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HappyKillmore's GCS Alpha Release is ready

Posted by Paul Mather on November 7, 2010 at 11:30pm
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I guess I'll call it an Aplha release. I'm not done with the installer yet. The system requirements are .NET 2.0 framework, Google Earth (and maybe the plugin) and DirectX must be installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en
http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en
http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html

Download the GCS

I would STRONGLY recommend NOT trying this in the field with a live plane! This program is for TESTING ONLY at this point.

To use the program, select your COM port with your GPS or AP connected through FTDI or USB to serial. Select your baud rate. Click Connect. You can try the Search COM button which will cycle through all your available COM ports at different baud rates looking for your data stream. The Search Baud button will only search on the selected COM port for your data stream at different baud rates.

Once connected, if it's an AP unit, the waypoints and home location should be set automatically. If you're not using AP then you can build a mission file using the AP config tool and copy the .TXT file into the missions folder that gets created in the root directory with the GCS executable. Don't worry, this process will be easier in the future.

On the settings tab, you can select different options for your instruments and Google Earth Settings. The cockpit view isn't working yet.

Chances are excellent that nothing will work with APM since I have done absolutely zero testing with APM.

This release also includes NO error trapping and it will fail if you start collecting serial data before the Google Earth window is loaded....

Let me know how things go....

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Moderator

First Acro Test with Arducopter MP Quadfox V3

Posted by Roberto Navoni on November 7, 2010 at 3:00pm

European FoxTeam are doing the first test of Quadfox in Acro mode. We're doing some looping. The Quad Pilot is Giuseppe D'Angelo FoxTeam member the Father of HG3 .

In the video He explain how is possible to do looping with QuadFox v3 . At the end of looping for stabilize Quad he use switch to put quad in stable mode.

Happy vision

For more info check our blog at : http://www.virtualrobotix.com

Pre Flight Check Stable mode control vs Acro mode ... in stable mode with standard configuration is not possible to flip the quad.

Regards

Roberto Navoni (Redfox74)

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Moderator

Why you should probably join the AUVSI if you are in the USA (or anywhere else)

Posted by Gary Mortimer on November 7, 2010 at 2:00am

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I will probably get a wrap over the knuckles for posting the AUVSI response to Mr Babbitt of the FAA's comments at a recent Washington, DC chapter event of RAeS.


I think they did a pretty bang up job with that.

Comments at sUAS News have to be filtered because they can get really quite horrid, so perhaps the debate should happen here in the safe environment of a Ning ;-)

Looks like the AMA, just like the BMFA in UK does not want anything to do with UAS, luckily for me and the same for those in South Africa our aviation authorities are a little more sensible than the FAA and have let us start. Similar in Canada, Australia, Norway umm thats all I can think of right now.

Joining AUVSI might just be a better thing to do and have them help fight the corner for UAS use in the USA. They already have the ear of the FAA and industry, support from DIYD might help. Also don't forget the other organisation if photography is your thing, RCAPA

I have not passed this one by Chris, I expect he has some thoughts on the subject.

But if you like over there you can keep on tutting and muttering and claiming you can do what you want. The rest of us will be busy making your safety case data in the real world for you. ;-)

Please lets try and be sensible here, otherwise I will just delete the thread. I realise this will light the touchpaper somewhat.
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Developer

Camera Control and OSD for UAV Projects

Posted by Sandro Benigno on November 6, 2010 at 1:30pm
Hello guys!
Here goes a video showing the Camera Control working:

I'm using Canon SDK definitions (PS-ReCSDK 1.1.0e) and PTP protocol though Arduino USB Host Shield.
Thank you Oleg Mazurov, for helping me to understand the PTP dump through your awesome shield and pointing me the way to go. ;)

The project includes integration with RC/APM and OSD (for telemetry and Camera feedback by using Max7456).



By now we have simple serial commands to:

  • Capture mode control (lenses show/hide);
  • Continuous session - only limited from battery (without shutdown by time or so);
  • Focus Lock/Unlock;
  • Focus mode (center point, average);
  • Zooming control;
  • Shooting;
  • ViewFinder output through the ntsc video output <--- I was fighting with it... but now it's 100% OK (Next step:
    OSD).
  • Total abortion (close session on camera hardware and shutdown).
Cheers!

