Blogs

• Airframe: Nitro Models Predator ($80, modded with an AXI 2208/34 brushless motor, $70)
• [UPDATE] I crashed that version, in part because the V-tail just isn't enough control by itself and in part because the AXI wasn't enough power. I've now moved back to another Predator model ($67) which has ailerons, and given it a more powerful Hacker A30-28s motor. My post on how to build and enhance it is here. If you do decide to stick with the original Predator without ailerons, you'll probably want to cut off a few inches of the tail, put in a proper motor bulkhead and give it a more beefy outrunner like the Hacker. You might want to extend the area of the V-tail control surfaces, too. It really is hard to control as it is.
• Autopilot: AttoPilot, the most powerful under-$1,000 autopilot.
• Imaging: Pentax Optio A30, which is the smallest high-res camera I've found that allows for IR shutter trigger, plus a Prism R/C-controlled IR trigger. (both are around $200). This is also good candidate for the DIY stabilized camera mount described here, which doesn't require the Prism trigger, although note that you'll need to build the version with the Futaba "Pilot Assist" sensor, since this UAV doesn't use IR stabilization.

From Wired's Danger Room blog:

"The number of flying robots in the American armed forces' arsenal has gone up by nearly 1400% in four years, military documents show. A relatively-modest unmanned fleet of 217 machines has grown into a 3211-drone armada.

Most of the change has come in small, handheld unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- ones weighing 10 pounds, or less. In 2002, there were only 90 of the machines, used to peek around a corner or over a hill for enemy activity. By late last year, there were over 2800. The most popular of these UAVs in the Army's three-foot-long Raven. It weighs about four-and-a-half pounds, and good, hard toss will get it airborne, where it can loiter for a little over an hour, at nearly 1000 feet."

Read more here

Description: The main aim of this project is to both make the world's cheapest full-featured UAV and the first one designed to be within the reach of high school and below kids, as a platform for an aerial robotics contest. Like the Lego FIRST league, but in the air.

(There is another aim of this project, which is more about policy. At the moment the FAA regulations on UAVs are ambiguous (we believe that by staying below 400 feet and within line-of-sight we're within them). But there is a good deal of concern that as small and cheap UAVs become more common, the FAA will toughen the rules, making activities such as ours illegal without explicit approval. I hope this project will illustrate why that approach won't work.

By creating a UAV with Lego parts and built in part by kids, we haven't just created a "minimum UAV", we've created a reductio ad absurdum one. If children can make UAVs out of toys, the genie is out of the bottle. Clear use guidelines (such as staying below 400 feet and away from tall buildings) would be welcome, but blanket bans or requirements for explicit FAA approval for each launch will be too hard to enforce. The day when there was a limited "UAV industry" that could be regulated are gone.)

Features: In GPS mode, unlimited pre-programmed waypoints, with programmable options such as circle and hold. Ability to integrate other sensors, such as ultrasonic, compass, gyros, accelerometers, or barometric pressure (altitude). With optional bluetooth cellphone integration, control via text message, including dynamical-changed GPS waypoints, "come home" and "circle" commands, etc.

This is the most complete UAV, so I'll start the instructions here from the beginning:

