I've been using the PTGui software ($121) for years to stitch together aerial shots into composite mosaics, but noticed in Krzysztof Bosak's post that Microsoft Research had something called ICE that could be an alternative. I checked it out and it's fanstastic!
Micosoft ICE is free, fast, easy to use and in my experience much more accurate than PTGui. Highly recommended.
I tried flying with the GoPro mounted this time. I already had broken part of my landing gear last flight but managed to hold it in place with some duct tape ;) Everything went ok until I broke the landing gear again and had to remove the camera mount not to break it. I did a couple of flights without the camera and with the broken landing gear until I snapped 3 props and had to stop. I'll probably end up ordering a custom made plastic (delrin) landing gear from ponoko instead of ordering a replacement CF one, they break too easily.
I've written up a recap of the 2011 AVC form Team Tobor's point of view. You can check it out here:
http://scottrharris.blogspot.com/2011/04/sparkfun-avc-2011-report.html
I'm planing on writing up some Kalman filter tutorials in the near future.
Dear all, during routine test flying of Pteryx UAV, we had an opportunity to capture maps of various sizes.
The following example is made near our factory in Opaleniska village, South-East Poland.
One thing is clear: Google Earth is lying! The earth from above never looks as it shows.
The original is here:
http://www.aerialrobotics.eu/examples/GD800MapCollage.jpg
We have made this map collage out of 5 cases:
BLUE SNOW, RED SNOW, BROWN, BEIGE, GREEN. The samples were not the wisest, sharpest, largest nor the most glorious ones.
The stitching was made using fully automatic method (minus manual entering of time offset for camera) being developed for Pteryx UAV. However you could get plausible result with Microsoft ICE if your aim is surface documentation and when you can give up some accuracy.
Observe as in some cases you have highly varying cloud cover (lower-left corner). The two largest maps are around 2km^2 here and are not the biggest we have produced, as surface coverage varies between 3km^2 per 2h of flight (square map made of 75% overlap photos +reserve) to 24km^2 (80% overlap 80km straight line +reserve).
I think this post illustrates the key selling point of UAVs: it really does matter WHEN you make aerial photos and better do it below cloud level.
This is my second attempt at a twin boom. Made from 9mm depron hot glue and nylon re-enforced tape, with a 2m wingspan. The wing is a KF2 profile with a single c/f rod for stiffening.
Running a 2200kv motor 8 inch prop and 2200mAh battery. Weighs in at a tad under 650grams. Had the motor running at about 60% throttle for over 25 minutes. At full throttle it can almost go vertical. I haven't decided what features to have in the nose cone yet so its just curved depron.
I'm waiting for the wind to settle here in Bedford UK to do some test flights. I'm sure we have more then the average number of windy days here.
My first attempt was similar using a KF3 wing at 1.2m span, which i stalled and crash within the first 10 seconds of flying. I was still happy, as it was me, not the plane that was at fault.
Anyway this my second go, some tweeks still needed once I get a chance to do some low level tests done.
Hey all, though I might share the attached photo with you to show off some mods I've been working on whilst I wait for spare props to arrive from Thailand, after not loading code properly and flipping the copter on its maiden voyage.
Widened the landing gear to more stability, as well as increasing ground clearance for my GoPro, converted the dome to just two complete pieces rather than the fiddly centre piece, trussed arrangement, and hacked a standard USB cable to it can be plugged in easier for uploading etc.
I'm working on a new battery mount as well for fixing the GoPro, until I figure out how I'm going to do the pan-tilt, FPV setup.
Material is laser cut, 3mm black acrylic.
Cheers!
here is the part1 , part2 and part3
at this part i will show you my APM mount. I used this to stick APM to Lipos
Previous wednesday, my APM arrived, but I haven't got any time to take a look at it. As soon as possible I should solder the pin headers, so that I can do some testing. Yesterday my motor and batteries came, which means that I hopefully can get the plan into the air by next week.
