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T3

T3-6: SkyBanner for Flexipilot - automated flight planning based on a text string

Posted by Krzysztof Bosak on April 28, 2010 at 11:00pm
Flexipilot T3-6.kmz


Take a look at this crasy simulation. This is an openloop designed for mission testing.
Of course I got virtual permission and the whole airspace was NOTAMed to the ground.
An UAV has 'flown' over Cote d'Azur.

Simulation time around 2h.
In the previous run I saw mission aborts due to exceeded safety distances etc (due to protective config variables from
real-life photomissions).


In short this is a 2h+ mission, over the range of EasyUAV/Easyglider,Cularis but technically barely flyable with Pteryx loaded with a small camera and some 20Ah of lipos.

In practice taking flight permission from there would be impossible (close to one of France's busiest airports).


Log content:
LOG_POINTS=26274

Flight statistics:
Max altitude above takeoff point AGL=206.0[m]
Cumulative climb=205.97[m]
Max distance to takeoff=9.591[km]
Max VLOS distance to takeoff=9.593[km]
Total travel (groundtrip)=67.950[km]
Takeoff: 2010-04-28 16:30:31.799
Last event: 2010-04-28 18:20:00.046
Total log time=6568.50[s]
Total flight time=6567.00[s] 100.0% of log time
Autonomous flight time=0.00[s] 0.0% of flight time
Average groundspeed=37.2[km/h] 10.3[m/s]
Min air temperature=30.24[C]
Max air temperature=31.51[C]


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3D Robotics

Skywalker: Best UAV platform ever? (I'm in love)

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2010 at 8:00pm

[UPDATE: Hooks has, er, hooked us up with a 10% discount at FPVFlying.com, for this and anything else they sell. Just use the discount code "diydrones". Awesome! Thanks Hooks!]

Thanks to Hooks for turning us on to the new Skywalker foam UAV platform. Mine just arrived and based on a quick inspection, I'm pretty sure this is the one for me! Everything about is totally optimized for a UAV, from the payload capacity to transportability. I'm blown away by how thoughtfully designed this one is.

It's got it all:
  • The durability of foam with all the interior room of balsa
  • Payload area right under the CG, so you don't have to worry about balance issues
  • Hand launchable, but still can carry pounds of payload
  • Breaks down easily for transport
  • Ailerons and optional flaps
  • Pusher, high-wing configuration, with servos outside to save room inside
  • Super tough EPO material
  • Easy to get to equipment with big bay doors on both sides
  • External mounting spots on rear fuselage for wireless transmitters (keeps them away from other electronics)
At $144, I think it's very fairly priced. I think this is one of the best made foam ARFs that I've seen, right up there with the Multiplex line. Don't forget to order the power pack at the same time.

Here's a shot of a prototype being flown by the creators:



Rather than give it a full review (I haven't flow it yet), I'll just give first impressions in pictures.










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The Trouble with Communications

Posted by Bill Porter on April 28, 2010 at 6:16pm
Hey guys,

I'm still working on the next installment on my SAGAR drone, however my progress has slowed, as I suddenly find myself in Boston for 7 weeks. Life can be very exciting when you work for the Department of Defense.

In the mean time, I have been asked by a few people over at SocietyofRobots.com on how SAGAR's micro-controller (an Axon) communicates with LabView. Instead of a bland answer, I spent s little time writting about the different problems hobbyist can run into when they try to have to computer systems communicate with each other.

Enjoy.

http://www.billporter.info/?p=214


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Possible Backup Communication System

Posted by Nima K on April 28, 2010 at 4:30pm

09311-1.jpg

Edit: Forgot to put in links:

So we're going into the Outback UAV challenge and I've been brainstorming ideas about a backup communication system as it's not really desirable to lose primary communication at all. So I know the Aerosonde guys use satellite data packets for their backup telemetry (namely iridium), but having looked at their prices and latency I don't think it's a good option. Enter the GE864. I'm currently working with it at my day job and it's a fantastic little unit with so much functionality it's almost silly. It has an in-built python interpreter with 1MB of program memory which is pretty good. It also has a slew of GPIO and emulated bus protocols such as SPI, I2C, etc that can be multiplexed onto the pins.

If they wanted to, I'm sure someone could make an Autopilot out of it, but I am more interested in it as a backup communication method. With a suitable antenna, at the altitudes and speeds which we fly at, we should be able to get GPRS reception in most areas. Would it be viable as a platform for sending intermittent telemetry to a internet-connected ground station?