Sandro Benigno.
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T3

Motorway aerial mapping Pteryx UAV long range

Posted by Krzysztof Bosak on November 6, 2010 at 3:11am
Hi everybody. A mission report follows... This one is 3 months old.

Motorway aerial mapping Pteryx UAV long range from Krzysztof Bosak on Vimeo.


Aerial mapping with Pteryx UAV
motorway construction site length 20km
(40km round trip)

A short report of a custom mission flown by Pteryx UAV.
Normally you are expected to use pre-programmed missions flying over a square area using rotary mission selector mounted on the fuselage.

This time we demonstrate a case when the client has supplied a list of 200 fixed coordinates. Around 30 of them were used for defining round-trip route hoping to map the motorway construction site in Poland.

We have used a light compact camera and unusual payload of batteries that allowed more than 1.5h of autonomy (it could have been more but was estimated to be already an overkill). We have used only 50minutes of endurance in presence of 20km/h head-wind which is close to practical limit for photomappping.
This was 'flying for business' and everything was set-up in such a way we can repeat such kind of mission many times.

The takeoff and landing was in manual RC mode because we wanted to have a nice landing video, there was 2min of manual control during the whole flight.

As a recovery a parachute landing is possible, plus the system is designed as having multiple failsafe conditions.

We were lucky to find a parallel road so we were able to maintain visual contact during the flight, which otherwise was 40% over forests, 50% over fields mixed with trees and 10% over public roads.

Flight altitude 200m above (varying) terrain level.
Air traffic control was aware of our activity.

pteryx.eu
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HappyKillmore's Ground Control Station Status Update

Posted by Paul Mather on November 5, 2010 at 11:30pm
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I've made some progress on my GCS project. I'm getting close to a releasable version. Google Earth is working now. I still need to read the mission data when the AP or APM starts sending so I can create the waypoints. Live Video (EasyCAP with Remzibi OSD connected for testing) is working but I need to add a few things so users can configure their input device. The 3D models are working great.
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Drone GCS: Qt/OsgEarth based ground station designed for APM

Posted by Brandon Wampler on November 5, 2010 at 7:29pm
This is the Qt GCS that James and I have been working on. It still needs some work but it uses cross-platform libraries and the CMake build system. It uses OsgEarth, an open source equivalent to Google Earth. The GCS can load many 3d model types including the cool FlightGear Models. Right now it mostly uses pop-up menus for editing waypoints (triggered by shift-click). Its a work in progress so not everything is hooked up yet. It was developed on a linux system but has been compiled on mac thanks to drziplock. There are some issues with OsgEarth that we still need to figure out on mac though.



Here is our first recorded test. There is some dead time at the beginning and end since the ground station was started on the 3rd floor of our lab building and we had to walk outside and setup the autopilot. Not a lot of action on the 3D display since we have some signal interference issues with our video, R/C transmitter, and Xbee modules, but DroneGCS works with the GCS_STANDARD_PROTOCOL and uses the ardupilotmegacomm library. http://code.google.com/p/ardupilotmegacomm/ . The website with our ArduPilot, DroneGCS, and aerospace related code is: http://sourceforge.net/projects/oooark/. The git repository for DroneGCS is: git clone git://oooark.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/oooark/dronegcs. Let us know what you think, we're open to suggestions and development help.
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Relax, don't worry, watch this video...

Posted by Sky Monkey on November 5, 2010 at 4:30pm
This week I worked with a consultant from out of town and he asked where there might be a good place to fly an RC plane with a camera. "Wow, that's just what *I* do!" I said. (Along with a lot of people here at DIY Drones). Yesterday just before sunset, I sent him off to the beach and he recorded this video. He flies a plane called a "Slow Stick" manually, no autopilot and with a Contour HD helmet cam attached. If possible, watch this at the hi-res setting; it's just simply beautiful.

Enjoy!

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R O V E R a civilian UAV

Posted by Ahmad Usman on November 5, 2010 at 4:24am

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This is a civilian UAV which is developed by Integrated Dynamic Pakistan. http://www.idaerospace.com

The ROVER is a pioneering effort to create an affordable civilian scientific and ENG (Electronic News Gathering) UAV system, with an operational range in excess of 5 km, and is designed for the researcher, academic professional or news crew needing information quickly and reliably. Able to operate out to altitudes of over 2000 feet (600 m) with a noiseless electric propulsion module the ROVER is a robust UAV system. Its compact autopiloting system takes the hassle out of programming and calibration. Supplied with a PTZ camera system and telemetry downlink, the ROVER can stay in the air for over 1 hour.

