Pontoon Style (maybe?)
Long legs for aerial photography?
6-32 thread & lock nut to hold PVC to tail booms
There are all kinds of ways in which a distributed flight array could be useful. One of the most obvious is heavy lifting… Got something heavy? Call in a bunch of robots to combine and lift it. Got something heavier? Call in a bunch more. If one robot breaks, it’s not a big deal, since you can just swap in another one. The robots are even able to adapt on the fly to keep the entire array stable, so adding and removing individual robots is relatively straightforward. Still, getting the robots to reliably dock with each other in mid air is probably easier said than done… We’ll definite be looking forward to seeing some video of that in action."
[ DFA ]
"You can do some pretty incredible things with quadrotors in a precision motion capture environment. Angela Schöllig, Federico Augugliaro, and Raffaello D’Andrea from the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zürich in Switzerland have taught a pair of robot helicopters to dance in sync with a techno remix of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. Why? Well, why not? I imagine, though, that this demonstration is part of a larger research path towards enabling cooperative (or swarm, if you will) behaviors.
The environment that these quadrotors are dancing in is a 10m square box with netting on the sides and padding at the bottom, which allows for crazy moves with minimal risk to either the robots or nearby humans. At the top of the box are eight high speed cameras that are able to provide localization information with millimeter level of accuracy at a frequency of 200hz or greater. This means that you’re not likely to witness moves like this outside of a controlled and besensored space… At least, not until vision sensors and inertial measurement units get accurate enough, small enough, and cheap enough to put on the copters themselves.
[ IDSC ]"
I have been asked if I would mind supplying the SET file for my Stryker. See attached. Please keep in mind if you plan on using this with a differnet AP other then Atto then P and D gains may be way far off. Our scaling factors may not meet eye to eye. I also have added rudders for active yaw dampening.
_________________________________________________________________________________
$1,Mix Enable = 1 ' 0 or 1 allowed. Enable flag for Elevon/V-tail mixing. 0 = FALSE, 1 = TRUE
$2,Mix Servo1 Sign = -1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. If Mixing for Elevon/V-tail is enabled, this is Elevon 1 servo direction
$3,Mix Servo2 Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. If Mixing for Elevon/V-tail is enabled, this is Elevon 2 servo direction
$4,Servo 1 Gain = 9 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aileron, or with elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$5,Servo 2 Gain = 18 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Elevator, or with elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$6,Servo 3 Gain = 12 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Throttle
$7,Servo 4 Gain = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Rudder
$8,Servo 5 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Pan servo, or Elevon3
$9,Servo 6 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Tilt servo, or Elevon4
$10,Servo 7 Gain = 10 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Trigger Servo
$11,Servo 1 direction Sign = -1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aileron, or for Elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$12,Servo 2 dirdction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Elevator, or for Elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$13,Servo 3 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Throttle. 1 would be standard for electronic speed controls.
$14,Servo 4 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Rudder
$15,Servo 5 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_1
$16,Servo 6 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_2
$17,Servo 7 direction Sign = 1 ' -1 or 1 allowed. Aux_3
$18,Servo 1 Upper Limit = 1688 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aileron, or Elevon1
$19,Servo 2 Upper Limit = 1667 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Elevator, or Elevon2
$20,Servo 3 Upper Limit = 1900 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Throttle
$21,Servo 4 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Rudder
$22,Servo 5 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_1
$23,Servo 6 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_2
$24,Servo 7 Upper Limit = 2000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_3
$25,Servo 1 Lower Limit = 1350 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aileron, or Elevon1
$26,Servo 2 Lower Limit = 1371 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Elevator, or Elevon2
$27,Servo 3 Lower Limit = 1100 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Throttle
$28,Servo 4 Lower Limit = 1200 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Rudder
$29,Servo 5 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_1
$30,Servo 6 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_2
$31,Servo 7 Lower Limit = 1000 ' Pulse width in microseconds, from 900 to 2100 allowed. Aux_3
$32, Path Angle Max = 30 ' 0 to 90 allowed (in degrees). "Cone" is shown in ASCII art below. Use 0 to disable TruTrak, but 30 is a good value
$33, Path Merge Line distance = 60 ' 5 to infinity allowed in meters. This is the half width of "highway" that we merge onto the line over. See ASCII Art below
$34,Roll Angle Limit = 30 ' Max allowed roll in degrees, from 5 to 40 allowed
$35,Pitch Angle Limit = 25 ' Max allowed pitch in degrees, from 5 to 40 allowed
$36,Steer Proportional Band Width = 195 ' Width (in degrees) to spread proportional control of roll response. 5 to 360 degrees allowed.