Below is a picture of the plane I am going to use. It's my brothers old .20 model, which I found of the loft and I have got his permission to use it. It haven't got airborne yet, although the plane is around 10 years old.
I will post some minor updates here, but there's more to be read at my official blog at http://uavbee.blogspot.com/.
Funny movie i made while waiting.
Minor background before I start.
I've been playing with wheeled robots for a while, using the Basic Stamp as a controller. Just tinkering, and more interested in the software side of things (as well as having something that annoys the cat). My enthusiasm died out about 7 years ago, then my son gave me a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit for Christmas, and I was off and running again.
At about the same time, a co-worker got me started on radio controlled helicopters (Blade CP/2 to start with, moving up to Blade 400 and TREX-450 over the last few years). You can't have too many expensive hobbies :)
Managed to do quite well at this helicopter hovering in the back yard, and was doing quite well until about a year ago when I flew my pride and joy into a tree and broke just about everything except the tree.
"I wonder," I wondered, "if it would be possible to combine my robotic hobby with my RC flying hobby?"
Poked around teh intarwebs a bit, and ended up here looking at the APM and the Arducopter code.
Thus started work on what I am now calling Coptermatic, the Automatic Helicopter. (with apologies to Wallace & Gromit)
So off we go:
Got my workbench set up, got me new Weller soldering station set up, played with some Arduino programming for a practice, and decided that tonight was the night.
I solder all the pins on the APM. I solder all 48 pins on the right angle servo connector (the three pin monstrosity on the end of the board). I've got all the pins on the APM,
But the servo connectors seem a bit fragile, and my attempts to test-connect a couple of servos and Rx connectors seems wonky. Imagine my amusement when I discover that I've soldered the damned servo connector on backwards. For that connector ONLY, the black plastic bit doesn't go flush with the top of the board. What's worse, I compared what I was doing with the pretty picture in the instructions four or five times and didn't notice my error.
OK, so now I am sort of stuck. I'm an amateur with the soldering iron (more of a software engineer with a predilection for tinkering). I'm not at all sure how to unsolder 48 connections; I think I need something more than desoldering braid and bad language.
The current plan (as blessed by my long-suffering and patient wife) is to use this APM as the brains for a small wheeled robot which I shall call the Pipbot (in honour of the Fallout series of games) and to buy another APM from DIY Drones for the 'copter.
So a bit of a (not-so) cheap lesson in following instructions. This hardware stuff is a lot less forgiving than software.
This video show that the controller working for the first time. !!!!!Awesome!!!!!!
I could barely keep a wheelie up and going before I started using my controller.
Tuning the code a little more before the ride. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ever since I was a kid I wanted to ride wheelies. So I built a Arduino Wheelie Controller and started enjoying longer, safer wheelie'ing. I use an Arduino Duemilanove ATMEGA 328 to control a LARGE digital servo powered with a homemade servo power curcuit, coupled to a hydraulic hand brake. The handbrake is connected to a steel braded brake line that runs down and connects in place of the rear hydraulic brake reservoir. The controller uses a triple axis accelerometer and a single axis gyro to calculate when and how much brake to apply. This controller can be used on 4wheelers and motorcycle with rear disc brakes.
<<<<<<<<<< Controller
1.)Arduino Duellinove
2.) Triple axis accel & single axis gyro "Black Box"
3.) Power supply for LARGE servo
4.) LARGE DIGITAL High speed & Torque servo w/ metal gears
I connected my servo to a handbrake like this one and mounted it under the rear fender. >>>>>>>
I used this adapter to connect my handbrake to the rear brake master cyclinder.
So my kit from HK arrived yesterday and I should note that this is my first build ( If you see terrible mistakes don't hesitate to shout;))
Soldered the carbon rod using some super glue. I installed those holders just in case even though most probably am gonna put the elevator end radder servos on the wing itself
Glued the 2 wooden parts with white glue , then using superglue to the foam and around it some epoxy just to make sure ( Did I used too much glue ?:P)
Here is a close up
Thats all for today, also some question :) :
1) is there an easy way to aline the back wing (elevator) with the hole stracture in order to be 90 degrees with the fuselage?