If so, one could write a python application that accepted a serial input (such as the one you would normally send to a radio) and send it to a specific IP address.
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3D Robotics

ArduPilot Mega Now Available!

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 28, 2010 at 1:00pm


It's available now from Sparkfun! $59.95.


And cool home page promo on the Sparkfun site here.


Here's a quick FAQ for people just now coming to the site, or hearing about ArduPilot Mega for the first time:

  • It is designed to work with an IMU "shield" (board that fits on top) that contains all the sensors. That board will be available by the end of May. The latest info on the shield is here.
  • You'll need two right-angle 3x8 connectors to attach your RC gear.
  • The ArduPilot Mega code will build on ArduPilot 2.6 and be available in about a month.

We recommend this board just for people who want to beta test or tinker. For regular users who want a plug-and-play (ish) experience, it's best to wait a few weeks for us to release the IMU shield, code and documentation. (The Sparkfun board will also be tweaked a bit, with mostly cosmetic changes to make some pin labeling clearer, in the next batch.)

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Dark Star v2

Posted by Earl on April 27, 2010 at 4:00pm
I have lightened the Quad and made the cargo bay bigger. Still need to do landing gear and put the ArduIMU in to control it.
The electronics bay screws on the top.
Here is some pics.
Earl

Very soon for pan and tilt camera. Lots of room.

The electronics bay. It unscrews from the main body.Holds the batteries also.

Clear dome over camera. Now to design a landing gear !


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My AGV

Posted by Patrick Mccabe on April 27, 2010 at 3:30pm

3689350111?profile=original


You can see my forum post here :http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/gps-libraryish-code?xg_source=activity

Here is all the information on it here :http://letsmakerobots.com/node/18922


I now have a compass module and i wrote some better code. The compass module is just a life saver. It is really accurate and just makes programming easier. You use i2c to communicate with it and just a snippet of code. Just make sure you mount it level and away from the electronics.

My new code has improved steering. I guess its proportional but i do not know if it is definition proportional drive. I came up with this little formula of delay=degree error / 180 *3000. It takes about 3 secs to turn 180 degrees so 3000 was my number i could tweak. Of course it is out of 180 because that is the most i will be turning either left or right. Our degree of error is how much we are off from our current heading to the heading we need to be at. Simply subtract the current heading from the desired heading and take the absolute value and presto! This code seems to work really well. I tested this in a parking lot plus i had 2 waypoints this time. (see video). You can see the results. the waypoints were given a radius of 2 meters but it normally gets closer than that. I will reduce the radius next time. The AGV is programmed to stop when it reaches its last GPS point. I ordered a l298 motor driver and will update this post when i have that on the AGV and i will have a more complicated path of waypoints.


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3D Robotics

9,000 members!

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 27, 2010 at 9:00am


We hit 9,000 members today, on the same growth trend as we've seen so far this year (adding 1,000 members every two months--we hit 8,000 on March 1st). This despite putting in place an approval process to keep out spammers, which had led us to reject about 1,500 fake members (mostly bots) over that period. So not only are we growing as fast as ever, but this is high quality, organic, growth. Spammers and marketers have been pretty much weeded out, thank to the work of your tireless moderators and admins led by Morli. Yay Morli!


DIY Drones now does about 22,000 page views a day and about 2 million visits and 6 million page views a year. Amateur UAVs are hot!

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Video grabber for those that record their wireless video on a notebook

Posted by CrashingDutchman on April 27, 2010 at 5:23am
DealExtreme has a new video grabber on their website. The problem for the versions they already sold for some longer was that modern OS's were not always supported because drivers being unavailable. I had a lot of trouble getting my grabber running on windows 7 and ended up making my notebook dualboot Windows XP to be able to use it.

Here is a link to Video Grabber

sku_35826_1.jpg


Specifications:

- Compatible with NTSC-433 and PAL60
- Fast, high quality video capture
- Works with anyvideo devices
- Store hours of videos on your hard disk
- Supportsvideo game consoles: XBOX 360, Wii, PS, record from RCA or S-Video
-Inputs: Composite video input (RCA connector), S-Video input (mini-DINconnector), Stereo audio
input (2 x RCA connectors)
- Screenformat: support 4:3 and 16:9
- Plug and play
- No external powerneeded
- Support Windows Windows2000/XP/Vista/7/Mac OS10.2 and above
-Comes with software CD


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3D Robotics

What our cousins in rocketry are doing

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 27, 2010 at 12:22am



[From MakeZine]

"Bdale Garbee and Keith Packard are developing a solid-looking open source telemetry system that they call TeleMetrum. They have a production version available in their shop, and the board design and firmware available for download. It's got some impressive specs:

