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Rudder deflection and Roll cross-coupling control in ardupilot?

Posted by Todd Berk on May 23, 2009 at 11:34am
How is the cross-coupling between Rudder and Roll being controlled in the ArduPilot since there are no ailerons? I'm doing some autopilot research for my Parkzone Radian, similar to the EasyStar in that there are no ailerons. Basically, a simple PID loop for heading by actuating the rudder won't work since you will impose roll and sideslip. What is the ArduPilots method for heading and roll control?Thanks!-Todd
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Simulation

Posted by sushil pangeni on May 23, 2009 at 10:14am
I am trying to make an autonomous UAV controller using the UAV-GPS dev board. I want to ask whether there is any simulation system where i can simulate my codes.
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3D Robotics

200 Blimpduino boards, programmed and tested

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 22, 2009 at 10:31pm

Just finished programming and testing 200 Blimpduino boards. Jordi wrote me a batch file that made it easy. Only one board blew up in my hand, sending sparks everywhere (I think a polarized capacitor was on backwards). All the other boards tested fine. The kits will ship from the Maker Shed on Monday, and will be for sale at Maker Faire. They'll be in the DIY Drones store in late June, when we manufacture the next batch.
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Groundstation Display Suggestions?

Posted by Garry Qualls on May 21, 2009 at 11:20pm
Tablet PCDoes anyone have a computer display that they are happy with when they are outdoors? I am looking for a laptop, tablet, netbook, or stand-alone monitor that has even barely acceptable contrast and readability outside in the sun.The iPhone and iPod Touch have transflective screens (320x480 px resolution) that work pretty well in direct sunlight, so I was hoping someone had put a similar display into a larger system. There are VNC clients around for the iPhone, but that's not really a satisfactory solution, no matter how much fun it would be to try.Otherwise, I think it would be smart to have a high contrast mode or "skin" for the ground station software that would allow for safer and easier operation by displaying graphics in a more or less a black & white mode with no important information represented by color, gradients, etc. in this vein, some kind of e-paper solution like they have in the Kindle would be pretty awesome.MacBook running XP Has anyone had a good experience outdoors with a computer display?
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Purchase list

Posted by Bryan on May 21, 2009 at 11:00pm
I have no idea what I'm doing at this point. Here's the list of stuff I got, just based on the ArduPilot:https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8785https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=465https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9115https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=116https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=117https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=743https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=7915http://store.diydrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BR-0002-10Got a breadboard and wires from Radioshack to help with prototyping. Still need the FMA X-Y sensor, and possibly a Z sensor, but I'm a n00b, and not quite sure what I need at this point.Also need to find some foam to build the airframe, electric motors and metal gear servos.
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Battery?

Posted by Teque5 on May 21, 2009 at 11:00pm
I have a narrowed down parts list, but am at a loss for a battery. I don't have much experience w/RC planes.

What should i get to enable this setup to get the longest flight time possible. (2hrs?)Total without battery comes to $680. This list is in a more complete form here.This will be my first RC, but not my first robot.
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Goal

Posted by Bryan on May 21, 2009 at 11:00pm
My goal with this project: To be able to accurately compute winds and take an infrared picture at a specific location.Future add-ons: Bluetooth programmable via iPod touch or something similar, streaming video, near silent operation.Price goal: <$1k for completed system.My pedigree: Pilot, ME/EE/AE/Math degrees from a school you've never heard of.
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problem....please help

Posted by Neha Phulwani on May 21, 2009 at 10:52pm
hie,I have a project to complete and I am suppose to perform an automatic takeoff, but when I try to communicate with the UAV using the option kill throttle it does not respond. What could be the problem??....Is it the uplink?? How can I possibly solve the issue???
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Developer

ArduPilot Shield Assembly Instructions

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on May 21, 2009 at 8:30pm
Here are some instructions and suggestions to assemble the ArduPilot Shield. But remember: You can always do it your way. You can buy a complete kit here.

First i recommend to solder the headers (either female of males) in the Ardupilot board, do not matters if you put the females header on the shield or in the ArduPilot board. I personally recommend to put the female headers on the active board, in this case ArduPilot. If you have male pins and you make contact with something you may cause a short circuit and toast it, otherwise with the female headers the board is "protected".

After soldering the headers on the Ardupilot board, place the opposite headers on top of it as indicated in the picture. In this way the pins will be right aligned and you will be able to remove it easily.

Then place the ArduPilot Shield on top and solder it. Be careful of not add too much soldering or the liquid solder may go to the button and you will be unable to remove the shield (happened to me once!)

Ready? Come on hurry! The result is a nice and well aligned shield. ;-)

Now you can solder the pins for the FTDI connector. Remember you can buy the official FTDI cable in our store, here. Has a long cable and is very practical on field when you are testing.

Now get some servo extensions like in the picture. You can buy them in our store too here

Now cut them slowly and painful, no mercy please! You will use both ends later.

