From Arduino Blog - BaTboT: a biologically inspired morphing-wing bat robot actuated by SMA-based artificial muscles.
Researchers from Centro de Automática y Robótica (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and from Brown University carried out a very deep research about the specific behavior of bat flight, whose ultimate goal is to replicate the capabilities of bat’s wings by means of an ad-hoc designed micro aerial vehicle (MAV).
Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard has been the first person who made the crossing from Europe to Afrika in a solar powered airplane. This was the first time that an airplane of this type made an intercontinental flight.
On Tuesday morning at dawn Piccard (54 y/o) left Madrid. After a 10 hour flight he reached Maroccan airspace with his plane 'Solar Impulse' after crossing the mediteranean sea. Late night he landed his plane in Rabat.
The Solar Impulse has a wingspan of 64 meter, comparable with an Airbus 340. It weighs only 1600 kilo's, about the weight of a luxury car. The wing is covered with solar panels and together with the batteries it can fly day and night.
For more information on the Solar Impulse and the team behind it, go here: solarimpulse.com/
I found this HD camera on the net today, and it seems to be the perfect alternative to the GoPro, as it is lighter and has a smaller size, which could be important in terms of micro-quads, etc..
Its smaller than the GoPro HD Hero, at 4 inches long and half inches across and weighing in at 4.5 oz, it is a truly ultralight HD videocam with the added bonus that it looks the part of "Eye in The Sky"
There are outputs for HD video, so just hook it up to a FPV transmitter and you are good to go! MicroSD cards are supported and you can record videos directly, even without an FPV setup. Beneath the bubble-shape front of the camera there is a 170-degree wide-angle lens which can capture video along with 5-megapixel HD stills.
The on-board battery is clamed to be good to upto 4 hours of 1080p recording, and it can be connected via USB to a computer to download the photos or charge the battery.
Another version, with WiFi,is also capable of steaming video to your iDevice/ Android device ,while the iPhone/Android phone,etc. acts as a controller for the camera. (Think PhoneDrone with this camera!!!)
At $230, without any accessories, I think its a pretty good deal as it is extremely light and small, with is infact a big deciding factor for me, as I design micro-quads only.
More details at their website, and be sure to check out the other models as well!!
My Bixler is mostly assembled, but there are some odds and ends. I need to secure the ESC inside and figure out a good way to secure the wings. Mike Pursifull suggested using Command hooks and a rubber band. Any other ideas for that?
I've heard complaints complain about inadequate rudder area so I may try to add some with some index cards or something similar (also Mike's idea). I'd be interested in feedback on what people have used to accomplish this also.
I did lots of ground testing adjusting servos and verifying the correct control orientation. I think it's all set.
As suggested by a couple folks I removed the nose weights and the control horns with hot water and reglued them with 5 minute epoxy. I've read some people don't like epoxy on EPO, but my new joints seem pretty solid.
I got failsafe working by holding down throttle cut while binding and verified that it went into Circle immediately and RTL after 20 seconds,
Here's a closeup of the cockpit. You can see the packing tape I put on the bottom and the chinstrap velcro for the electronics chassis, which is an idea I borrowed from Eagle.
As requested, here is a clip of one of my test flights with the APM2 on my 600. This may be the most boring video ever, but in this case, boring is exciting! The APM2 works amazingly well mounted on Align gel, where a tail gyro normally sits. Stabilization is very good using these parameters, though I need to lower the yaw values since there's still just a bit of tail wagging.
I've had this bird for a couple years, so unfortunately I think there is a bit of play in the linkages, and a couple of the servos have sticky spots. This causes small variations in the rotor disc (leading to slight wandering) which the APM is not responsible for.
The previous stabilization system I had was a Robbe HeliCommand. Absolute rubbish. That caused more grief and wasted time than I can imagine. Although, I was terrified of tuning it and knew very little about the effects of vibrations, so maybe it was good and I didn't know it!
Hello everyone. First - this is my first post, and this weekend (including today) marks my first flight(s)!