Weighing less than 5 kg, the ROVER is hand-launched and recovered by a deep stall landing making it available and responsive on short notice. The simplicity and ease of operation greatly reduce operator training and improve aircraft survivability.

A complete system consists of 4 ROVER UAV’s; A laptop PC Ground Control Station with programming and moving map mission display software; a DSS (Digital Spread Spectrum) telecommand link; antennas, cables and operational spares.

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Ardupilot goes into the water Part 15

Posted by Harald Molle on November 4, 2010 at 1:00pm

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The older you get, the less time you have..
This episode dates back to august of this year, but there are so much projects out, that i can hardly find some time to write.

As mentioned earlier, the project turned from a sea survey one, to a shipbuilding one.
For the ones, that have been waiting for new Dr. Depth pictures i have good news:

A new lake and the story:

After having surveyed my good old diving lake to nearly all of its extents, and haven´t found the 6000m abyss, a new one should be on the list. A friend of mine, is a red-cross volunteer, who is working in his free time as a rescue swimmer on a nearby lake. (there are no familiar relationships to David Hasselhoff - i swear).

So, on one evening of the less rainy days in august, we went to that lake to try out, how the workflow on a new lake would be.

Mission planning by Google-Earth was not directly possible, because the database of GE dated back to 1999. And until now, the lake has received some "modifications" in the form of some pontons and a pier. To avoid unwanted encounters with those objects, we first had to do a pre-survey. For that, we took two kajaks and fixed the catamarane on one of them with a string. With that configuration we made one tour around the lake with little standoff to the shoreline to get the outline of the lake. Then we surrounded the swimming pontons, the pier and the small island in the middle of the lake.




The sampled data was then converted and imported to Google-Earth via KML and then a path of the mission was drawn.
On the early next morning, we went back to the lake with the prepared mission on the ArduPilot.
To keep the adrenaline level low, we decided to follow the boat with the kajaks. A really relaxed survey!
It is nice to see, how the boat behaves when you can follow it on the water! A totally new perspective. All went fine, no crashes and the ship found its path back to the shore after a 30 minute trip. The straight-line behaviour could have been better, but anyway, the measured depth values were more than OK.



The total time spent for this survey mission was less than 5 hours.

And this is the result, that was produced by DrDepth:


Still amazing, what this program produces with not much data.

The KMZ file can be found here:


Next on this blog:

Ardupilot goes into water, episode one -reloaded-
The return to the mountain-lakes.

Stay tuned...
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NEW UAV

Posted by Martin Bellomo on November 3, 2010 at 10:30pm

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Hi !
I recently started the building of my own UAV
At this moment i´m building the wings 3 meters wingspan.
General description (pictures soon)
wingspan 3 meters aprox 80 dm2 of wing surface
Engine 40cc pusher 3 blade propeller
Tricicle
conventional tail
intended for 1 hr of flight and 2kg of payload
also i´m soldering the ardupilot. (i think gonna need the MEGA version)
yesterday i recive my ArduPilot with the ArduIMU and the GPS.



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Quadcopter . . . On The Moon!

Posted by Dean Lamborn on November 3, 2010 at 9:30pm

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Known as the Terrestrial Artificial Lunar and Reduced Gravity Simulator, or Talaris, the three-foot-wide vehicle is a smaller version of a hopper that would be used in space. It is designed to go about 20 meters per hop; space-based hoppers might cover tens of kilometers--or possibly more--in a single bound. The team that built Talaris wants to use it on Earth to test guidance, navigation, and control software developed by Draper that would allow the space-based hopper to navigate autonomously.


The prototype was developed as part of MIT's effort to win the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition to get a privately funded spacecraft to reach the moon, travel 500 meters across its surface, and transmit video, images, and other data back to Earth. Both MIT and Draper are members of Next Giant Leap, one of about 20 teams registered in the competition.