2) shall i use superglue for epp to epp or buy some CA?
Is this the smallest and the lightest quadcopter in the world?
Size: 12 x 12 cm
Weight: 20 g
Flight time: 4.5 min
More info at http://www.daedalus.nu/
Hexa frame adventures continue !
This time I've prepared the power board that will distribute power to all 6 ESC's and to additional devices (video TX, camera controls receiver unit, tracking system TX, LEDs and more...)
Important issues were: Lightweight, simple, high current, fail-proof.
And as we all LOVE pictures:
the view on the following picture is the BOTTOM of the central plate.
yes, the power board will stay under the main plates. it will allow interference free environment for the electronics mounted ABOVE the plate. as well as don't pissing off the magnetometer with high currents flowing nearby.
cutting the stencil paper:
PCB pen drawing:
After a few minutes of dremel-ing:
and... there you go.... nasty copper etching :
in it's final position - with nylon standoffs (mmm... guess why):
a decent layer of tin solder applied:
and a final view with 1/6 ESC's mounted:
We like your comments..... :)
This is a screenshot of part of one of my MP3.0 test flights from yesterday. The plane was programmed to fly figure eights, using the UDB Logo program below. The GPS track is shown at 1Hz, and the dead reckoned IMU track is shown at 4Hz. The plane had taken off very recently when it started this track, so it was still calibrating for the wind speed. That's why the first side of the eight (blue) is a bit less pretty than the 2nd half of the eight (yellow). Each circle is programmed to be just over 100m in diameter, but I used a 20m waypoint radius, so the circles became much smaller.
There are a few things to notice here. One is that the dead reckoning is pretty darn close to the GPS track. The other noteworthy point is that the wind was blowing at almost 20mph, and the UDB adjusted its navigation gains dynamically as it turned into and away from the wind, to keep the course over ground in line with the flight plan. Thanks to Bill for both of these improvements!
Here's the quick and dirty UDB Logo program I used for these eights:
SET_ALT( 60 )
SET_ANGLE( 0 )
SET_POS( -20, 50 )
REPEAT_FOREVER
REPEAT( 18 )
RT( 20 )
FD( 20 )
END
REPEAT( 18 )
LT( 20 )
FD( 20 )
END
END
Complete set of acrylic parts needed to build ArduCopter frame. You can find the files here:
http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/arducopter-set-5696
All files are under Attribution ShareAlike license (free).
Set uses two Ponoco P1 sheet sizes (181.0 mm long x 181.0 mm wide).
Suggested material: Acrylic - Clear 3.0 mm
Sheet 1:
Material: $2.00
Making: $13.57
Total: $15.57
Sheet 2:
Material: $2.00
Making: $13.80
Total: $15.80
Set has spare parts for all components, in case of flight crashes with frame damage. Content:
- Dome arch (4 + 2 spare)
- Dome center lower (1 + 1 spare)
- Dome center upper (1 + 1 spare)
- Motor mount lower (4 + 2 spare)
- Motor mount upper (4 + 2 spare)
- Landing gear fin (4 + 2 spare)
Total: 28 parts
Based on the opensource design:
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2Fjpkh%2Fframe
Correct line widths as suggested in Ponoco design templates, which is not true for previous Ponoco ArduCopter files. Enjoy.
Although it was a short lived flight it was fun. I always enjoy flying with my Pops, what makes it better is that I have both video from the ground and onboard the aircraft. This helps identify what mistakes I made and why I had an unsecessful fight.
As I almost start my downwind as AirCraft stalls to the inside. I try to roll left but it's to late and not enough power to pull out of it. Watch my Airspeed drop right before I stall.