I'm thrilled, and having fun (mostly). Here's my first ever flight: (then my question)
Now, my question:
It would seem that every time the main battery gets low (I'm running two - one for AMP2 & receiver, and 4S for ESCs/motors) one of the props quits sending the copter into a death spin. I've been fortunate that only a prop & gear has busted on my two hard "landings" - but I can't believe that the proper behavior for low voltage is a death flip (one motor stopping).
So - can you help? Is there an audible alarm anyone has rigged for low voltage - i.e LAND NOW! ??
Thanks in advance for all the guidance paid forward and all to be received!
DIYDrones member and SUAS News author Gary Mortimer wrote an interesting article about the first flight tests of the Boeing Hydrogen-Powered Phantom Eye UAV. The story has also been syndicated at Slashdot.
The platform will no doubt generate interest outside of military applications because a hydrogen energy storage presumably offers a higher energy storage potential than current battery technologies. I look forward to learning more about why hydrogen energy storage was selected. For those of you who follow discussions about alternative sources and storage methods for transportation, Dr. Richard Muller has a number of excellent, publicly available lectures on the realities of energy density, the (simplified) numbers behind gas, cookie powered propulsion, battery energy density and losses, and why hydrogen isn't necessarily an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline in his outstanding Physics for Future Presidents lectures.
While Boeing is principally targeting military applications for this platform, NASA, NOAA, and dozens of other scientific teams will no doubt have similar application requirements. If this makes sense for Boeing's perceived military applications (and I'd personally like to learn more about what design targets were met with this alternative approach) it almost certainly makes sense for atmospheric, weather, disaster assistance, search and rescue, and similar applications.
Looks like a clone/unbranded DJI 550 frame from HK is avilable for $17.99. Seems like a good price. I just ordered one. Hope the quality is good. Will update everyone, when I get it.
BIG NOTE: It looks like this frame does not have the PDB(Power Distribution Board) built in. I actually like this better, since that means, holes can be drilled without worrying about a short.
We are proud to reveal another exciting new product from jDrones. We have been working hard and long with this new product and now finally it is available to all people who need highend mounts for their multicopter needs.
Mount has been designed to use with several widely used arm types. It can be used with round tubes of 10mm and 12mm of diameter. Is also fits on all 10, 12, 15mm square tubes.
Mount have rubber cushions that will make your motors run smoothly and silently. All normal motors that have so called X mount adapter (40mm end-to-end) fits on this mount. First you mount your motor on it's adapter and then adapter mounts on top of MultiMount cushions.
You can also use it on coaxial setups as shown in following picture
For technojunkies we have cool looking installation manual (thanks to Max Levine). Manual that is really clean and easy to follow, it just cannot get any simpler than this.
I didn't think I'd actually get this far so soon, but somehow I have. I got my APM2 strapped on to my T-Rex 600 and managed to get it in the air. In fact, I've even got it tuned moderately well!
I started out switching the APM from my 3DR quad to the trex frame and began the process of learning how to set up a heli. Being the overbearing fellow I am, I forgot to erase the eeprom so my initial setup was using quad parameters on a heli. After not getting it off the ground, I eventually erased and went through the setup process again and got things right. I got it in the air and tuned a few things and so far I'm happy with how it flies. I used auto-trim mode (ch 7 switch) to level it in the air and that seems to have worked quite well.
The APM board fits nicely in the typical tail gyro place right behind the main shaft. The board is mounted using the Align gel which I've had perfect results with on the quad, and lightweight velcro straps to gently hold it against the gel. No problems with vibrations whatsoever (that I can tell right now, anyway).
I'm happy to have this bird in my fleet once again, and with a second APM (1.0) board on the way I'll hopefully not have to switch back and forth.
Here's another cool idea for the "personal droid" concept that we've been messing around with. Ours uses the built-in "Follow Me" function with ArduCopter and a handheld GPS+3DR radio module to send your GPS coordinate to ArduCopter, but the Parrot AR.Drone doesn't have GPS. So they use a fancy t-shirt and the on-board camera instead!
