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3D Robotics

Dramatic reports from the Outback Challenge UAV contest

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 29, 2009 at 9:43am

Lots of drama in the Australian Outback Challenge this year. Once again, it appears that nobody finished the challenge (spot a dummy--Outback Joe--and drop a water bottle near him), but they're getting closer. In the meantime, loads of crashes, as reported in this thread from the participants. (pic of crashed 12-ft Telemaster from Biloxthecat)
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Almost off the ground...

Posted by Tom Yochum on September 29, 2009 at 9:07am
Brian and I are almost ready to get our autopilot project "off the ground".We received a free airplane from a friend of mine who now lives in Japan. (A lot cheaper to buy a new one than ship the old one.) The plane came with a glow engine but we converted it to electric. (Sorry for the crummy iPhone pictures!)Before:

After:

I added an access hatch to the front to create an "avionics bay".

We just got our uBlox GPS and Brian got it working last night. Here it is with our Arduino board and Sparkfun IMU.

We have developed a tightly-coupled GPS/INS algorithm to provide highly-accurate position, velocity, and attitude data. We hope to have the aircraft up and flying soon so we can collect flight data. The algorithm has been developed using simulation data, but I would like some real-world data to do the final tuning.We have several options for the guidance and control aspect of the autopilot once the tightly-coupled algorithm is finished. One option is to develop our own single-board system, with air data sensors, IMU, failsafe/MUX, etc. (I am inspired by the work shown here, especially by Brian Wolfe!) We would have to develop our own software as well.The other option is to create a sensor-only board with air data sensors and IMU, and modify an Ardupilot to accept the position/velocity/attitude data. That way we don't need to re-invent the wheel, so to speak.Our ultimate goal is to create an aerobatic-capable autopilot, so we will most likely design our own single-board autopilot eventually. I am hoping to create an adaptive control system that will "learn" how to fly an airplane. I'm just scratching the surface on that endevour, and I'm not sure I'm smart enough to pull it off!We will update again once we get airborne.
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3D Robotics

Help wanted!

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 28, 2009 at 9:03pm
Many of you have asked how you can help with the ArduPilot project. Now we have an answer! We're looking for people with various skills: software, hardware, documentation or project management. Here are some things on our to-do list that we could use some help on (Jordi's focusing on core ArduPilot Mega development himself). Please look through and see if something sounds like fun. The reward is that you get to work closely with us and you're helping create a little bit of the future! (Plus if you design a project that we can sell, we'll figure out a way to get you paid)
  1. Design a "thermopile replacement" version of ArduIMU: this is a version of the current ArduIMU board with a two-channel DAC and a FMA connector, so it can output voltage to emulate the FMA thermopiles.
  2. Design the turn-rate limiter shield hardware and software modification to the ArduPilot code: this is shield that has a one-axis gyro, a differential pressure sensor and a connector for the uBlox GPS. It will duplicate the functions of the UNAV PicoPilot but be better and a lot cheaper.
  3. Create and maintain a library of airframe.h configuration files
  4. Design the hardware for the ArduPilot Mega ground station (with dynamic PID adjustments). Similar to this.
  5. ArduIMU documentation
  6. Create an autopilot PID tuning guide
  7. Create a Lego Mindstorms compatible version of our MUX/Failsafe. This is just our current board with the addition of a Mindstorms connector and any necessary components for an I2C link. .
  8. Create a "Using ArduPilot with the Remzibi OSD" guide
  9. Create a ArduStation assembly and usage manual
  10. Create a system that can inject telemetry data on the invisible closed caption lines of a video stream and be able to decode it in the other side for the OSD system.
Please volunteer for one or more projects in the comments, and we'll follow up by PM
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3D Robotics

DIY Drones live chat/podcast tonight at 9:00pm PST

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 27, 2009 at 10:17am
Free video streaming by Ustream Tonight (Sunday) we'll do our fourth podcast, which everyone here is welcome to participate in by listening to the chat live above and commenting and asking questions via the DIY Drones chat function. We'll be starting at 9:00 PM PST and will probably go about 40 minutes. This week we'll by joined by Geoff Bower of the Stanford altitude record and will discuss: --The Stanford team's work --Other contests (the Outback Challenge is underway) and records --ArduPilot Mega roadmap --Favorite blogs posts of the week --And whatever other cool stuff comes up!
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Moderator

Our new airframe, Voyager

Posted by Gary Mortimer on September 27, 2009 at 6:16am

Some of you might remember the bigger version of this, the Voyager is 1.2m in wingspan, autopilot, RC receiver esc and motor all stay in the centre section attached to the wing and battery and whatever you want in the nose.There is 2lt of space in there.Its early days, only 6 ot so flights but it flew and we took it home in one piece!!I have some video but I'm out the door real flying now.Oh for ballast purpose we added 200g of weight, it could have lifted much more, the target is 500g.
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3D Robotics

Reminder: just two more weekends to qualify for this month's T3 contest!

