a hobby store manager in Folsom showed us how to fly by winning the overall event.

The University of Reno, Nevada Institute of Autonomous Systems and Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, sponsored the event. David Thirtyacre of Embry-Riddle worked hard to put the challenge together. Even though this was called a challenge most of us who showed up were there to be ambassadors of this hobby.

I was quite surprised by the number of Pixhawk flight controllers. Embry-Riddle had a few 3DRobotics hexacopters and the University of Nevada Reno competed with the Iris. There were a fair share of Naza and quite a few APM clones.

Interesting is Richard Kelley, Research Assistant Professor is using 3DRobits Iris and Y6 for flight control research. Not only did Richard compete but also Giselle a math major at UNR. 

The event had most of the local news covering the story and some national magazines as well. Everyone interviewed discussed the positive use of UAV's. 

There were some vendors showing off there products. Drone America was there with some pretty impressive UAV craft. Also in force was Ashima Devices, which just announced they are moving their production facilities to Reno. Swift Radio Plane showing their Lynx UAS designed for aerial photography.

Many of the people involved have indicated how hard it is to get COA from the FAA and fly. Also I found out all of the research being done right now must be done in enclosed areas where gps is ineffective. One graduate student that developed a deployable plane isn’t allowed to fly. Kind of hard to write a thesis paper when you can’t even describe how it flies.

In the end met some great people and had a lot of fun.

Good news!

Got the "Payloader Max" out for a public demo at the weekend, and it worked well! This is it dropping a 2.5kg load in a Swisspost box. Unfortunately, the full ramp up to a 5kg load run was halted when...

Bad news!

The damned PM module blew! This was a supposedly a 10S unit from Hobbyking, but it blew as soon the load went up. This is now my second unit that blew, and my recommendation is DONT USE THEM! Pump anymore than 70-80A through the main circuit and it just blows. Luckily this was at low altitude, and only a single broken prop. But while I had a god SBEC to swap in, I forgot the spare props, so no more demo's...:-(

Embarrassing news!

I used a Swisspost box for the demo...and unfortunately 2x swisspost employees were in the crowd. Crashing while they were watching was not really the publicity I wanted...:-( However, they were stunned to see a reasonably substantial package getting used this way. Lets hope word gets around!

Talking to Randy right now about how to get EPM to work on CH8; at the moment the APM libraries only work on CH9, so manual drops are all I can do right now. I might have to learn programming...:-o

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all who have registered and downloaded our software for Beta testing!

This month we have more than 550 guys who have downloaded our Beta version of software.

Majority of you are from DIYDrones community!

Thank you and keep torturing our product and give restless nights for our devs to fix the bugs and implement suggested features!

If you want to join, just register at www.ugcs.com and download UgCS Beta from Products&Services tab!

Best regards,

UgCS Team

Congrats to Ryan Kunde of DRNK Wines, whose agricultural research with drones made the LA Times this weekend. He's using 3DR Y6s and Aeros:

From the Guardian:

Striped tin cans buzz through the air like android wasps. A cube draped in tube lights – part jellyfish, part Orac from Blake’s 7 – hovers menacingly before the balcony. A cluster of pulsating foam balls swoops past another unidentified floating object wrapped in peacock feathers, and a flying disco light shimmies around to the funkier numbers as if auditioning for Robot Wars Does Strictly. At the peak of the performance, a huge golden peanut shell glides gracefully into a spotlight and hangs there, gleaming like a messiah.

This is the Drone Orchestra, a gaggle of flying bots designed by “speculative architect” Liam Young to swarm around the Barbican theatre during LOOP>>60Hz, his project with John Cale that brings drones out of the realms of sinister terrorist surveillance and Amazon delivery and puts them in front of your face like massive alien gnats. Young believes that drones will become “as ubiquitous as pigeons”‚ delivering pizzas, tracking perps and providing a new background urban whirr; he and Cale, who would once tune his instruments to a refrigerator’s hum to resonate with the frequencies of modern life, make an intriguing fit.

Cale is no stranger to aural drones of course, deploying the week-long one-chord boogie to deafening effect since the mid-60s. His musical experiments have been many and mind-expanding, from rewiring rock’n’roll with the Velvet Underground to avant garde classical works, proto-punk, harrowing electronica and doing arrest-worthy things to a viola. But 60Hz is undoubtedly the most ambitious stage conceit of a man whose idea of a live spectacle in 1977 was decapitating a dead chicken in Croydon.

Initially it’s an unnerving experience. With a safety net in place to protect us from any falling drones, an undulating metallic wall resembling a Terminator’s garage door rises to reveal Cale and his band, summoning a slab of one-note avant-noise on bowed bass, demonic guitar and nosebleed viola. When it splinters into feedback, just as a jellyfish bot ascends ominously from a launch pad beneath the stage, you worry you’re a guinea pig in a field test of some new airborne military prototype, that Cale will end the show in a theatre full of bodies bleeding from the eardrums, pick up a hotline to Area 51 and mutter ‚“It works”.

Once the wasps have buzzed, the peanut has dazzled and the disco bot has funkily flapped its landing gear, however, the drones become a novelty, the sort of gig gimmick Noel Fielding might have dreamed up. They’re billed as “part of the band”, but they don’t audibly add to the music; they’re distractions from the true marvel of Cale’s performance. Swaying along with his eyes to the sky as if in thrall to his robotic overlords, he adapts songs from throughout his career. The atonal funeral elegy If You Were Still Around, from 1982’s tortured lost classic Music for a New Society, is shot through with samples of rattling trains. It’s followed by the skewed new wave and space funk of his post-millennial material.