Now solder the female side of the servo extension to the board. This connector will go to the receiver. I recommend to cut them as short is possible to void the big ball of wires inside the airplane. I personally like to remove the Power and Ground cables to the other connectors, leaving just the signal to eliminate the "big ball of wires", or at least leave two with Power and Ground to add some redundancy.

Now turn the Ardupilot and solder a jumper wire from "digital 8" to the "mux3", in order to enable the throttle control!The color of the wire is your choice, white looks nice with SparkFun logo. ;-)

Did you remember the redundancy thing? Well i extremely recommend to add hot glue or something to holds the wire in the bottom of the board. The everyday use will fatigue the wire and eventually will broke. I have learned this the hard way. One day the receiver rudder cable failed and i was unable to manually control it (i was flying!!!!), i was expecting to finally lost my EasyStar forever and definitely jump to Funjet and never came back, but the Autopilot was working fine, because the failure was from the receiver to the multiplexor. Anyway, i just switch to RTL mode and EasyStar was flying around me and luckily at that time i was controlling the throttle manually so i cut the throttle and ArduPilot land the EasyStar nicely. Chris once mentioned: that the human variable is the problem.

Now is time to solder the Infrared sensors. This is up to you and you can use anyway you want. In my case i developed a custom and redundant cable (locked!).A little bit of help with the FMA sensors:

The "Only For Girls" pin is not used.

You have a picture of the complete cable here with the FMA connectors. ;-)

Now take the other end of the servo extension and cut one cm of the power line (red wire).

Solder it in digital pin 6, this will be used as the "Remove Before Flight Plug" used to set home position. You can use any bind plug like this one or make you own (Also available soon).And you can also add any external reset button as indicated in the green arrow. Also available soon in our store.

Now an extra precaution: Please zoom the picture and look the silver hairs at end of the connector. This is a potential threat! You must cut that little metal hairs, if not you may burn your boards! I also learned it the hard way. ;-)

You can add now the Power Divider Cable, in order to know the voltage of your battery, this cable must be connected in the positive pole of your LIPO.And finally you can use a servo connector to plug your radio modem. That's what i did! This way is to noisy, modems require a lot of current, it will work but can cause some problems. I suggest to feed the radio modem with a direct 5V lines not coming from the GPS ports.Here you can get 5V for the radio modem:

Schematic:

[UPDATE]: The IR port labels are wrong, they suppose to be A0,A1,A2,5V,GND.[UPDATE2]: Assembly pictures of ArduShield V2 can are here.Good Luck!
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Developer

ArduPilot Shield Power Divider Theory

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on May 20, 2009 at 6:00pm
Today i started to write the theory+tutorial of Ardupilot and Ardupilot Shield. This is the first text. I will try to release more texts describing all the stuff involved in this little baby. My goal at the end is to join all the papers and make the mega manual, very well edited and revised for everybody.This is the first paper describing how the voltage divider in ardupilot works:Ardupilot_paper_preAlpha.doc[UPDATE] You can thrust in my word documents. No virus... ;-)[UPDATE] A better version well structured here (Thanks to Sarel P. Wagner )
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3D Robotics

Blimpduino available for pre-order!

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 19, 2009 at 2:24pm

Blimpduino is now available for pre-order at the Maker Shed. Price is $89. We'll be selling it in the DIY Drones store as well after Maker Faire (Make took all of our initial inventory) From the product listing: Features 17 grams, with ultrasonic and IR sensors. Controls two motors and one vectoring servo. Built-in RC compatibility (can read two RC channels--throttle and steering) Designed for a 7.4v LiPo battery; has an automatic power cut-off at low voltage to protect the battery What's included: BlimpDuino board, with all SMD parts already soldered on Other through-hole components, to be soldered by user (easy) A very simple light ply platform for the board, battery, optional RC receiver, and motor components A servo, gears and motor shaft for the vectoring (thrust tilting) function Two motors and props One IR ground beacon 52" mylar envelope Additional required items: 7.4v LiPo battery and charger 9v battery for ground beacon Helium Optional items: RC transmitter and receive
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Moderator

Flipping weather

Posted by Gary Mortimer on May 19, 2009 at 1:10am
Got up early this morning to catch a break in the weather before rain.Two hours more time on airframe 1 Airframe 2, now comes in three fits,Observer - looking at things one.Telegraph - relaying things one.Guardian - looking for baddies or fence breaks one.Its all coming together very well, after I've charged everything again I shall head out for another two hours of flying. This time with some sandwiches.

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UAV Flying Wing - Scratchbuilt [added video]

Posted by jaron on May 19, 2009 at 1:00am

Although I'm still gathering information in the field of UAVs by programming the UAV Playground, I have now designed and built this Flying Wing as a future carrier for whatever electronics I'll be using. I've tried to design it as versatile as possible by using a platform where all the electronics is velcroed on (last picture). Like that it should be possible to carry around even bulky pieces of hardware.Specification- Kline-Fogleman KFm3 Airfoil (top steps at 50% and 75% chord)- Wingspan 1240mm- Wing area 24.8dm²- Weight 430g (330g without battery)Electronics- TURNIGY 28-26B 1350Kv motor- Master Airscrew 7x4 propeller- TURNIGY Plush 25A ESC- Rhino LiPo 3S1P 30C 1050 mAh- 2 x HXT900 1.6kg/cm servo

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This is the camera mount and its removable nose cone.

