Blogs

Udrones, which has been selling ready-to-fly ArduCopters for a while, is now also selling a ready-to-fly ArduPlane. APM assembled, ArduPlane code loaded and everything tested. Just add your own RC gear. $995.

I am just finishing the Intro to Artificial Intelligence free on-line class from Stanford.  There are probably many helpful things in this wonderful class taught by Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun.  But I have to mention the Particle filter algorithm that can locate a vehicle in a previously mapped environment quickly and with minimal computation.  This type of localization is more precise than GPS and it can be used if GPS is not available, like indoors.  It was used in the DARPA grand challenge and in the Google self driving cars.  Professor Thrun is the head of the Goggle self driving car program and he explains how to implement the particle filter in 10 lines of C code.  You can see the classes on Youtube and  https://www.ai-class.com/home/

I believe this class set an all time record with 160,000 students signing up.

[I'm applying the sysadmin privilage of making an exception to our usual no-military rule here, because the technical issues are sufficiently interesting].

Apply the usual skepticism about the claims, but there's something plausible in the following. As I understand it, the assertion is that Iran basically used radio jamming techniques to force the RQ-170 into RTL mode, then overrode the GPS signal with a fake one that made it think that "home" was an Iranian field. 

An excerpt from the Christian Science Monitor, a good article that discusses what may have caused the capture:

Iran guided the CIA's "lost" stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the US military, according to an Iranian engineer now working on the captured drone's systems inside Iran.

Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel, says the engineer, who works for one of many Iranian miltiary and civilian teams currently trying to unravel the drone’s stealth and intelligence secrets, and who could not be named for his safety.

Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan.

...

"GPS signals are weak and can be easily outpunched [overridden] by poorly controlled signals from television towers, devices such as laptops and MP3 players, or even mobile satellite services," Andrew Dempster, a professor from the University of New South Wales School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, told a March conference on GPS vulnerability in Australia.

"This is not only a significant hazard for military, industrial, and civilian transport and communication systems, but criminals have worked out how they can jam GPS," he says.

The US military has sought for years to fortify or find alternatives to the GPS system of satellites, which are used for both military and civilian purposes. In 2003, a “Vulnerability Assessment Team” at Los Alamos National Laboratory published research explaining how weak GPS signals were easily overwhelmed with a stronger local signal.

“A more pernicious attack involves feeding the GPS receiver fake GPS signals so that it believes it is located somewhere in space and time that it is not,” reads the Los Alamos report. “In a sophisticated spoofing attack, the adversary would send a false signal reporting the moving target’s true position and then gradually walk the target to a false position.”

Hello to all from "Trento Northern Italy." I wanted to share these pictures of my first Multicopter

Flight on the NATO Site Nike-Hercules missiles.

(now a museum)

6 minutes flight time

sorry for my english
Ciao
Umberto (Italy)

I've been working on a new version of our ArduEye using one of our "Stonyman" image sensor chips and decided to see if I can grab four dimensions of optical flow (X shift, Y shift, curl, and divergence) from a wide field of view. I wirebonded a Stonyman chip to a 1" square breakout board, and attached it to an Arduino Mega256 using a simple connecting shield board. I then glued a simple flat printed pinhole onto the chip using (yay!) 5-minute model airplane epoxy. With a little black paint around the edges, the result is a simple low resolution very wide field of view camera that can operated using the Arduino.

I programmed the Arduino to grab five 8x8 pixel regions- region 0 is forward while the other four regions are about 50 degrees diagonally off forward as shown. In each region the Arduino computed X and Y optical flow and odometry (essentially an accumulation of optical flow over time).

To compute X and Y shift, the algorithm summed respectively the X and Y odometry measurements from the five pixel regions. These are the first two dimensions of optical flow that most people are familiar with. To compute curl and divergence, the algorithm added the appropriate X or Y odometries from the corresponding pixel regions. For curl this results in a measurement of how the sensor rotates around it's forward axis. For divergence this results in a measurement of motion parallel to the forward axis.

In the current configuration the system operates at about 5 to 6 Hz, though when the serial dump is on that slows to about 2 Hz. Most of the delay is in the acquisition and involves wasteful array lookups to select which pixels to read out. Using an external ADC (which the middle board supports) and better code there is room for probably an order of magnitude speed increase.

The video shows a few test runs where I exposed the sensor to three of the four fundamental motions. Y shift was implemented using an air track (like some of you used in physics class). Curl motion was implemented with the aid of a well-loved turntable. Divergence was implemented by hand by moving the sensor to and from clutter. The corresponding plots show the response of all four motions, with the "correct" one emphasized.