The system, called Joggobot, is being developed by Floyd Mueller and Eberhard Gräther at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.
The duo plan to allow users to enter their preferred running speed into a smartphone app that controls the drone so it flies ahead of a jogger at just the right pace. Or it could be set to maintain a distance of a few metres no matter what pace a runner is going.
They tested their idea using the foam-fendered AR Drone made by Parrot of Paris, France. Using custom software, they programmed it to follow a bright blue and orange pattern painted on a runner's T-shirt (pictured below).
As soon as an onboard camera sees the shirt, the craft takes off and hovers about a metre off the ground. If it ever loses sight of the pattern, the drone lands automatically.
Mueller says he and Gräther are tinkering with settings to test what motivates runners. "How will people interact with a robotic exercise companion? Should the robot be more like a coach or more like a pet?" he asks. "One might make the exercise more effective, but the other might make it more fun. Which one is 'better'? And is there a 'better'?"
I recently quit my job and have taken a few weeks to decompress. The first thing I did with my down-time was port Arducopter to Flash so I could do development and tuning in an environment that was more developer friendly, faster and fun. This app has real-time plotting of most system variables, almost all AC functions (except mavlink) and repeatable situations so you can tune your quad.
It's a great tool for understanding the actual behavior of Arducopter. I know I've learned a lot. Each sensor is modeled to include noise and delay to ensure accurate behavior of the system. Under the hood, the SIM is running at full rate and all of the timers are stepped in a way that each flight is repeatable. Even the wind will repeat exactly with each run.
I'm also taking support donations to help offset my many many hours spent on this tool. I hope you like it and I hope it helps you fly safer and save a few props.
I've been a big fan of the Parrot AR.Drone since it was first released in early 2010. Although it's not a real drone as we define it (capable of autonomy) since it doesn't have GPS or a navigation function, it is a remarkable piece of engineering and I think of it as the "gateway drug" to real UAVs. I've heard that more than a 100,000 have been sold, and many of those users will catch the bug and want more, bringing them to communities likes this one and the more sophisticated UAVs discussed here.
Parrot has been kind enough to send me review units of both the original AR.Drone and now the new AR.Drone 2.0, which was released last month ($299). The 2.0 version adds:
Much improved video (it's now very clear with its new HD camera and almost lag-free)
A magnetometer for what we call "simple mode" flying, where you can ignore the orientation of the quadcopter and just fly relative to the compass (so tilting your iPhone/iPad down will fly it north, for example, regardless of what orientation it's in).
A pressure sensor so it can control altitude above the 5m range of its sonar sensor.
Indoors, the main advantage is the better camera and the pressure sensor means that it doesn't bounce up when it flies over furniture, the way the sonar-only AR.Drone 1 did.
Outdoors, the advantages are more obvious. I flew it last weekend with the Bay Area crew (see post here) in some pretty stiff wind and we were all very impressed. Here are some quick observations:
You can now change the settings to allow altitude of up to about 100-120 feet. Parrot says the altitude is unlimited, but in practice I wasn't able to get it any higher than that (perhaps because it won't go further than its wifi range).
The main limiter on outdoor use in any direction is the wifi range. I was able to get it to fly about 100-150 feet away but then it lost the wifi connection. The good news is that when that happens, it just hovers in position until the connection is regained. So you just have to walk closer to it until it gives you control back.
Loiter (which uses the optical flow camera underneath the copter) was very good. Close to the ground it's really locked in (the more unique objects underneath it that it can see, the better; regular grass and dirt doesn't offer many unique features, so it will drift a bit over them), and the higher you go the less effective it is. But even at 100 ft in a stiff wind, it will only slowly drift from its loiter position, and it will stay within a few tens of meters for as much as a minute.
