Looks like they're making a helicopter version, too. I don't know anything aboutthis company or product availability. Has anyone heard more about this?
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"Tube-launched and weighing in at only 2.5kg (5.5lb), the composite Shark is designed to fly quietly at low altitudes for long periods of time, gathering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information, the Arizona-based company says.
The Shark measures 0.79m (2.5ft) long, with a 0.97m wingspan with the wings deployed. It can carry payloads weighing up to 0.45kg."
With Ardupilot Mega now in full swing and my brain going haywire thanks to the rubbish weather I have been taking distractions where I can (IR radar system for my computer desk, a segway for my action man, web enabled curtain opener and more).
Over a few hours I had my scribble pad out with some vernier calipers and a Cirrus CS301 servo. The result was a fairly small fully retractable camera system (at least in doodles). Wanting to create a quad from CF a friend offered his laser cutter (free of charge) but wanted a test subject to see how it cut. A few days later the doodle was CAD'd and then lasercut out of CF. I had three fit on a single sheet which leaves room for when I break it.
The entire mechanism is 120mm x 35mm x 35mm when "retracted" (these settings are yet to be finalised on plane) while when extended the assembly is 65mm below the plane. Unfortunately the camera must then be added to the bottom making it larger but as my camera (eBay keychain camera £4 each :D) is 34mm x 12mm x 55mm its quite nice.
Only thing left to do was the coding which I'd already started thinking about anyway. It uses lots of pre-existing code from within the APM sketches (so I know it works and if not I broke it). As long as the camera is on the bottom of the plane (level XY) it can be rotated in any direction (so if centered the camera will face right at 90°) and still track a GPS position. Using a few defines and a bit of math any limited movement servos can be used to track a GPS position.
As Ardupilot has been moving in this direction I undertook this myself with a hope of creating something worthy of general release later after I and the bosses had tested (why I haven't given out some details). This was saved to my drafts so it would not be published until I had finished writing the blurp explaining all of this but apparently "Save as Draft" means publish immediately. It is very flexible thanks to the variables changing servo output direction and matching center facing direction with flight bearing its limitation is just the level downwards mounting. That is my next task after testing this.
Edit: New code loaded with proof of concept spreadsheet. Here is hoping for some good weather.
Alex posts some good news: he's going to be selling his nicely-made multicopter frames for those who want alternatives to the standard ArduCopter frame:
"I'm starting off offering Quad frames and will soon be offering Hexa and Octo frames along with stabilized camera mounts. I will update this blog as things progress.
So now the offerings. First is a simple quad frame no electronics box...You can add your own CD Case top , Tupperware, or do what Kinderkram has done and find yourself one of those fancy surveillance camera domes and bolt it directly ontop. Second I will offer a frame plus electronics box with plenty of space to protect your expensive electronics. The frame and motor mounts are made out of expanded PVC it makes for a nice stiff but vibration dampening platform perfect for those sensitive accelerometers and smooth FPV/AV cameras. Arms can be ordered either in Aluminum or Carbon Fiber. I will include with any frame ordered two extra sets of motor mounts in case you have an accident.
The simple frame version (frame, arms, and motor mounts) will be $65.00 with aluminum arms and $95.00 for protruded carbon fiber arms. And the full frame set the one including the electronics box will cost $125.00 for aluminum arm version and $140.00 for the protruded carbon fiber arms. This is all in US currency and shipping is not included.
Until I get a steady order stream, frames will be made to order so please expect 3-5 day delay from day of ordering to day of shipping. I will request a 50% deposit on ordering and the remainder before shipping."
Here's a nice-looking automatic antenna-tracker project, using GPS telemetry from FPV/UAV planes.
Hardware:
So my drone project has been a slow process, I've got my Ardupilot mega, and it's doing everything it should do on the ground, but I'm yet to find an airframe I'm happy to fly it in, and because I like to do everything the hard way, I decided to build my plane 100% from scratch.
I've been toying with different frame designs, and decided to give a basic twin boom design a try, something I've never flown before. I decided to make version1 very basic, small, and RC only, just to get used to the flight characteristics.
The fuse and wing are standard Styrofoam, cut with a hot wire. The wing is reinforced with a small carbon fibre tube, and both are covered in monocote.