You can see that the four components are largely independent. There is some crosstalk- curl and divergence tend to be the biggest recipients of crosstalk since they are effectively a difference between signals (and getting an accurate number by subtracting two noisy numbers is not easy). Factors such as varying distances around the camera can cause uneven stimulation of the different pixel fields, resulting in phantom curl and div. There is also a little bit of drift. There is a lot of room for optimizing the system for sure.

One immediate improvement would be to use two of these Stonyman cameras back-to-back so that near omnidirectional sensing could be performed. This would give us more information to separate the different components (X,Y,curl,div) as well as allow us to separate out the other two axes of rotation from X and Y.

A setup similar to this formed the basis for our recent single sensor yaw and heave (height) stability sensor demonstration.

What could something like this be used for? You could put it on a ground vehicle and do some odometry with it, either looking down or even looking up, though for looking up the odometry measurements would depend on distance to other objects in the environment. You could also mount this on a quad looking down- X and Y would give your basic optical flow for sideways drift regulation. Curl give you yaw rotation (though you already have that with a gyro). Divergence is most interesting- it would tell you about change in height.

You could also implement something similar with five of Randy's optical flow sensors aimed to look in the same five directions. (You could probably dispense with sensor 0 to save weight/cost in this case.)

FPV Manuals Introduces "LayerLens" -- Exposed GoPro Lens Protection

The case that comes with the GoPro camera is beautiful, sturdy, and water tight, but it weighs about 100g and the included mounts make the camera stick up over 1″ with the overall surface area growing by a good amount. As a result, many UAV, FPV and aerial videographer pilots mount their GoPro without the protective case to save weight and provide a smaller overall footprint. The most significant issue with this “naked” mounting method is that the camera’s lens is directly in harm’s way. Any crash has a high likelihood of damaging the camera’s lens -- I personally destroyed 2 GoPro cameras already. Once the original lens is damaged, replacement of the lens is an expensive option costing close to $100 USD — 1/3 of the price of a new GoPro2 camera and almost half of a GoPro Hero HD. Some replace a scrached lens with a sunex lens, which is a bit more affordable, but changes the wide angle picture, which is partially what makes the GoPro such a special camera.

For this reason, FPVManuals has developed LayerLens. LayerLens brings the most important part of the original GoPro case back: the protective lens; without adding much weight or size. LayerLens weighs only 9.6g — less than 10% of the weight of the GoPro case. LayerLens is a precision laser cut frame that holds the protective glass lens and is pushed onto the GoPro’s built in lens. It sits tightly in place and does not come off easily. It is further secured with a small rubber band. In case of a crash that scratches LayerLens’ glass lens, you can easily swap out the scratched protective lens and replace it with one of the lenses that are readily available by GoPro as part of their “Lens Replacement Kit” (which includes 2 lenses for $14 to $20 USD).

The pictures below show the first proto-type of LayerLens. The production version will be sold with 2 glass lenses for only slightly above the price of the GoPro Lens Replacement Kit — currently we’re targeting a retail price of $24.99 (subject to change).

LayerLens will soon become available in the GetFPV store.

Please let me know what you think about the product idea, the execution, and the targeted price point. Your feedback will absolutely be factored into the design and pricing process.

SparkFun just announced next year's Autonomous Vehicle Competition, an autonomous race around their building in Boulder, Colorado. The 2012 event will be held on Saturday, June 16 (later in the year than the last few times, to avoid inclement weather).

As in previous years, there will be two competitions: ground vehicles and air vehicles. The biggest change is that this year they won't be allowing any multicopters or helis in the air category due to safety concerns.

Check out the news posting here and the rules and entry here.

Includes funny footage from gullible UFO sites.

This version is to get an idear of the items required for the next version the physical size and strength require powerfull motors to lift the weight:

250g +- 10g

5x3 GWS (2x CCW 1x CW)
1x Turnigy 3S 1300mA
3x Turnigy 2211 Brushless Indoor Motor 2300kv
1x Turnigy MG Anolog Servo mini
Simple KK Blackborad
Fiberglass
Turnigy 9X tx / rx
3x Turnigy 10A Plush

50% throt to hover about 4Amps

10mins flight time

This is a good sign as the next will be milled differently and useing carbon fiber, APM v2 looks good for this.

