After a few rough landings (cough crashes) and subsequent repairs, I got the feel for flying FPV. Canadian thanksgiving was this weekend, and there were still some nice colours in the trees. Just thought i'd share.
Cheers,
Bart.
There has been some posts lately about people building and trying to fly full scale multi-copters. Following this trend I though I should share the most successful project I have seen so far. Mr. Ivoprop over at youtube seem to have a fully working octocopter design built around a micro-plane.
Just want to share a relaxing sunday RC flying with friends at Elk Grove. Flown with homemade quadcopter/ Multiwii FC and GoPro. Enjoy!
A couple flights this morning using my trusty old ArduPilot Legacy & ArduIMU. Separate Mediatek GPS's on both AP and the Remzibi OSD. A Hobbyking 420 TVL camera provides the video sent back to the ground via a BOB Fox 700 1.2GHz transmitter. FPV is done with video goggles. Radio is a Hitec Aurora 9.
After switching to RTL (return to launch) the plane turns very well and returns towards home banking about 70m before 'home' and then goes into a stable loiter pattern at a height of around 70m and loiter radius of 70m.
On my 3rd major rebuild of my custom-framed AC2 after losing her to strong wind (stupidity really) and I'm again relishing the opportunity to change further aspects of the design. I'm REALLY hanging to see the OSD integration the boys are working on (come one Jani, hook me up!!!!!). The thought occured that if I wanted to fly really close to the ground in Alt-hold mode, might the sonar be more accurate if it were mounted on a servo plugged into the Tilt output on the APM? That way if she's really moving, and at an extreme pitch, it'll still be pointing directly at the ground. Or have you clever clogs somehow written an algorithim to compensate the Sonar reading based on the angle of attack?
Damn I love this project, best fun I've had in ages!
It starts to get really interesting at about 3 minutes into the film.
In what we can only hope are unrelated news stories, Wired Magazine is reporting a virus infestation of Reaper and Predator ground control systems, and sUAS News is reporting the crash of a Reaper UAV in a training accident on friday.
What This is Not About
As an information security professional, dealing with Malware is a topic I can speak about with some authority. Well-meaning techies will, no doubt, raise all the same talking points, "why are we running critical ground control systems on Windows?" "How did this virus get onto classified systems?" "If they were running OSX/Linux/OpenBSD, they would not have this problem!"
Let's address these general statements once so that we can talk about what is important here for commercial and hobbyist UAV operators. Yes, malware creators tend to target Windows more than other platforms, for a number of reasons, and yes, not running Windows for critical (if not all) computer tasks is a common strategy used by many information security professionals and amateurs alike to limit the impact of malware on their daily lives. However, malware is a fact of life in computing systems, and the stuff you know about, or detect on your computer with antivirus software, is childsplay compared the current generation of commercial and military grade goods.
Some Useless Talk
Typical malware discussions deal with personal identifying information theft, credential harvesting, and stealthed online banking wire transfer. They involve that other form of high-tech "drone", the millions of zombie PCs, controlled with a different form of CnC server than we use to cut our quadcopter plates. These are used to knock Websites and networks off line as part of political statements or as part of a poorly-reported, fifteen year history of extortion schemes committed by individuals and highly organized criminal enterprises alike.
I do not want to talk about any of that today. Keeping your financial data and health records private is not of any direct interest to the UAV community. Furthermore, this community is organized around a principle of sharing, with open source code and hardware, so there isn't really any value in deploying malware to "steal" our UAV technologies. Some of you develop and sell commercial products, but you can look out for your business interests like everyone else, by hiring someone like me to take care of it.
What I would like to reflect upon here is the one area of the traditional security "CIA" model - that is "Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability" - that most concerns the hobbyist UAV builder/operator, availability.
Is this Cyber Stuff Really a Problem?
There is no information to suggest that the viruses and key loggers mentioned by Wired Magazine caused a crash of the UAVs in question. The crash on Friday of a Reaper in a training accident did not need to be helped by malware. UAVs crash just fine on their own, or with operator assistance. However, there is ample reason to be concerned. Consider the Telegraph report of the grounding of French Fighter Jets, the ultra-high tech Navy vessel crippled during early sea trials by a virus in the early part of the last decade, and, far more tragic, the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022, in which malware played a significant role, that killed 154 people. Make no mistake, this is not a Hollywood script, it is increasingly a very really, very serious business. Even if certain companies (I'm looking at you, Adobe) do not get it.
With thousands of dollars and thousands of hours invested in our UAVs, even if they are not putting lives on the line, we each have a vested interest in keeping our ground control systems fully functional.