After a successful maiden flight I decided to strap my helmet cam to it and push the plane to it's limits, I obviously didn't push hard enough (apart from blowing up my motor at the end).
Motor has been removed in the photo.
Enjoy and try not to get sick watching ;)
Don't know if the embedding will work so heres the url http://vimeo.com/19422516
Some RC fun from Jon Keller on Vimeo.
DIY PCB A-Z from mak on Vimeo.
From the Software ( eagle cad) to the PCB
Superb tutorials on Soldering technique
smd and through the hole
http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/How_to_Solder
http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/Surface_Mount_Soldering
These are a bunch of simple to follow and very useful tutorials on using the open source Eagle Cad software.
here is where you can download the software
I've now had a chance to compare the original foam Skywalker ($83) with the new HobbyKing fiberglass Skywalker clone ($97). They are both magificent birds, and it's just incredible how China can produce high-quality fiberglass and ply planes for about the same price as foam these days.
The two have exactly the same dimensions and are otherwise essentially identical in overall shape and size. Although I've only flown the foam one, if the fiberglass and ply one flies the same, you should expect it to be equally smooth and stable in the air, able to handle wind well and carry a huge payload. They're both excellent UAV/FPV airframes and can stay in the air for 40 minutes or more with big enough batteries.
Choosing between them is really a matter of whether you prefer the somewhat more ding-resistant (but harder to repair) fiberglass and ply or whether you prefer foam for its easy-to-hack nature and crash-handling. Normally the choice between fiberglass-and-ply vs. foam would also take into consideration the interior room (fiberglass has much thinner walls so more room inside) but in the case of these two birds, they both have so much room that it's not an issue. You can pack all your electronics, 8,000mah of batteries and your lunch in both, with loads of space to spare.
In the end, I slightly prefer the foam version for a few reasons:
- Wing comes apart into two pieces for easy transport (the fiberglass version has a single-piece wing)
- Easier to build and modify, as is usually the case for foam. Between an exacto knife and Gorilla Glue, there's not much I can't do with a foam plane.
- Better crash resistance? The foam one's wing attaches with a big bungee cord, while the fiberglass one bolts on, which feels like a likely point of crash failure to me.
- It's so plain-looking I won't mind dinging it up!
That said, if you care about looks, don't mind the longer build time, and don't crash your planes as much as I do, I think you'd be very happy with the HobbyKing fiberglass version. It really is beautifully made.
Here's some shots of the nose and underwing space:
ArduCopterMega, the next version of the official ArduCopter code, is flying well and will bring full UAV navigation to ArduPilot by syncing it up with the APM codebase. Right now Jason Short is testing it on different airframes. The video above is it running on a stock Gaui 330s frame, with default settings. Late in the video Jason tries some different PID gains, but you'll see there's a bit of oscillation and they're not as good as the default. Awesome to see that the code can handle quads of such different size (the Gaui 330 is about 60% the size of ArduCopter) with the same standard settings.
Our San Diego factory is has just moved next door to space more than twice as large as our old factory, in an effort to keep up with the growth in demand. The above is a quickie tour of the new space, which the 3D Robotics (the company counterpart to the DIY Drones community) team just moved into over the weekend. If you're in the San Diego area, drop Jordi a line and arrange for a tour.
Click the link above if you're interested in reviewing some of the better
High Res cameras which are available, just make sure to hold onto your
wallet. One model, made here in the US bya firm named Imperx runs
$4,700. Of course the image quality is a lot better than you're apt to
get using a plastic lens pinhole model from China.
Evan at BotJunkie has a thoughtful piece that brings some much-needed perspective to the growing crop of poorly-informed articles that we're starting to see in the media by journalists discovering amateur UAVs for the first time. (Actually, most of the time what they're talking about is just RC/FPV, rather than autonomous UAVs of the sort we do here, but this distinction is almost always lost in the popular press). He's responding to a particularly egregious example of the form, this TechCrunch article.
Excerpt:
Essentially, my point here is that with any new technology, you can come up with worst-case examples of how it can be used that are guaranteed to scare people. Pick anything you want: cars, airplanes, electricity, medicine, the Internet… In each case, it’s possible to take some aspect of that technology and focus on how dangerous it is.