Tested with 2200mA MAX payload ! 60% throt to lift about 450g

Between the founding of Nebraska's Drone Journalism lab and citizen journalists using drones to cover protests around the globe, the use of drones in journalism has exploded in the past several months. Together with Matt Waite, Pulitzer Prize winning developer of Politifact and the man behind the Drone Journalism Lab, Steve Doig, Pulitzer Prize winning data journalist and ASU journalism professor, and others, we've begun an organization to develop the ethical, educational and technological framework for drone journalism.

The future home of the Professional Society of Drone Journalists is Dronejournalism.org, but as of now, we just have a static image up. We'll have more as this idea develops.

It's been happening in Russia and Poland, and drone journalism is happening in pockets in America. To sum up our technical abilities at this point, we are experimenting with off-the-shelf Parrot AR Drones as a proof of concept. From there, as soon as funding materializes, we'll pursue ArduPilot and ArduCopter-based drones.

It's all very exciting. More to come.

Bloomberg TV just ran a cool feature on DIY Drones and 3D Robotics. The embedding isn't working, but you can watch it here. You also get to see former MTV VJ Tabitha Soren crash an ArduCopter into a wall. Maybe the best way to teach her to fly RC for the first time wasn't on-camera and a few feet from a building ;-)

That is just too funny! A post from UK newspaper Telegraph has the title: Russian protesters film UFO over Moscow and show a video with a small hexcopter drone, that shoot video like this

"Clearly not a helicopter, the silent UFO pulsated coloured lights and had five extended tendrils or pylons emanating from the body of the vehicle.."

Sounds spooky :P

Video and the full post: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8951086/Russian-protesters-film-UFO-over-Moscow.html

From IEEE Spectrum:

UAVForge is a DARPA-sponsored contest designed to get teams of anyone who wants to, to produce an advanced, highly capable UAV for the military. For an outlay of a $100,000 first prize (plus a trip to participate in a military exercise), DARPA is expecting to get a platform that can do something like this:

Key features here seem to be autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, loiter capability, and target tracking. This all implies some serious endurance, and the autonomous capability will be tricky in the sorts of environment that this video seems to show. Of course, there's a big disclaimer at the beginning about how this video is "not intended to represent the requirements" blah blah blah. And it's true that some of those features I just mentioned are part of the "advanced behaviors" list, as opposed to the "baseline objectives" list. But "advanced behaviors" have to be what DARPA is really looking for here: The basics (like take-offs, flying around a bit, and landings) are worth a mere 30 points out of the 200 that are possible.

All kinds of ideas have been put forward so far, with proof of flight submissions due last week. The competition itself will be a fly-off in spring of next year.

 Some of the submission entry videos are embedded in the IEEE Spectrum article, so check them outthere. 

New wing from Skywalker factory >>X8 UAV platform<<

For those who want Long range / Long flying time / High payload the new X8 wing will get you there..

The wing X8, will be released early 2012.

Wing span: 2122mm

Wing area: 80dm2

valid payload: 1000-2000g

X8 use KV730 2820 Motor, 40-60A ESC and 1260, 1280 prop

X8 skywalker wing

I'm already in love with this bird...

Now the X8 wing is ready in strong EPO foam

Joystick flying with ArduCopter

Awhile ago I promised a more postings and so here we go. I know that many of you have been waiting this fun to be true... Now it is.

One our friend came to visit today at jDrones and they wanted to see latest software and other improvements on the whole project so we went to our local flying area next to our office and started to play with our birds.

We tested different combinations from quads to hexas but most memorable moment for our guests was that when I started to fly without any RC controller. Just had Laptop, Joystick and XBee telemetry. Well what else you need?? :)

Ok I would not say that everyone should rush to it but this is a good start. We still need to solve several issues on failsafes and so on but we are close. All I can do is to give big hoooray to our development team on all the achievements that we have been done.

Video might be a bit shaky but so it the pilot (my second time to fly our hexas with joystick).

Have fun and we will be there......

Br,

Jani

A number of people have expressed interest in building quads based on mine, and using my software.  In order to help get them set up quickly, I've started working on a real-time diagnostic and setup tool that interacts with my quad flight software.  My flight software looks like it'll be compatible with at least one commercial board (the HoverFly Sport) as we use the same MPU and gyro sensor, so you'll be able to buy their hardware and try my flight controls if you like.

Here's a quick preview of it - the programming is all working, but I have to test all the motor and gyro configurations to make sure I haven't messed anything up before releasing it.

I realize this isn't a new idea, but I figure there are a few people here who will be interested in this when it's ready.