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 25, 2009 at 2:30pm
[Update: My mistake--I forgot that I made the deadline four days later to allow for a slightly late start in announcing this contest earlier this month. So you have two weekends to go, not just one. Still, get cracking!] For those of you who have day jobs, just a reminder that this is the last weekend you've only got two more weekends to enter this month's T3 Contest. If the weather isn't cooperating, you better hope it will clear and you can take a morning off work before Thursday. The deadline is 12:00 midnight PST on Sunday, Oct 4th. The current best time is 236 seconds from Vassilis, who won last month with the same Paparazzi-driven EasyStar. Are you guys going to let him win two times in a row?!
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3D Robotics

Best entry-level UAV platform?

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 24, 2009 at 10:01pm

I just got what might the best entry-level UAV platform yet. It's the Busy-Bee RTF from HobbyKing and at first glance it looks practically perfect for our needs. It comes totally ready to fly (just ten minutes of attaching things), with a brushless motor, ESC and all servos and pushrods installed, all for $70! Just add RC gear and a battery. It's got all the elements we need for a UAV platform: --Four channels, with ailerons --Pusher prop --High-wing trainer style, so should be easy to fly and relatively slow --Steerable nose wheel (gear is removable for grass landings) --Loads of room in that cockpit! The tinted window is a bit unfortunate for camera use, but otherwise it's perfect: easy to get to and easy access to the rest of the equipment area in the body --Easy to repair foam A few notes: The picture on the product page shows that it comes with a JST battery connector, but it actually comes with a standard Deans connector. The box says that it comes with cheap FM RC gear, but thankfully that's not the case (it comes with no RC gear at all). The included propeller is actually black and pretty good looking, not the yellow toy in the picture. If you want to upgrade the motor to a more powerful outrunner, it's easy to do; it uses the standard mounting holes. The motor is rated at 8.4v, so a 7.4 20c LiPo battery is probably safest. But if it seems really underpowered with that, I may try pushing it with a 11v battery. Overall, it's hard to beat this one for the price, features and ease of assembly. I'll fly it this weekend and see how it performs.
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Developer

Ateryx is airborne and looking great! (homebuilt imu autopilot)

Posted by Ryan Beall on September 24, 2009 at 9:00pm

Ateryx 2.3 has been in different levels of development over the past year or so but I finally got some motivation to clean up some code and pull it all together.Cloud layer has been at 800ft for the past three days so I have been weather canceled with my Navy schedule. Considering the UAV development is all low altitude stuff this was the perfect time to get some flights out on the autopilot. I got all of the gains tuned and let the navigation code go to work. The only bad part about the time off is that it has been really windy (25 knots gusting at times) that and I'm missing the T-34. Navigation code could be tuned tighter on the gains but even with the windspeed being 75% - 85% of the trim airspeed commanded, it still maintained its flight path in my small local park!I will have video up soon as well as data (if I can get my new sd card drive to work).Here is the platform I am using as a test bed:http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFL2825

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Finally, my autopilot is "finished"....

Posted by Tj Bordelon on September 24, 2009 at 6:05pm
But is is ever? I define finished as in it works every time I go fly now. I go to the field, turn on my plane and it takes off, flies to waypoints, and lands with no user intervention. It's done this now for the last 4 times I've been to the field! So it feels more "finished" than ever.I didn't use any kits or open source stuff, and built everything from scratch. Except the EZ-Star of course! I also use my own sensor fusion algorithm, which is to be featured in Circuit Cellar early next year. It's inertial based, and all the boards are from the chips up, no modules.

antenna_setup.JPG

PLUS: I don't use a PC, so now I don't have to worry about overheating or Java updates crashing my plane!

GCS_Screen.JPG

Check out my setup here: http://bordelon.net/ezstar.html
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Developer

Remzibi OSD Now Available!