No Malicious Intent
In fact, malware need not even be involved. A month ago, I was using Mission Planner to assist with a backyard flight test when, without warning, Windows "discovered" a new device, and installed a mouse driver ... in place of my FTDI driver. Two hours and twelve attempts to reload the FTDI driver failed before I pulled out my secret weapon, a move I should have used from the start. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The Every Man
So what can an operator do? If patching, removing Adobe products from our computers, using an alternative browser, and running current antivirus is not enough (and it is not, but it is a good start) and if we use Windows because the excellent Mission Planner was written for Windows, how can anyone expect to be certain of a clean, functional ground control system without a professional hacker helping out?
A Simple Answer
Virtualize. Using technologies like VMWare, Paralleles, and Virtual PC, you can keep a minimal operating system of your choice, Linux, Mac OSX, even Windows, to control the hardware on your laptop. If possible, avoid using it to surf the Web, manage your finances, or watch online videos in flash about Chinese UAV competitions. Maybe you prefer a Mac, but cannot live without Michael Obornes wonderful Mission Planner. Install Parallels and run Windows in a window. Load all the software you need, patch up, fight with the FTDI drives once, and then make a "snapshot". If your virtualized ground control system experiences a failure for any reason, a virus, spyware, or a driver conflict, you can "roll back" in 20-30 seconds to a known-good configuration.
Here is a tip for advanced users: remap your Mission Planner "logs" directory to a shared directory with your host operating system; keep a copy of the latest MP, FTDI drivers, and perhaps your Arduino code directory in another shared directory.
From time to time, burn a DVD of the latest snapshot of your virtual ground station and keep it with your Parallels (VMware, Virtual PC, etc) install software. When you decide to upgrade your PC hardware, when your five year old son uses his milk to "wash" your keyboard, when that Adobe PDF file demonstrates the classic Odysseus stratagem, when your OS decides FTDI means "Forget This Driver Immediately," or when your beautiful Macbook Air fails to live up to its name after it is propelled off your table at 4 meters a second by a 170lb human dodging the angry blades of an unintentionally attacking quadcopter .. well, you'll be glad you did.
Even if your computer is completely destroyed while you are visiting your uncle's family in North Dakota, 300 miles from the nearest Best Buy and 2 hours drive from the nearest Internet connection, you can keep on flying ... just borrow cousin Jimmy's MacBook, install Parallels (if he isn't already using it) and you'll be flying again in about ten minutes.
I have recently been pushing the limits of the XBee Pro to see how far it can go.
Unfortunately my current plane (SkyFun) only has a 38 minute duration and a maximum travel distance of 20km, this means the furtherst I have been able to go is 10Km (a 20Km return trip).
I have a 14dB patch antenna which has still shown signal of 85%+ out at this distance.
I wanted to find out how far the XBee could really go.
This meant planning a one way mission.
I spent about a week looking for the perfect start and destination, plotting the course and arranging access to the landing location with a local farmer.
The start point was my normal local park and the landing location was a farm paddock 16Km away.
The flight was over sparsely populated farm land and at a constant incline meaning I could increase altitude during the flight in order to get greater range.
My plan was to launch and monitor the flight from the launch location until I lost contact with the plane via Telemetry. After this I would drive to the landing location where the plane would be circling and manually land.
I calculated that even if I maintained contact with my plane during the flight and it made it all the way that I would still have time to make the 12 minute drive without running out of battery power.
With a tail wind, the plane would average 60Km/h at 45% throttle.
With everything planned and 45 test flights already in the bag with this airframe I was ready.
I launched and the plane took off to the waypoint as planned.
I was hoping for at least 12Km as this was ideal conditions.
The point on the map above shows the point I lost contact which is 10.6Km from the launch location.
The XBee maintained a very strong signal up until the last Km and then it began to drop off very rapidly.
It begins to be unusable below about 40%.
I packed up the ground station and drove to the destination which took just 11 minutes.
The plane was circling perfectly as expected and I put it in FBWA and landed without incident (apart from the slightly startled flock of sheep).
It turns out that the 10Km I had been flying to is around the maximum range of an XBee.
I am working on a much bigger aircraft that will have a 1 hour plus duration at a higher speed so I am going to have to look into more long range options for telemetry. GPRS / cell is preferable as we have excellent coverage here and fully routable and cheap internet plans. However, for experimentation I have been surprised at the distances that can be achieved with an XBee with a cheap patch antenna added on.
