This is a quick and dirty flight visualization tool I use with scicoslab for autopilot/ control design. Its great when you are running on a laptop or older computer and you don't have the horsepower to run scicoslab and flightgear at the same time. I'm working on an airplane version that should be done soon.

hello all on this forum,

i have started building my quadrotor. and i am using arduimu v2 flat as a main controller.

i am very new to all those things,uptill now i got my arduimu v2 and i just programmed it with

the latest firmware 1.7ver with the parameters said in the program for testing and

i also tested it with the happykillmore sofware and is working well.

so now my question is the values which are said to be set in the firmware should i change them

since i am using only arduimu v2 flat and no magnetometer and no gps module.

and 2nd is how to do PID tuning since i dont have any idea about this.

and how the arduimu recognizes the perticular s isnal coming from transmitter.

please anyone help me out.

thanks in advance

From the description: "The robot is equipped with an IMU, camera, and laser scanner with deflective mirrors. All computations are performed onboard using a 1.6GHz atom processor. The robot is able to navigate autonomously in indoor or outdoor, GPS-denied environments.

A SLAM module with vision based loop closure allows the robot to map large-scale, multi-floor environments.A sparse 3D map is generated on the robot based on sensor data, enabling high-level planning and visualization.

An RRT* based planner provides an anytime planning solution that fits the computational constraints of the robot. This planner also enables online re-planning and obstacle avoidance.

An LQR optimal controller with external force compensation enables reliable autonomous flight in highly constrained environments, such as hallways, doors, and windows. The robot is able to track the high-level plans accurately."

From I Love Robotics: "More quadrotor action from the team at UPenn (Shaojie Shen, Nathan Michael, and Vijay Kumar). A previous video of their earlier work is here.

ROS seems to be helping with the team's productivity, but I am still looking for a paper to go with these videos for more details. Once again thermodynamics and energy storage look like the biggest performance limits facing quadrotor aircraft."

Hi Guys

Good news from OpenLRS (Opensource Long Range System) project!

Today i received 7 watt RF booster chips and at last i'm ready to finishing the PCB designs. This weekend i will finish the booster design and PCBs will be ready in 3 weeks.

Here is the latest PCB designs of Tx, Rx and IMU modules of OpenLRS

Tx and Rx modules size smaller than most of RC modules. Rx module including I2C (or 3 adc) conector pads on back side. I'm planning to connect my new 6DOF IMUnext v3 board there. Rx can stabilize the plane (or quadro) without any external parts and it sends the parameters to the ground over telemetry system. And Rx's rs232 port already available for digital telemetry or direct GPS connection.

Some advantages of OpenFARC:

• Direct ground computer based remote control and telemetry (Autopilot by computer?)
• Rx based Autopilot/stabilization/return to home.
• No Frequency hoping. I'm planning to using static 2 frequency switching for safety. You can use 2 or more modules for receiving the telemetry signals or transmitting the controls with static frequency, because you know your frequencies. Or hopping already possible.
• If you want to use it for really long range, you can add 7W booster on Tx module (only one way control without telemetry)
• Direct analog RSSI output on Rx
• RS232 telemetry and commandset (like "S2512" mean turn the 2th servo to center position,etc)

I'm developing OpenLRS project with AVR-GCC on Atmega328 chipset. All ATMEL developers are welcome ;)

Here is a link to another Skywalker platform. Looks interesting. Big? Seems to have alot of room in fuselage and cheap?

http://www.bevrc.com/skywalker-168cm-epo-airplane-version-ii-specially-designe-p-17.html?zenid=1df4381c909c643178cb5447f0e67c7f

This week's "EAA Hotline", an email newsletter for EAA members has a story on the Team Black Sheep video. They don't state a position on the flight, but report AMA's position, and conclude with:

"The FAA includes R/C aircraft flown by modelers in its definition of Unmanned Aircraft Systems and states its “recreational use of the National Airspace System is covered by FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 91-57, which generally limits operations to below 400 feet above ground level and away from airports and air traffic."

http://www.eaa.org/news/2010/2010-12-09_zephyr.asp

That video is getting notice in a lot of places...

Andrew Straw, a Caltech scientist who studies neurons and behavior, is leading the research, supported by an Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant. In order to better understand how fruit flies navigate, Straw basically forces the insects to play an immersive videogame of sorts. His lab has designed a virtual reality environment for the flies, giving him complete control over the visual stimuli they're exposed to. He and his fellow researchers also developed a tracking system that locates a fly in 3-D "nearly instantaneously." By tossing the fruit flies in the VR tunnel, controlling what the flies see, and tracking them precisely, Straw has an unprecedented sense of how the flies use visual cues to navigate.