Posted by Jordi Muñoz on September 24, 2009 at 5:00pm
I'm proud to offer one of the best OSD's on the market. Specially the configuration tool and the fact that is fully customizable!I also offered because we are working together (Remzibi, HappyKill and me) to make it 100% compatible with Ardupilot, in order to display all the telemetry data on it. In the near future you will be able to have a full autopilot with IMU and OSD telemetry. Nice.. What else you need? (beside directional antenna, we are working on that too).If you see them on stock you better hurry, because they will going to be mainly out stock due to the high demand!To buy or reserve one (in case they are out of stock), go to our store. Also you will be able to see a demo video i did. I've lost the Spektrum 2.4Ghz connection and i started to dive! What i did is rise the Remote Control in order to regain control, i was lucky and i was able to bring it back to home safely and all thanks to the Remzibi compass navigation!http://store.diydrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=remzibi_v11
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3D Robotics

Predator build and fly thread (tip stall warning!)

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 24, 2009 at 6:56am
For those of you interested in the Nitroplanes/Hobbyking Predator (they're essentially the same plane), here's a great build thread on how to make it, along with a very sobering set of warnings and lessons learned the hard way about how it flies. Basically, tip stalling is a huge problem and you have to land it with long, straight and fast glide paths or it will crash (I've already lost one that way). Basically, it's a poor airframe for UAV/FPV/AP use; we just use ours to show off at conferences.
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3D Robotics

ArduIMU now available!

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 22, 2009 at 12:36pm

At last, the long-awaited ArduIMU is available! You can buy the hardware here (the first batch sold out within minutes, but he's making more quickly). The software is in beta, and you can find it here. It is, as promised, $99, making it the first sub-$100 AHRS in the world! Proper documentation is coming soon, but here are the highlights: Features -3 Axis Accelerometer -3 Axis Gyroscopes -Arduino Compatible (Atmega328 onboard) -Source Code included and Open Source! -Power LED (Green) -Status LEDs (Red, Blue, Yellow) -SPI port available for more sensors. -GPS port (uBlox ready!) -Code based on Bill Premerlani's Direction Cosine Matrix This is actually considered a full Attitude Heading Reference System, because it is IMU hardware plus the software to interpret the sensor readings and convert them into absolute attitude and heading information. The output is a serial ASCII string with raw sensor values and the DCM matrix values. You would use this with an autopilot board to convert those matrix values into commands for the your control surfaces. The board works without the GPS module, but in that case the yaw readings are unreliable. If you add the GPS, the yaw is corrected. We will be releasing a magnetometer module to do the same thing indoors.
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Developer

An OSD alternative

Posted by Jason Short on September 21, 2009 at 10:30pm
OK this is half joke, half serious. This is a quick idea I had for the autopilot/FPV unit I'm building. I don't have an OSD and I'm afraid of investing an extra 300+ on a plane that will be going through flight tests in a week. I also don't have Xbee radios nor am I interested in staring at my laptop while my plane flies around. Especially when I've spent so much time on the FPV gear. Here's my lame/fun idea: I picked up a Speech Jet chip that I will wire into the microphone input of my Range Video 900Mhz transmitter. I'm sending out SW Serial through a free pin on the ArduPilot to call out waypoints, heading, altitude, speed, etc.Here's an un-amplified recording. The audio into the transmitter should be pristine when it's done.Play AAC fileBreadboard:3689325507?profile=original
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100KM

NW AUVSI con

Posted by crystal garris on September 20, 2009 at 10:31am
held Friday sept 18th , about 24 people showed up .representing places like Insitu ,near space corp ,cloud cap,nwuav propulsion ,hood tech corp ,nw tech,evergreen helicopters , arcturus,Peak-Aviation and In Vitro aviation. It was held at the beautiful Hoffstadt Bluff Visitor Center near Mt St Helens in Washington .Things kicked off at 11:00 am ,Joe from NWAUV acted as mc . Joe started off talking about how the chapter is being formed etc with some informative Q&A he then talked about NWUAV and showed off their engine and models he also talked about the heavy fuel injection system they are working on for their engine line up. It uses MEMS technology originally designed by HP for printing to atomize the very hard to burn heavy fuels .After that we all stood up one by one and introduce ourselves then it was time for some mingling and lunch . After lunch the guys from Near Space did a slide show with videos on some of the high altitude uav drops they have done , we are talking 150,000 ft altitude , very cool stuff .Aram from Hood tech then spoke about hood tech and his efforts to get kids involved in robotics using lego mindstorms and of course he was very excited to hear about Chris's lego auto pilot . After that we talked more about forming the chapter ,people volunteered for the various posts and we decided on a name we picked "the Cascade chapter" although "the Sasquatch chapter" was in the running. Thing wrapped up about 4:00 then it was time for the drive home. here are some pics I took ,I really liked the variable pitch prop.

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