$37,Alt Proportional Band Width = 210 ' Altitude window (in meters) to spread proportional pitch response. 1 to infinity meters allowed.
$38,Steer_D = 35 ' Gain factor for "D" dampening term of heading control. 0 to 100 integer allowed. 10 is a good start
$39,Alt_D = 2 ' Gain factor for "D" dampening term of altitude control. 0 to 100 integer allowed. 10 is a good start
$40,MaxRate = 50 ' Max allowed pitch and roll rate of change in deg/second. 1 to 120,000 is allowed (0.01 to 1200 deg/sec)
$41,WP Distance Satisfy = 100 ' For departure WP sequencing, minimum distance (meters) to activate WP for departure. 10 to infinity meters is allowed.
$42,Hold radius = 200 ' Radius (in meters) of holding pattern at end of flight. 1 to infinity meters is allowed.
$43,Hold Direction = 0 ' 0 or 1 is allowed. 1 is CCW flight direction, 0 is CW rotation for end of flight hold pattern
$44,Hold Alt = 125 ' User-specified altitude for the default RTL hold pattern. 25 to infinity meters is allowed
$45,XY TPile Orientation = 0 ' Describes orientation of XY thermopile head. 0-7 are valid. See ASCII art in comments section.
$46,ThrottMid = 1400 ' 900 to 2100 allowed. Initial PWM value for Throttle, user-definable to control ESC arming or not upon boot up.
$47,log_freq = 0 ' Number of 1 second delay intervals between writes to LOG.txt. 0 to infinity is allowed. 0 is 5Hz.
$48,Num_Pulses = 20 ' Number of consecutive good pulses on Aux1 Rx channel required to switch flight mode. 1 to infinity allowed
$49,VoltScale = 51810 ' Conversion factor for analog voltage sensor. Units are number of mV per entire 3.3V analog scale. E.g. 51810 for Atto V1.7
$50,CurrentScale = 92623 ' Conversion factor for analog current sensor. Units are number of mA per entire 3.3V analog scale. E.g. 92623 for Atto V1.7
$51,Plane mass in grams = 0 ' Flying mass in grams
$52,Motor Efficiency Percentage = 80 ' Estimated efficiency percentage of electric motor + speed control. 80 is a good value for brushless outrunner, perhaps 40 for brushed motor.
$53,mAh usage upper limit abort = 0 ' 0 = don't use this function, 1 to infinity means YES and tells the used mAh RTL trigger
$54,Pitot Present = 1 ' 0 = lock throttle in non-RC, 1 = use pitot airspeed control, 2 = use GPS for speed with Cosine(Pitch) corrections
$55,Test Mode = 0 ' 0 = NO, 1 is YES. Causes AttoPilot to start Rx/Servo object, start 50Hz IMU object, and then hold. No GPS startup, no WP loading
$56,Ground Launch = 30 ' 0 = NO, 1 to infinity means YES and hold roll angle to zero until specified AGL altitude in meters is reached after launch in AutoMode
$57,Servo 1 D_Term = 16 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aileron, or with elevons it is the aileron component of the mix
$58,Servo 2 D_Term = 12 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Elevator, or with elevons it is the elevator component of the mix
$59,Servo 3 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Throttle (not implemented)
$60,Servo 4 D_Term = 50 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Rudder
$61,Servo 5 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_1 (not implemented)
$62,Servo 6 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_2 (not implemented)
$63,Servo 7 D_Term = 0 ' 0 to 100 integer allowed, is 10x format. Aux_3 (not implemented)
$64,Hold Speed = 60 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Hold pattern airspeed target in km/h for when PitotPresent = 1
$65,Min Speed = 50 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Min allowed aispeed target for when PitotPresent = 1
$66,Max Speed = 140 ' 5 to 255 integer allowed. Max allowed aispeed target for when PitotPresent = 1
$67,Telem Baud = 38400 ' User can set this to ANY integer from 4800 to 230400. If unspecified, it defaults to 38400 baud
$68,MaxDistance = 10000 ' User-defined max distance (meters) from home to force abort and go to home. Default is 300km, but user can make less
$69,LoiterRadius(1) = 50 ' User-defined loiter radius, in meters. 0 to 32767 is allowed
$70,LoiterRadius(2) = 100 '
$71,LoiterRadius(3) = 150 ' To specify this at a waypoint, make last trigger digit (the 8th one from left)
$72,LoiterRadius(4) = 200 ' set to 1 through 9. To disable, set this trigger to zero (0)
$73,LoiterRadius(5) = 300 ' MUST be used in conjunction with non-zero 7th trigger value, otherwise loiter has LIMITED affect
$74,LoiterRadius(6) = 500 ' and the result would be plane will circle ONLY UNTIL it is line up with next waypoint.