  • Recording altimeter for model rocketry
  • Supports dual deployment (can fire 2 ejection charges)
  • 70cm ham-band transceiver for telemetry downlink
  • Barometric pressure sensor good to 45k feet MSL
  • 1-axis high-g accelerometer for motor characterization
  • On-board, integrated GPS receiver
  • On-board non-volatile memory for flight data storage
  • USB for power, configuration, and data recovery
  • Integrated support for LiPo rechargeable batteries
  • Uses LiPo to fire e-matches, optional support for separate pyro battery
  • 2.75 x 1 inch board designed to fit inside 29mm airframe coupler tube

[via antitronics]"

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TEMOR GCS: What do you want to see in a GCS?

Posted by Ravi Gaddipati on April 26, 2010 at 8:00pm
APRIL_24_10_1
I am working on a piece of software for a ground control station, names TREMOR. TREMOR has a couple key features:
-cross platform compatibility: built in java, program works on linux machines through a shell script, and executable on windows
-multiple map sources from NASA servers, MS servers, and others.
-immediate location maps can be cached for offline use, only limited by storage space.
-Reconfigurable GUI; drag and drop windows to suite ones needs
-expandable through the use of java modules
-customization.

This is still a work in progress, here are some screenshots:
High res MS maps:
APRIL_24_10_2

OpenStreetMap:
APRIL_24_10_3

Current modules:
-Geographical view
-Map source selection
-Bookmarks
-line builder (including altitude) for path construction
-file import for the above (i.e. walk around logging a GPS course and upload)
Planned modules:
-live video feed w/OSD
-attitude indicator
-downlink data
-communication customization

And the question:
What do you want to see in a GCS?
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Maker Fair NC

Posted by bGatti on April 26, 2010 at 7:30pm
Make Magazine first annual East Coast Maker Faire? was held yesterday in Durham, NC. I made the 3 hour trip from Charlotte by amtrak and brought my daughter along for the experience. It was a good event - some 2000 attendees. The local Arduino club and Aerobatic Robot clubs were well represented, with a laser-cut quad in progress and several Arduino breadboard affairs. There were plenty of Sparkfun objects (LED button squares, pressure sensors etc...) A very interesting presentation was the model RC warships with working 1/4inch caliber cannon, and balsa siding for serious dogfights (though they must have a different name). There were several makerbot/repraps in attendance including one of ~17 Mendels in the world. There was a live demo of vacuum forming some milk carton plastic over a peanut-butter jar with holes in the lid (heat the plastic with heat gun, hold in Popsicle frame, lay over object/vacuum when plastic glosses into transparency.) Fun event, good time had by all. I see the site now has some Flicker links...
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3D Robotics

Perching UAV sticks to walls

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 26, 2010 at 11:37am

[From BotJunkie]

Check out this awesome perching UAV, developed by Alexis Lussier Desbiens.

“A flock of small, unmanned air vehicles flies quietly into a city, maneuvering among the buildings. They communicate as they search for places to land, not on streets or flat rooftops but on the sides of buildings and under the eaves, where they can cling, bat or insect-like, in safety and obscurity. Upon identifying landing sites, each flier turns toward a wall, executes an intentional stall and, as it begins to fall, attaches itself using feet equipped with miniature spines that engage small asperities on the surface. Using its propeller in combination with its limbs, the flier can creep along the wall and reorient for a better view. With opposed pairs of spines, the flier clings tenaciously to resist gusts of wind and ride out inclement weather. The fliers stay attached for hours or days, consuming little power and emitting no sound as they monitor the area. When finished, they launch themselves with a jump and become airborne again, ready for their next mission.”

As you can see from the vid, the UAV uses little spines like Spinybot as opposed to a sticky material like Stickybot. At this point, spines are much more effective at adhering to rough surfaces, while the synthetic gecko toe material only really sticks to smooth surfaces (unlike geckos themselves). Despite the differences between the two sticking technologies, the challenges to stickiness are similar: you need pliable toes that can individually conform to a surface at a specific angle, and if you don’t get that, you lose sticking efficiency and (possibly) your robot.


Alexis and his partners will be presenting their paper on perching UAVs at ICRA next month.

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3D Robotics

Tutorial: Connecting other GPS modules to ArduPilot

Posted by Chris Anderson on April 25, 2010 at 10:30pm
3689349957?profile=originalAlthough we recommend the uBlox GPS module and adapter we sell in the DIY Drones store, which is solid and easy to set up, ArduPilot can support any GPS module in NMEA mode. The tricky bit, however, is usually the connector and programming it to the right baud rate and other settings. Although every GPS module is different, here's a tutorial for two common ones that may help you with others.