Here are a couple of tips for people wanting to achieve maximum range..
- Minimize antenna cable length. My XBee is mounted on the back of my patch antenna and I run a long USB to my laptop. This maximizes gain and reduces lost signal.
- I use either the ground or my car to enhance the ground plane effect. Putting the antenna in front of my car door or right beside my car makes a big difference to the distance. Also keeping it as close to the ground as possible.
- Altitude is king, the higher you can fly the greater the achievable distance. Due to the fact my destination was on an incline, my end waypoint was 400m high relative to my starting point.
- Fly long straight missions so you can line up your antenna properly, I am building an antenna tracker that removes the need for this but Ardustation2 is currently broken since the last Mavlink updates.
I'm going to be in London on Oct 13th and 14th for the Wired UK conference (where there will be an ArduCopter demo--thanks to those coming to do that). For those who can't make it to the conference, I'm hosting a meetup dinner at 7:00pm on Thurs, Oct 13th at Number Twelve, a nearby restaurant . Dinner is on me, but space is limited. Please sign up in the comments below.
Number Twelve:
12 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0HX
(Feel free to bring toys, but I'm afraid there will be no flying in the restaurant!)
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
We've been busy behind the scenes, but now we're back with a double-dose of FPV videos. Enjoy!
The cool black 3DR ArduCopter kit is now available with motors/ESCs and props included for $295. Or get it with full APM autopilot electronics (including GPS and magnetometer) for $590.
I had an excellent test flight with the new Auto Flap feature this morning.
This picture is the end of a fully autonomous flight. Sorry, I should have had video running.... It is impressive that the Skywalker is sitting within about a meter of the center of the runway. However, what is really cool about this landing is that there was a 10-15 mph (5-7 m/s) tailwind. The decent rate of the Skywalker is pretty slow without flaps, making precision landing difficult. With a tailwind the glide angle would be very flat and in this case the landing would have probably gone very long, landing perhaps 100 meters past this point. However, with the automatic flap deployment ArduPlane did a very good job of getting the plane down and stopped close to the programmed landing point.
To help everyone interested use this feature I have added a wiki page about it. You can find that here:
http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Flaps
From Flight Global:
At least 100 teams from around China and the world entered vehicles to compete for roughlyUS$378,000 in prizes. It is possible that the event included the mysterious flying wing UAVreported on this blog last Friday, but we've found no references to it in Chinese news articles and videos already posted about the event.
The most interesting design revealed by the Grand Prix is a flying-wing, tailed UAV submitted by Shenyang University, a school located in the same northeastern city as one of China's biggest makers of fighter jets.
Hi there!
I've always wanted to take part in arduplane development, so I finally have chance to do it =)
Here you can find info on how to do the same http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-contribute-to-a-diy-drones-project-start-with-something-sm
I have chosen this one -
8) Minimum altitude feature for modes >= FBW - Add a feature where the user can specify a minimum altitude that the autopilot will not go under when in higher modes
just because I was implementing some anti-crash functions on my own.
So here my little demo. APM is in FBW-B mode and I hold pitch all the way DOWN! until the very end of video. The jumps you will see is my code bringing the plane back to safe altitude. Minimum alt was set 30 meters above home altitude, so you can see ground. Enjoy and post your ideas!
UPDATE: Here is new video (new algorithm, no jumps):
And my patch has been applied to the ArduPlane source! =))) Man, I wish I could have a job related to drones...
New Sonar mount for your ArduCopter @ jDrones
We just added those more elegant ArduCopter sonar mounts to our storesystem. This mount was inspired by the mount what Chris created first from his plastic knife and mounted with a rubber band to the arm. We made them a bit more elegant.
This is first of the many new mounts that we are introducing to all our original ArduCopter fans out there. We made it versatile so you can use it on others too.
No need to drill any holes or anything to use this mount, just squeeze it around your arm tubes as you do for the dome arches and landing gears. All parts are included on the set.
You can use it for all MB10xx and MB12xx series Maxbotix sonars.
Check out from jDrones site for more info about it.
http://store.jdrones.com/product_p/mntmx12pc01.htm
ArduCopter Sonar Mount, v1.2 Arm
Packet contents:
Cheers,
Jani
Hi Everyone,
Maybe you know, i'm working on Open Source RC (OpenLRS) project since 1-2 years and we released it in this summer.
Today I just finished the firmware v1.10 with transparent serial bridge!
This mean, you can talk with autopilot or other telemetry modules without any extra telemetry device. Your OpenLRS Rx and Tx can handle this mission.