What he found was surprising. Previously, it had been thought that flies measured motion beneath them to regulate their height. Straw's team, by contrast, has found that horizontal edges are the most important cue the flies use."

From AMA Today December 2010 (electronic newsletter)

Update on FAA

The FAA process to create regulation for the operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in the national airspace continues to move forward. There's been a lot of speculation about what will be contained in the sUAS proposed rule that is scheduled to be released as a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) sometime in June 2011.

The NPRM will contain proposed regulation that will most likely have some impact on model aviation. The FAA is prohibited by law from disclosing the exact language in the NPRM until it's released in the Federal Register. However, we have been able to determine, in a generic sense, what some of the proposed language might be. The Aviation Rulemaking Committee’s report submitted to the FAA in 2009 indentifies many of the sUAS issues under consideration; however the specific recommendations in the report may or may not be reflected in the final rule. We know that the NPRM will most likely address things like how high, how fast, and where a model aircraft may fly. We know that the FAA has drawn a hard line between recreational use and commercial use.

AMA is continuing to work with the Unmanned Aircraft Program Office (UAPO) within the FAA and is in contact with the UAPO on a weekly, if not daily basis. Over the past 90 days there have been five face-to-face meetings with AMA and the UAPO staff. AMA’s internal workgroup, consisting of members with a diverse and knowledgeable model aviation background meet by conference call weekly and continues to develop standards that will eventually be submitted to the FAA for adoption that will allow modelers who follow these standards additional latitude from the rule. The foundation of our standards has always been the National Model Aviation Safety Code and its supporting documents including our Turbine Waiver Program and our Large Model aircraft Program. Recently a member of the UAPO office has been regularly attending these calls.

We're fighting a tough battle between keeping our members informed and not painting an overly tenuous picture of the future of model aviation. Not knowing exactly what will be in the proposed rule makes this a difficult challenge. And we're still working through some issues today that may be satisfactorily resolved before the NPRM is released. At the same time we need to make sure our members are aware, engaged, and prepared to react, if necessary, when the time is right.

The FAA has been invited to the AMA Expo in January. They have accepted. Our intent is to hold a roundtable Q&A session to help clarify a number of issues. This roundtable will be open to those in attendance and will also be taped and posted online. The Expo will also signal the beginning of an increased awareness campaign to keep the model aviation community as informed as possible as we move into 2011 and the eventual release of the NPRM.

– Dave Mathewson AMA President

Jason Short, who seems to be able to write Flash faster than most people can write English, created a cool interactive Flash demo to explain Crosstrack Error Correction in the APM manual. Check it out here (works in Firefox and IE, but not in Chrome)

Testing a DIYDrones magnetometer in HK's GCS from Pete Hollands on Vimeo.

I test the DIY Drones magnetometer ( HMC5843 magnetometer breakout board ) using Happy Killmore's Ground Control Station connected using SERIAL_UDB_EXTRA telemetry format, to a UAV DevBoard V3 running
MatrixPilot (revision 729 of trunk).

photos:
picasaweb.google.com/​peter.hollands/​Twinstar2Build#5547623052830239122

UAVDevBoard / MatrixPilot:
code.google.com/​p/​gentlenav/​wiki/​Home?tm=6

HK GCS:
code.google.com/​p/​happykillmore-gcs/​

DIY Drones Store:
store.diydrones.com/​HMC5843_Triple_Axis_Magnetometer_p/​br-hmc5843-01.htm

Self Calibrating Mathematics, and software to integrate via I2c written by William Premerlani:-
diydrones.com/​profile/​WilliamPremerlani

Source Code:
code.google.com/​p/​gentlenav/​source/​browse/​trunk/​libUDB/​magneto_udb.c

Here's a nice little open source project that replaces the flybar in helis with a little gyro board. From the writeup:

"PhuBar is a stabilizer device for micro-sized R/C helicopters. It is based on the Parallax Propeller processor and the ITG-3200 gyro chip. It is not intended to be a UAV controller or inertial navigation unit. It simply provides stabilization similar to that of a physical weighted flybar, making small helicopters easier to fly, and making the physical flybar unnecessary."