I won’t beat this to death, but let’s use cars as an easy example. Imagine for a sec that it’s 1900 or thereabouts, you’re used to walking around and riding horses, and people are starting to talk about these big metal things that move around super fast by using controlled explosions. I bet it would be pretty easy to convince people that they’re just going to run them over and blow up, especially since to some extent, it’s true, that happens. But imagine what it would be like now if people had believed that stuff and stifled the development of the car. It would have set back society as a whole, not just that technology.
Quadcopter Evolution with the QRO v6 and a GoPro HD wide on board
Fun Quadcopter Evolution with a GoPro HD wide on board
The flight tests of my Quad Rotor Observer (QRO) v6 are still on track in spite of the cold winter. Above you will find some flights videos recently done. The flight of the QRO is really fun and very stable as you may notice in the on board videos and the piloting of the QRO very easy...
I have tested successfully on this frame various KKmulticontroller boards:
- KKmulticontroller Minsoo's "blue board",
- KKmulticontroller "Jakub" version upgraded with an Atmega168,
- and my home made KKmulticontroller with an ATMEGA168 20PU.
The flight controller firmware used is the XXcontroller_KR_v1_4a and based on assembly code by Rolf R Bakke converted by Mike Barton modified by Minsoo Kim and Jean-Louis Naudin
The basic setup is:
- 4 brushless motors 750 Kv RCtimer 2830-14
- 4 ESC 30A
- Lipo battery Turnigy 3S (11.1V) 2650 mAh
- receiver Corona CR6D 2.4 Ghz
Video Camera: GoPro HD Wide
More videos and tests results are coming soon,
Stay tuned on: http://diydrones.com/profile/JeanLouisNaudin
Hi,
I'm a reporter with NPR and I'm looking for a someone who is currently building a drone and wouldn't mind showing it off to me. I am in Culver City and would like to talk with someone in the LA area.
I'm doing a story about how personal drones are being used for many different activities beyond military uses.
If you are interested in talking with me, please call me at 310 815-4280 or e-mail me at ckahn@npr.org.
Thanks!
Carrie Kahn
Correspondent
NPR
Edit: Added plane photo's below.
I'm still using the original ArduPilot v2.7.1 & thermopiles mainly because I have them, don't like throwing anything away and they work pretty darn well now that they're setup properly after many, many test flights! I've also recently got my FPV (First Person View flying) setup sorted too so time to combine the two and fly a bit further away...
The ArduPilot gives a real sense of security to FPV as you have the stabilization option as well as the Return To Launch/Navigation function should anything go wrong (like getting lost, a real problem without a Ground Control Station or On Screen Display).
Sorry there's no video or GPS tracks (the GPS logger switched off after the first test flight!)
The plane is my own design electric twin boom pusher of 148cm span.
Battery: Turnigy 3S 1500mAh or Rhino 3S 2550mAh depending on duration required
Motor: Axi 2212/12 or EMax EF2812
Video system: BOB Fox 700mW (on 1080MHz), IBCrazy's Inverted Vee Antenna on Tx, supplied whip antenna on Rx, 7" car dvd screen and video goggles.
RC system: Hitec Aurora 9 Tx and Optima 7 Rx
I was a very nervous about doing the longer distances as the fear of losing/crashing the plane was quite strong. I had tested the Aurora 9 Tx to 2.65km on the ground so felt fairly sure of it, however I had had some interference from the video transmitter shortening the range of the RC system to around 40m which was totally unacceptable. After trying various frequencies of the VTx (1040-1280MHz) I settled on 1080MHz. Other changes were rebinding the Rx's with the video system switched on and moving the VTx out onto the wing of the plane. Now it seemed that the range problems were sorted I could go fly.
Out at a flying club north of Johannesburg we setup everything. I decided to do GPS navigated flights rather than full FPV to test both the AP and the FPV range fairly safely. We did a 750m "There & Back" flight at 100m altitude, no problems. Next a 1.5km flight, here the plane got very small and if you look away for a sec you can't find it again, however I had a friend watching the plane with binoculars and I watched the screen. The plane turned reliably at just over 1.5km and came home fine.
The camera (with wide-angle lens) was angled fairly level which caused a few visual issues as the sky was very bright, and the ground appearing pretty dark as the camera's iris closed down. Thus landmarks and features on the ground were hard to see.