Download link:
http://code.google.com/p/openlrs/downloads/list
OpenLRS Forum link:
http://forum.flytron.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4&p=1279#p1279
IMPORTANT:
Rx to Tx transmission supporting 750 byte/seconds (not bit/second) without any problem.
It's handling 9600 baud signals with %80 traffic.
But Tx to Rx (ground to air) transmission sharing the servo communication bytes and we are not suggesting more than 100 byte/second for ground to air transmission.
We are suggesting 115.200 baud serial speed (%5 traffic) for clear serial. If you want to use 9600 or near speeds dont forget; Atmega328(with Arduino) can read the signal with hardware without any problem, but it have to wait for next byte when writing. You must finish the writing before reading next RF package. This is why you need high speed communication when writing something on the serial out.
As a reference: In this video, i'm using 9600 baud on GPS side and 115.200 baud on computer side.
Thanks
Melih
-----------------------------------
Old Diydrones blog posts about OpenLRS Project
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/new-opensource-lrs-coming
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/the-openlrs-project-pcbs-ready
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/the-openlrs-project-pcbs-ready
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/openlrs-wii-motion-plus
Hooray! Finally got the xbee assembled and tested... still seems somewhat miraculous to be logged into to a computer flying around overhead.
Went with copilot Andreas and his friend Reto, (an old schoolmate visiting from Switzerland -- they did their robotics project together), to the park to try fully automatic flight controlled by waypoints.
Had some initial difficulties connecting the xbee. It turned out that rebooting the vmware windows session on my macbook fixed that problem. The pre-cached map tiles worked well.
Shiny laptop screen + Full Sun = invisible.... will figure out some boxy thing to provide some shade for the screen.
Video cap of part of the flight is attached below. The waypoints are wrong. Be sure and save the waypoints to a file after you fiddle with them if you intend to play back the log files later.
The main goal was to get the unit in the air, and exercise all the modes. All of that worked and we finished up with everything intact, so we considered it a great success... Hooray!!
Still need to hook up the magnetometer, pitot tubes, and battery monitor. But it seems things are so far going not too badly! Also need to do: hook up APM to the simulator, build APM from source and fly that.
note: having problems displaying video; post mirrored here:
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-test-of-apm-auto-mode-drone.html
On october 1st, 2011, my MAJA drone has done successfully a full autonomous flight under flight plan with the ThermoPilot v5, an updated version of the Arduplane v2.23. The video of the flight is recorded with a GO pro HD wide on board. This test flight is a part of my ThermoPilot project (Autonomous Thermal Hunter glider).
The flight of the real MAJA drone is very similar to the simulated flights done with the Xplane simulator v9.7 using the modelized MAJA in HIL mode with the same hardware (APM2560) and firmware (ThermoPilot v5).
You will find below, a video of the simulated flight in HIL mode with X-Plane v9.7 with automatic take-off and landing:
You will find also some photos of my ASW24 Thermal Hunter drone HERE also tested this WE with the MAJA...
Regards, Jean-Louis
Dear Friends,
in these days we're doing test of stable version of code for Multipilot32 + VRIMU FULL. We hope to release the stable version of code before the end of month.In this video is possible to see how work return to home , I'm very happy of this result ... During the debug is possible to have some problem if the point of return is exactly the same where you pilot your drone :) See video ... It's very nice .. :)
Functionality available tested for two week :
Stable mode work fine .
Loiter is good and affordable precision start from 1x1 m box to 5x5 m box depend of wheater condition.
Retur to home work fine ... have only a problem the quad return to last loiter position instead of starting point.
In the next week we continue to test and improve :
Altitude hold .
Auto navigation.
Configuration of testing :
Multipilot32 V1.0 : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/multipilot32-1
VRIMU FULL : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-imu-10
Custom Frame by AleBs X Mode Quad configuration.
4x 30 Amp ESC Hobbywing.
Propeller 10x45.
Battery 3S 4000 Amp.
Radio: Hitech Aurora 9 with standard 9 channel receiver 2.4 ghz.
Firmware Pre requiste :
This revision of code is derived of original Arducopter 2.0.42 i add some new feature for have more flexible configuration parameter for example is possible change the frame configuration only changing a parameter in Mission Planner. Is available also mixertable and receiver that support 1 wire ppm sum .
Last Revision of IDE : http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=vrobotix-ide-0.0.4.6.1-laserlab-.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges
Last Patch of stable code : http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=Firmware.rar&can=2&q=#makechanges
Original Blog Post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter32-test-of-rtl-and-loiter-mode