First, here are the pinouts for the EM406 connector that we use (pins 5 and 6 are not used):



Option One: Locosys 20031

One excellent module is the Locosys 20031 that's sold by Sparkfun (it's also the module used by AttoPilot). To connect it to ArduPilot, solder wires to the pads on the board as shown here:


Once you've got it soldered up, you need to program it for the right baud rate and 5Hz update rate. The best way to do that is to get a GPS adapter from the DIY Drones store and solder on a four pin header on the spare pins. Then connect them to your FTDI cable with jumper wires and another header, as shown here:


Now plug the Locosys into the GPS adapter and follow this tutorial to reprogram it.

In the ArduPilot code, you'll need to change the configuration file to tell it that you're using the Locosys. Change this line to 0, as shown:

//0-3
#define GPS_PROTOCOL 0 // 0 = NMEA, 1=SIRF, 2=uBlox, 3 = ArduIMU, 5 = Simulated GPS mode (Debug)


Option Two: Paparazzi GPS module

Another GPS module you can use is the Paparazzi one (which is also a Ublox 5). Here's how to connect it:


Once you're done, use the same adapter board connection shown above and follow this tutorial to reprogram it for ArduPilot.

You can leave the ArduPilot configuration file in its default setting of 2:

//0-3
#define GPS_PROTOCOL 2 // 0 = NMEA, 1=SIRF, 2=uBlox, 3 = ArduIMU, 5 = Simulated GPS mode (Debug)


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Prerecorded podcast = no live podcast tonight

Posted by Tim Trueman on April 25, 2010 at 2:00pm

Testing out the AR.Drone (see the two orange LEDs floating in the air) in Doug Weibel's backyard—this is the podcast crew.

We recorded a roundtable podcast at Doug Weibel's (one of the main contributors to ArduPilot 2.6) house the night before the SparkFun Electronics Autonomous Vehicle Competition with roughly a dozen people involved. There were a few people who had been previous guests (Bill Premerlani, Jordi Muñoz and Ryan Beall for instance). It's a little bit different than our regular shows but I'm sure it'll be interesting!
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Developer

ArduPilot Mega Updates, updates!

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on April 24, 2010 at 7:00pm
I have several stuff i would like to explain! Let's enumerate them:

1.-The first batch of ArduPilot Mega's may be released this Wednesday 28.

2.- The lasted shield is ready (codename: Foxtrap) and has many advantages compared to the last board, including the Invensense gyros (cheaper and better against vibration), smaller board size, can be used on the top or in the bottom, build-in absolute pressure sensor (Bosch) and i removed the differential pressure sensor, but you can still add it as an optional expansion board.

The price still the same.... ;-)

Facts you already know about the shield:
-3.3V Regulator.
-Relay switch for cameras, lights or payloads.
-12-bit ADC.
-Build-in Data Logger (The Black Box).
-Piano DIP switch for servo reverse.
-Build-in FTDI, serial to USB.
-Dedicated Modem/OSD port.
-I2C Port for Magnetometer.
-Two buttons (one momentary, second slide).
-Expansion analogs ports and more.

You can give a look to the Eagle Files here:
ArduPilotMegaShield_F1.brd
ArduPilotMegaShield_F1.sch

Latest boards:
ArduPilotMegaShield_F2.brd
ArduPilotMegaShield_F2.sch

About the development names I use: Alpha1 never made it, Bravo1 is the one i sent to Julio (private release), Charlie1 luckily arrived late, Delta1 was canceled because i decided to remove the differential pressure sensor and add the absolute pressure sensor. Eco1 was also canceled because i switched the Gyros from ST to Invensense. Current released candidate is the Foxtrap1..

Check the new logo:



I will order the first batch this Monday, i hope they arrived fast to test and release!

I have many other stuff going on! I have to leave so you will see later.. ;-)

BTW, Thanks to Scott Plunkett for the Bosch absolute pressure sensor and Bill Premerlani for the Invensense gyros explanation!
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PhotoSculpt vs PhotoModeler - 3D model test

Posted by Mike on April 23, 2010 at 1:57pm




FrankC on APLanding drew my attention to PhotoSculpt - a low cost 3D modelling programme - http://www.photosculpt.net/ - approx $150. I compared this with PhotoModeler Scanner - http://www.photomodeler.com - $2,695.

The results are shown in this crap video I made (too quickly) and clearly for this application PhotoModeler is superior - by far. But horses for courses....





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