$75,LoiterRadius(7) = 1000 ' T2 field sets the loiter direction. 0 (default) is clockwise, 1 is counter clockwise
$76,LoiterRadius(8) = 2000 '
$77,LoiterRadius(9) = 10000 '
$78,LoiterTime(1) = 10 ' User-defined loiter time, in seconds. 0 to 32767 is allowed
$79,LoiterTime(2) = 20 '
$80,LoiterTime(3) = 40 ' To specify this at a waypoint, make 2nd last trigger digit (the 7th one from left)
$81,LoiterTime(4) = 60 ' set to 1 through 9. To disable, set this trigger to zero (0)
$82,LoiterTime(5) = 120 ' MUST be used in conjunction with a non-zero 8th trigger value, otherwise time has no effect
$83,LoiterTime(6) = 240 '
$84,LoiterTime(7) = 600 '
$85,LoiterTime(8) = 1200 '
$86,LoiterTime(9) = 3600 '
$87,Trigger time interval (2) = 5 ' Specify value between parenthesis for Trigger field 3 (4th from right)
$88,Trigger time interval (3) = 10 ' 0 is no trigger for that waypoint
$89,Trigger time interval (4) = 20 ' 1 is trigger at waypoint only
$90,Trigger time interval (5) = 60 ' 2-5 are time interval triggers, in seconds
$91,Trigger Distance interval (6) = 100 ' 6-9 are ground distance interval triggers, in meters
$92,Trigger Distance interval (7) = 150 ' Time interval allowed from 0 to 32767 seconds
$93,Trigger Distance interval (8) = 200 ' Distance interval allowed from 0 to 32767 meters
$94,Trigger Distance interval (9) = 500 '
$95,Trigger Type = 1 ' 0 is logic controller from servo7 signal line, 1 is PWM servo controller from servo7
$96,Trigger Active = 1400 ' If trigger is logic, enter a 1 or 0 here. If PWM servo driver, enter servo position in microseconds
$97,Trigger Rest = 1600 ' If trigger is logic, enter a 0 or 1 here. If PWM servo driver, enter servo position in microseconds
$98,Trigger Duration = 5 ' Number of 0.2 second time intervals to hold trigger in active state for each episode of the trigger, 0 to 32767 allowed
$99, Roll Expo = 30 ' 0 is no Expo, otherwise 10X units amount to add per 90 degrees attitude.
$100,Pitch Expo = 30 ' 0 is no Expo, otherwise 10X units amount to add per 90 degrees attitude.
$101,AutoLock Distance = 0 ' exceed this and mode is forced into Auto. 0 means disable the feature.
$102,RTL mAh autoLock = 0 ' 0 is DISABLE, 1 is ENABLE. If mAh cutoff happens lock out other modes and go Auto for RTL
$103,PhotoDeadPre = 0 ' 0 to 50 allowed and is number of 0.2 sec intervals (0 to 10 seconds) pre trigger to lock attitude at level and idle throttle
$104,PhotoDeadPost = 0 ' 0 to 50 allowed and is number of 0.2 sec intervals (0 to 10 seconds) post trigger start to lock attitude at level and idle throttle
$105,StopNav = 0 ' 0 or 1 allowed. 0 is continue nav during motor off period of photo, 1 is stop nav and hold flat attitude during photo
$106,Pitot Offset = 21 ' -200 to 200 allowed. Value derived from indoor session of Test Mode (line 55 in this SET). Corrects hardware bias for accurate low airpseed range
$107, GPS Altitude = 0 ' 0 is NO, 1 is YES. Generally DO NOT enable this unless your UAV has hermetic sealed cabin. Pressure altitude is MUCH better
$108, Telem Freq = 1 ' Number of 1 second delays between telemetry updates out from Atto. 0 means maximum which is 5 Hertz
$109, Roll Bias = 0 ' 1X degrees. Put in non-zero value to seed the bias at start
$110, Pitch Bias = 4 ' 1X degrees. Put in non-zero value to seed the bias at start
$111, RC Dampen Roll = 14 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 57
$112, RC Dampen Pitch = 10 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 58
$113, RC Dampen Yaw = 35 ' 0 to 100 allowed though generally don't exceed the D_term in line 60
$114, Min_RollRate% = 25 ' 1 to 100 allowed. Is percentage of MaxRate to use when roll error is zero for soft landing on target
$115, Min_PitchRate% = 25 ' 1 to 100 allowed. Is percentage of MaxRate to use when pitch error is zero for soft landing on target
$116, Altitude by Throttle = 0 ' 0 is no 1 is yes. If yes, the next 6 lines need a value
$117, PitchSpeedGain = 60 ' Terminal velocity in km/h with motor off and pitch at -30. 0 to 1000 allowed
$118, ThrottAltGain = 18 ' 0 to 100 allowed. Throttle gain in special case of throttle altitude. Seperate from airspeed throttle gain.