Anyway next came the 2km (2045m to be precise) test. All went well although the turn was disconcerting as I got disoriented and wasn't sure the turn was successful and initially thought the plane was heading off in the wrong direction on it's own (perhaps it thought so too). After a few nervous seconds I determined that it was going the right way after all and then switched to RTL to test that. The plane came back fine and circled over home. What a relief!
I know, the world probably has enough flying machine projects, but here is yet another one. AutoQuad's original design goal was high precision autonomous flight. It took five prototypes before I was happy with the hardware. The current prototype, AQv5, is showing very promising results. In fact, there is little left to do before this first goal can be checked off the list. Using this as a solid base, I intend to continue research, design and experimentation toward vision based navigation for indoor and outdoor use.
Hardware:
- 2" x 2" board with same mounting pattern as the MK FC
- Input voltage ~7.5v => 18v
- High efficiency DC/DC converters
- STM32F103 32bit Cortex M3 microcontroller @72 MHZ
- standard ARM 20 pin JTAG header for real-time debugging
- up to 8 PWM ESC motor control (prefer Turnigy ESC's with custom firmware)
- 2 powered payload servo controllers
- optional ultra sonic range finder
- Spektrum satellite (remote receiver) 2.4Ghz RC radio
- uSD card slot
- optional onboard uBlox LEA-XX module w/battery backup & timepulse capture
- optional female SMA connector for active GPS antenna
- optional external GPS via standard 6 pin connector (EM406, EM401, uBlox, MTK)
- optional onboard xBee module - up to 300mA (2.4Ghz, 900Mhz, bluetooth, etc.)
- optional external radio via standard 6 pin FTDI connector - up to 1A
- I2C bus connector for I2C ESC's
- modular sensor board (SBv5) - 100% analog sensors, EMI hardening:
+ 3 axis acc (ADXL335)
+ 3 axis mag (HMC6042 & HMC1041Z)
+ 3 axis gyro (IDG500 & ISZ500)
+ 2 temperature sensors
+ pressure sensor (MPXH6101A)
+ battery voltage
Software:
- Fully threaded RTOS design written in C - 60% idle
- All sensors read at 113KHz (~1.4M sps total)
- 450Hz motor update rate
- 200Hz attitude, 3D velocity / position solutions
- Full downlink telemetry
- Detailed system state dumps @200Hz => uSD card w/FAT32 FS
- Quaternion based attitude filter additionally producing rotation matrix and Euler angle outputs
- All math in single precision floating point
- Temperature compensated and calibrated sensor suite
- Custom ground station software w/bi-directional command and control API
- Cascading PID control system, velocity based for smooth transitions
- Auto land / takeoff
- Hover position / altitude hold
- Autonomous waypoint mission navigation
- Precise altitude hold indoors
Example of current capabilities:
Design philosophy:
- High performance
- Efficiency
- Ease of development
- Consistency / Repeatability
- Low cost
There is always room for improvement. For instance, I would like to see how much of a benefit using a SPKF (Sigma Point Kalman Filter) would be over my fixed gain navigation filter. Looking forward to the new Cortex M4 uC's with a hardware FPU so that any such math intensive solution can be more easily handled. As I mentioned above, there is a lot of room for work with vision navigation and SLAM. Also interested in propulsion efficiencies which with an eye toward higher endurance. Although the PID based control system works extremely well, I'm interested in exploring different types of MPC (model predictive control) to reduce control costs and increase precision.
I'm wondering if there is anyone interested in joining forces to work on some of the above mentioned or anything else along these lines that presents itself. This is only a hobby for me and I currently have no profit motive. This is definitely not a beginner's project as you can see by my sloppy SMD hand soldering job.
Comments?
OK, I was going to make something much nicer but ran out of time. There's a few funky bits and I gave up on getting the auto take off and landing to work. I've had them working previously, but not this time, so I guess I'm not on top of the APM command language yet.
I used the latest APM release, Xplane 9 and the APM Planner simulator link. I just followed the instructions and it worked, so I figure I might as well post an entry.
Flight Path: 22-01-11%2001-56%201.kmz
FPV View: 22-01-11%2001-56%201%20fpv.kmz