Wind-handling is as good as you can expect for a relatively small frame and low-powered motors. It keeps its stability in the wind well, but does require some pretty aggressive tilting to not be blown downwind.
Overall, I think the 2.0 version is a significant improvement. The new HD camera is the biggest win and the indoor altitude hold performance is much improved by the baro sensor. Outdoors, I think the advantages of the higher altitude option are not as great as they could be, due to the Wifi range limits, but it does widen its performance range somewhat.
For people who don't already have a Parrot AR.Drone, the improvements in 2.0 definitely make it more attractive. If you've been waiting to get one, now's the time. But if you've already got a 1.0, you may not find them quite enough to upgrade.
As before, the AR.Drone is really optimized for indoor use, and it's hard to find a better platform for that, from stability to reliability and safety (relatively soft props and a foam protective ring). I think you'll see more and more people using the basic frame for indoor automomy research with replacement controller boards.
Bottom line: it really is a beautiful bit of engineering and design and an inspiration to us all in terms of ease-of-use.
UPDATE: here's a video of someone flying 300ft away. They must have a cleaner wifi environment than I did!
I doing the recording of waypoiny using the switch that is possible configure on mission planner on channel 7.
Before to start to recording is possible to delete the waypoiny in eeprom with Disarmed Motor , then switch in AUTO mode and selected then switch channel 7 the same that you use for add new waypoint.
So then you go in stabilize mode and fly where you want to put first point , second ecc until last.
When you switch on eeprom write lat lon and altitude for every point. Keep atention that in first point the quad doing a strange roll fasta change ready to controll the quad.
When you put in Auto Mode , the quad rotate his noose towards the next waypoint , don't worry :) The important is that you know how control the quad if you need to return in stabilize manual mode :)
This is the quality of auto navigation in a windy day on waypoint i see an max error of 2-3 m
At the end of flight i download my log and convert it in KMZ file and check it in Google Earth. For check the quality of flight i save the waypoint and then i prepare manually a KMZ and import it in the Google earth.
In my test i verify that hit waypoint with an error 2-3 m . I think that it's good :)
After arriving in Nome, AK for the summer, I got the HK EPP FPV re-assembled and took it for a spin early in the morning (1:00 AM). With my APM 2.0 tied up with the heli right now, I'm still flying this thing manually (considering getting my hands on another APM). I have, however made a few modifications to the frame to make it more modular (for ease of transportation) and more efficient. I'll be posting those mods soon. For now, enjoy the waves!
Can you spot a piece of the burst balloon against the total blackness of space at 100,000 ft. ?
You can also see how thin our atmosphere is !
See the curvature of the earth.
The wire with silicone at the end is part of the 2M APRS antenna. The white things are parts of the burst balloon.
Did anyone see the balloon track on APRS.FI on the internet on Tuesday 5/29/2012 at 9 pm ? Callsign is ke5vsh-1 if you want to see the track.
The 3D radios on 433mhz worked well all the way sending APM2 data down. I will try to post some of the data. The temp inside our package was from 86 to -15 degrees from launch to touchdown.
I will give links to the Top,Side,and Bottom cameras when the files get uploaded.
Another great flight ! Now going to launch the 7 ft. 8x glider with APM2 in it for a RTL and maybe an autonomous landing in about 2 weeks. The test flight is only to 30,000 ft. to test everything out. If all goes well we will launch the glider every 2 weeks with scientific packages on board.
I sure hope the RTL will work because we spent 5 hours in the hot desert retrieving this last shot ! My director says the APM2 RTL would be sooo much better. I will keep you posted.
All this work is by Cosmiac LLC funded by NASA and the University of New Mexico.
Ning (the platform we're hosted on) has just rolled out a new mobile interface in beta, which I've enabled. The main screen is the Activity Feed, with the various content categories available as menu items. Please give it a try on your phone and let me know what you think. (I can't change it, but I can give the Ning team feedback).
From Arduino Blog - BaTboT: a biologically inspired morphing-wing bat robot actuated by SMA-based artificial muscles.
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