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The back view of the Flying Wing with the motor and the KFm3 Airfoil steps visible.

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Here the canopy is removed and the electronics and an Arduino are visible.Free Design Tools [update]- ProgeCAD 2008 Smart (AutoCAD clone)- Google SketchUp (3D modeling)- WinLaengs4 (CG calculation)- Estimate Electric Motor and Prop ComboFirst Flights [update]The maiden flight was absolutely unproblematic. Only a few minor trim adjustments where necessary and I increased the travel adjust for elevator and aileron to 115%. I also mixed some elevator to the throttle so that the plane now stays level on throttle up. Elevon reflex is set to 3 degrees.The reactions to the stick movements where quiet precise and it always amazes me how stable my Wings fly. Flying a curve with elevons only was a pleasure and you wouldn't have noticed the absence of the rudder in non acrobatic flying.The KFm3 Airfoil is recommended for slow flying planes and although the maximum speed is rather low the flyable speed bandwidth is more than sufficient for a UAV ship.I tested different weight configurations from 450 to 590g and there is definitely more payload potential because even at full load with a 2200mAh lipo and the camera mounted vertical climbing was still possible.Flight time was about 25 minutes with a 2200mAh lipo (1680mAh recharged).

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Aerial Video Central SwitzerlandA manual non stabilized flight in gusty winds. I used a Toshiba Camileo S10 1080p HD video camera weighing 119 grams and costing about 165$.For better quality and less jerking you can download the video from Vimeo (you need an account).A flight in the Swiss mountains [update]Filmed with the Toshiba Camileo S10 in WVGA mode (848x480, 60fps, no stabilization).
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3D Robotics

UAV Resources Wiki now live

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 18, 2009 at 1:30pm
Update: the wiki implementation is terrible in the beta version. I've removed the app until Ning can get its act together. Sorry for introducing it before it was ready. As some of you have noticed, I've enabled a wiki here. It's the "UAV Resources" tab above. I've populated a few items from this somewhat out-of-date list, with the hopes that the community here can flesh it out with the stuff that's missing. Let's see how it goes. It it works well for this function, we may find other uses for the wiki. -c
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DIY cartoons for kids

Posted by Henry Brown on May 18, 2009 at 1:09pm
My son has used Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu and Alice http://alice.org to learn animation.Can DIY create a kid centered 2D cartoon in Scratch?Can DIY create a kid centered 3D cartoon in Alice?He has now moved on to Maya, Blender, and Orbiter.Orbiter is an open source space simulator. http://orbiter.orgHe has been using Orbiter to model all the aviation and space vehicles he can find. He is interested in DIY drones but would like DIY designers to create models he can manipulate in Orbiter.He also has read "Fly Me to the Moon" an excellent introduction to orbital mechanics.Have DIY designers created any kid based materials.DIY basics?He is using starlogo as part of a Santa Fe Institute/MIT simulation class. DIY kit for GUTs program?http://www.santafe.edu/education/k12-project-guts.phpCould DIY build software for kids to simulate drones?Sell DIY kits for school programs in DIY web store?Young kids have problems with RC controls.Could DIY blimp be designed for kids? Add tethers, etc?How about an interface so kids can control the blimp with their little fingers?A fuzzy logic interface for kids?Forgiving until their skills improve?Nothing can crush a kids impression of DIY than a lost plane or drone.My son has walked crying from the field of dreams after crashing his RC plane.I wished I had built the RC blimp first.What DIY are kid tested?See example Scratch physics cartoon:http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/34906
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First Week Of Teams Building and Training For Octagon Robotics

Posted by Tinicko Griffin on May 18, 2009 at 11:11am
At this time 4 members are invovled in building the first blimp,The members have never before dealt with electronic components inraw form that need to be placed on a board. I had to train themon protecting the items from static charge and explain theneed for inventory. At this time the team is doing research on eachcomponent for data sheets to understand thier primary funtions.We also have to find a rechargable battery, a 5/32 drill bit and asmaller soildering tip. The team will post the next blog and showpictures of thier current work from this week, the data sheets andany other issues that might present itself.The second blimp will start in two weeks after the students thatattend a christian academy complete thier end of the year tripsand ceremonies.Tinicko GriffinOctagon Robotics Founding Mentor
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Moderator

One GCS fits all

Posted by Gary Mortimer on May 18, 2009 at 4:24am
Grown ups are doing ithttp://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/One-for-All-AAI-Textrons-UAV-Control-System-05412/Maybe there should be a Flying Fox, Ardu, Atto common GCS?? (insert device I have forgotten)Something that allows a group of three people with three different systems on board their airframes to get together and share data.Thinking along way ahead....Pain in the backside if you all turn up at a SAR incident and have to jump seats between GCS to keep three types over the scene continuously.If you see what I mean.I dont have the skills but an open GCS would seem the way to go?
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