I was delighted to see that the cool new gadget site Wirecutter (formed by Gizmodo's former editor) selected ArduCopter as one of its top recommended gifts for the year. That's the great thing about open source robotics--constant innovation and free development updates make it the gift that keeps giving ;-)

Second FPV flight with my OpenPilot Quad. Just a short flight testing some tiny PID tweaks. Flight is mostly in acro.

Here's a better video of my latest quad / code. I doubled the maximum angular rates in anticipation of some stunt flying. I probably still have to bump them higher, but I wanted to see how it handled, if it affected stability, and so on. It's just as stable, but much more nimble.

Seraphim is our sensor board for the quadcopter, it includes accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, GPS and micro-SD card slot.  With the exception of the GPS unit, all of these components are a complete pain in the backside to solder properly, and there are some consequences of not being careful with constructing prototypes, we'll explain all below

An update from the guys at Universal Air! Normally, the less we post, the busier we are making exciting new electronics and flying things, this time it's been no exception. As always, you can keep up with us by checking our website:

www.universalair.co.uk

We have decided to present some helpful hints and tips that we have learnt along the way as a mini series of blog posts.  We're calling this series "Engineering Insights: learning the hard way from concept to finished product"

I'll start them all with "Engineering Insights - Lesson...." so keep your eyes peeled for handy advice and some engineering explainations!

This first lesson is all about mistaking hardware faults in temperamental prototypes for coding errors, and the hair tearing that can result!

Lesson 1: Problems with Prototypes:

Starting out designing making your own PCBs isn't for the faint of heart.  When you don't have an existing design to work from, there are a gazillion things to get right in one go - the circuit itself, the component's footprint, component values, various requirements for track layout, and then there's the assembly quality, and then the software aspect.  Through our epic journey bringing the Seraphim board from concept to product, we've encountered problems with each and every one of those above points, and torn out a lot of our hair as a result.

One of the most frequent problems with that we encounter is poor assembly quality of our hand-built prototype boards.  But we didn't know this at first; for a long time we though our code just plain didn't work, and we wasted a lot of time debugging, optimising, and rewriting bits of code, only to find out that the thing worked perfectly fine when one corner of the chip was pressed down!  It turns out the number one problem with the software is actually the hardware.

We used to solder chips onto our prototype boards using either a gas hob and frying pan, or a butane hot-air pencil (QFN packages can't be soldered properly using a soldering iron, trust us, we've tried).  While we've become very proficient at assembling PCBs (the top right photo is of two Seraphim prototypes, various components attached to each) in the kitchen, the chance of a single unmade solder connection is simply not worth the grief.  We recommend to anybody making a circuit from scratch to either use components that can actually be soldered by a human, or invest in some reflow-soldering equipment.

We've made our own reflow soldering system out of a cheap toaster oven, controlled by Forebrain of course (making it possibly the first USB-controlled 32-bit toaster oven).  We will cry if this doesn't solve our prototype assembly quality problems.

Our production-quality Seraphim units however don't have any of these problems, they've been manufactured in a factory using industrial PCB assembly machinery.  And once we got our hands on the units, we managed to solve ALL of our existing problems in mere minutes (these were the problems that have been plaguing us for the last few months).

Here's an example to show you how easily problems can occur and how weird they can be:

Our Seraphim prototypes are sensor boards,they include a variety of difficult to solder chips such as accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and barometer, none of which have leads to solder (the GPS thankfully wasn't too bad).  During the testing of one of the first Seraphim prototypes, we hooked up the Seraphim and Forebrain to output the 3-axis gyro data over USB HID (Forebrain has built-in USB HID, so it's actually eaiser to just use that and plug the USB cable in rather than faff around with plugging a serial cable in).  We found the ITG3200 gyro chip behaved extremely oddly, it would only output values when the board was rotated in one direction.

This was a strange problem, but it was consistant - rotate the board in any direction in the other two axes and nothing happens, but rotate the board in a certain way, and the values output fine!  At first we though this must be something to do with the chip itself, otherwise how could there be a problem that persists so specifically to that one axis?  Then we tried debugging the I2C code, since it was the I2C which was timing out, perhaps it was some strange quirk to the way I2C is implemented on either the gyro or the microcontroller.  But no, it was neither of these things, it turned out that things started working again if we pressed the gyro down with a thumb: these very strange yet very consistent symptoms were caused by a single loose connection, which would only connect itself when the board was rotated in a certain direction.

Everything was sorted after repairing the loose connection.

Here is a retail Seraphim, sexy in its black livery, alongside an equally attractive Forebrain!

The same Seraphim busy at work in the heart/ head of our newly released ROFL quadcopter!