$119, DistNear = 20 ' meters from altitude target. MUST be no larger than DistFar
$120, DistFar = 100 ' meters from altitude target. MUST be no smaller than DistNear
$121, NearB% = 50 ' % mixing Pitch Airspeed when at or closer to target alt than the DistNear value. MUST be no larger than MaxB
$122, FarB% = 80 ' % mixing Pitch Airspeed when at or farther to target alt than the DistFar value. MUST be no smaller than MinB
$######## END OF SETTINGS
The ArduCopter quad team is making tremendous progress--lightspeed stuff. Here is the latest render of one potential design, from Sandro Benigno.
Search for ArduCopter here for other work from this team. It's stunning...
Flench reports that the Gaui 330X quadcopter is now shipping. It's advertised for $349. Specs from the product's home page here:
Art-tech, a Chinese maker of very cheap RC aircraft, has launched a UAV division and has some new products that could be interesting.
Below are the specs of the fixed wing autopilot shown above. No pricing or availability is given (I've emailed asking for more info) and the website is a terrible broken mess of missing pages and non-working sections, so I assume the product is not out yet. My own experience with Art-Tech is that its products are pretty low quality, but perhaps this new division is aiming higher. We'll see...
Specs:
Integrate GPS receiver, three-axis MEMS gyro, three-axis accelerometers, pressure altimeter, inertial strapdown attitude algorithm
Adopt UBLOX 5th generation GPS receiver, 4Hz output, 35 seconds fast positioning time and accuracy of 2.5 meters CEP
50HZ inner attitude control, 4HZ outer navigation control. high-precision attitude through to use 32 ARM7microprocessors
Three Modes Options:
Manual remote control, /Auto balance remote control /Automatic navigation control.
Two modes for Ground Control Station:
Flight Course navigation mode / Mouse pointing flight Real-time Control mode.
Waypoints setting through Ground Control Station
Auto-return protection after communication interruption
Distance Automatic photography
The ground station software contains electronic map that can change the route and tasks online,real-time semi-autonomous remote control, and can real-time record flight data and play back off-line.
Contains the autopilot power supply voltage monitoring, electric aircraft power voltage monitoring, GPS accuracy of detection and autopilot temperature detection.
Details for these stabilization systems are on the website of Hobbyking.
I've been a bit careless about updating the blog regularly but here it is finally! I've posted some videos and pics of our CNC cutting some wing molds as well as the antenna gimbals. There are also pictures of the mold layup process, gimbal mechanics and new CNC setup. Please find the full article here:
http://www.projectandromeda.com.au/blog
I've also finished the first revision of the IMU, and written a simple simulator in the GS to figure out any bugs on the Autopilot. I will post some shots and videos of these tomorrow. Also, we are officially an entrant in the 2010 UAV Outback Challenge!
HappyKillmore has been doing some tremendous work on solving tricky ArduPilot problems, from integrating the Remzibi OSD to his latest tutorial, unbricking a corrupted ArduPilot.
ArduPilot is meant to be programmed via the Arduino IDE, and comes with a preloaded "bootloader" that allows it to communicate with that software. Meanwhile, the failsafe processor (an Attiny45) is not meant to be programmed by regular users at all (it also comes with the code loaded at the factory).
But sometimes things can go wrong, corrupting either that bootloader or the failsafe code (causes can range from power glitches to cosmic rays!). When that happens, you need a different process to reload this low-level code, and that requires an AVR programmer such as the AVR ISP 2.
HappyK's tutorial is an excellent step-by-step illustrated guide on how to use that with ArduPilot. Highly recommended!
Waiting for a good cameraman and telemetry ...
In between school and work tonight, I decided to try out the Google Earth flight simulator mode. It looks like the joystick issue I remember it as always having has been fixed in the most recent version, or at least, for the Saitek Cyborg Evo series.
I decided to try modifying the .acf file that configures the "aircraft". This file is located in (Root Programs Folder)\Google\Google Earth\client\res\flightsim\aircraft . I modified the F-16 file to approximate the flight dynamics I usually get when doing my FPV flying wing.
Probably not too useful for autonomous UAV research, but it provides a fair approximation of what flying from the front seat is like without having to actually go flying FPV. Fun for practicing for FPV as well.
The file I modified is this: f16.acf
Just replace the current existing F-16 file of the same name in the folder path mentioned above.