Leaps and Bounds - Technology Review

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3D Robotics

DIY Drones in the Wall Street Journal

Posted by Chris Anderson on November 3, 2010 at 7:16am


Pretty big article, although nothing you don't already know:


"Drones get ready to fly, unseen, into everyday life"


Here's the bit that mentions, us, giving away a future T3 Competition challenge!


"The ability to share software and hardware designs on the Internet has sped drone development, said Christopher Anderson, founder of the website DIY Drones, a clearinghouse for the nearly 12,000 drone hobbyistsaround the world.

A coming DIY Drone competition will challenge members to walk a mile with a drone following from above. The goal is to make a drone that can stabilize itself and track its target. Given the rapid evolution of technology, Mr. Anderson said, "that's now a technically trivial task.""

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Developer

The TrIMUpter, a VTOL Tricopter with ArduIMU+ V2 Flat

Posted by Jean-Louis Naudin on November 3, 2010 at 2:05am

Today, my TrIMUpter v1.0 has successfully done its first outdoor flight. This is a VTOL Tricopter fully stabilized by the ArduIMU+ V2 flat and (with my firmware TriStab v1.0). No external gyro here, only the ArduIMU on board... The TrIMUpter is able to flight outdoor and indoor.

More photos at: http://diydrones.com/photo/albums/trimupter-a-vtol-tricopter

Stay tuned on: http://diydrones.com/profile/JeanLouisNaudin

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3D Robotics

Procerus is looking for a UAV pilot/flight engineer

Posted by Chris Anderson on November 2, 2010 at 3:00pm
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If you're looking to work in the UAV industry, check out this help wanted ad over at RCG (my $0.02. Procerus is good company and the team is terrific. This is a very good job, if you don't mind moving to Utah). Also note that their Kestrel 3.0 autopilot now supports mulitcopters, such as the CyberQuad shown above.

"Flight Engineer/Autopilot Integration Engineer

Company:
Procerus Technologies is the developer of the Kestrel autopilot system that is known in the UAV world for its small size, light weight, and feature rich capabilities. More information about our products can be found online at http://www.procerus.com.

Job Summary:
Procerus is looking for a highly motivated and experienced individual to fill the role of Flight Engineer. This is a senior position responsible for conducting safe flight operations using the Kestrel autopilot system on a variety of airframes. A strong background in Radio Controlled airplanes and helicopters as well as excellent piloting abilities are required. This is a customer facing role that requires good communication skills and a professional, detail oriented demeanor. This position will involve a fair amount of travel, including international travel.

Essential Job Duties:
• Thoroughly understand the Kestrel Autopilot System
• Assist customers with troubleshooting issues related to autopilot integration and flight
• Conduct safe flight operations in restricted airspace
• Act as a safety pilot for high-value airframes
• Integrate the Kestrel autopilot and subsystems into customer airframes
• Tune gains for smooth, stable flight
• Integrate and troubleshoot payloads
• Troubleshoot and solve communications issues (video, comms,etc)
• Troubleshoot and solve GPS interference issues
• Field customer emails and support calls.
• Represent Procerus at customer locations
• Supervise airplane building techniques and subsystems.
• Troubleshoot avionics subsystems (video, servos, etc)
• Knowledge of airplane and helicopter control laws
• Provide feedback to software engineers to improve Procerus products


Desired Qualifications:
• BS Degree in a technical field
• Experienced RC airplane and helicopter pilot
• US Citizen


If you are interested please email info@procerus.com - address email to Damon"
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Two AUVSI Opportunities

Posted by Angela Carr on November 2, 2010 at 9:39am

I hope this doesn't come off as a marketing pitch, my intent here is to make these opportunities available to you, not be an annoying solicitor. AUVSI is a not-for-profit association whose mission is to advance the unmanned systems/robotics industry.

Abstracts are currently being collected for AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America 2011 which will be held August 16-19, 2011 in Washington, DC. We expect over 6,000 people and 400 exhibitors; it's "the place to be" for unmanned systems and robotics! The submission period closes on November 10, so submit your abstract today. Details can be found here: http://www.auvsi.org/2011CFP

Also, AUVSI is holding it's annual "Program Review" on February 1-3, 2011 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Providing the latest information on government and industry programs for air, ground and maritime systems, this annual event is one of the most important to the unmanned systems community. Details can be found here: http://www.auvsi.org/uspr11.

Thanks for reading!

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