1. Learn to fly R/C planes! These UAVs don't take off or land by themselves, so you've got to be a competent pilot. If you've never flown before, I suggest starting with a Hobbyzone Firebird Phantom ($60). Once you've got the hang of that (you'll crash a lot when you start, but it's tough and can take it), you may want to upgrade to the Hobbyzone Aerobird Swift ($150), which has an elevator and ailerons and will get you really ready for proper planes. Don't worry if you total this bird; we'll be able to use its radio system later.
2. Get the UAV airframe: a Hobbico NexSTARr (68" with radio and motor, $429).
3. Autopilot: I'll assume you've already got Lego Mindstorms NXT. For the basic version of the UAV you'll also need a compass sensor. You can see how the whole thing works here (it's easy to build the mechanical assembly, which is quite simple. Just remember to screw the base pieces into the airplane's plywood servo floor so they don't move. Full details and diagrams are here.) Here's a video of it working: Here's the Mindstorms NXT-G code: Main, Subroutine (download both). Or, if you prefer RobotC (I do!), here's the code in that. The GPS version is also working and you can download the beta of it (RobotC version) here. If you're using GPS, you'll need a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Might as well get one that has logging, too, so you can see your course in Google Earth. The i-Blue 747 ($70) is recommended.
4. For stabilization, use the FMA Direct FS8 Co-Pilot, which uses infrared sensors ($115). Put the sensor on the top of the wing, as the instructions suggest. It works better there than on the bottom of the plane.
5. You turn the autopilot on and off with a servo strapped to a touch sensor. This video explains how.
6. For video, use the Range Video Aerial Video System 2 (camera, rx and tx, $365; pick the "portable video" option, which gives you a rechargeable battery on the receiver).
7. You can build a pan-tilt camera mount out of Lego and your two spare servos, like this. Here's a video of it working: Use a spare transmitter and receiver to control the pan-tilt,and power it with this Li-Ion battery ($18). I assembled the whole video downlink assembly on the back of the Electristar battery door, like this. (that's showing a different receiver and battery pack, but the concept is the same.)
8. For recording and viewing the video, you'll want a video capture card for your laptop. There are several available options, but if you have an ExpressCard slot, I recommend the Avertv Express MCE.
9. It's hard to see many laptop screens in daylight, so you might want to get one of these screen shades.
10. Later, we'll add the cellphone for real-time GPS waypoint uploading via SMS.

Notes:

Many people have asked why the Lego autopilot moves the whole servo back and forth, rather than just controlling the servo arm the way a R/C receiver would. There are two answers to this: 1) we always want to have a manual override, so in this case you can manually control the rudder servo arm even as the autopilot is moving the whole assembly back and forth to control the rudder another way. 2) there is no good commercially available way to communicate directly from the NXT brick to a R/C servo. That said, there are some products in development that will make this possible. Stay tuned....

1. I've updated the GeoCrawler 2 (Lego UAV) instruction page. It now has a list of steps and parts necessary to complete the compass-sensor version of the UAV. The GPS version software is still in development. That should be ready later this summer.
2. I've switched GeoCrawler 1 (Picopilot UAV) to a more appropriate airframe. It's now flying on a Mini-Telemaster (shown), which is an inherently stable 3-channel trainer. We may someday move back to the Predator airframe, but we need to ensure the autopilot is rock-solid before putting it in a more challenging airframe.
   
3. Development on GeoCrawler 3 (cellphone-based UAV) is now in the alpha software stage. The code is able to control the servo and read the GPS coordinates from the phone. Now working on parsing the SMS command set and turning heading information into rudder commands. At a later stage we'll incorporate a GPS-based altitude hold by using the phone to control the throttle as well. Yes, I know GPS altitude readings are pretty approximate, but if you average them over time it's good enough for the +-10m that we need.
   
4. I'm working on a new pan-tilt gimbal for GeoCrawler 1. Because the plane is smaller than GeoCrawler 2, it will be made out of aluminum and modeled after this simple Lynxmotion design (but for micro servos, not standard size)
5. We lost our flying field at the Alameda airfield due to environmental remediation. Now scouting new airfields in the Bay Area.
   

My kids and I actually had the first successful test flight of the sub-$1,000 UAV two weekends ago, but I haven't had time to edit the video properly until now. The good news is that a) it didn't crash, and b) it works. We tested stabilization, autonomous navigation (only using compass headings this time, although GPS is in the works), and the real-time video downlink. Everything worked well enough that we're able to see what we have to improve, which is the definition of a successful test.

Just as a reminder, this is a R/C plane that's been modded into a proper drone. It's got a Lego Mindstorms NXT autopilot, a Lego pan-tilt camera, and an infrared autostalization system.

Here are some video clips from that flight (we're still getting the hang of filming a small plane in flight, so please forgive the distance and shakiness, too): The only thing you can kind of make out about the flight characteristics in the brief part where the you can see the plane in the air is the distinctive "crabbing" behavior as the autostabilized ailerons fight the autopilot-steered rudder. This is normal and is just an artifact of the way I designed it, with stabilization and navigation as two separate systems that don't communicate with each other. It still turns as intended, it's just a little graceless about it.

Finally, a word on why we're doing this.

The main aim of this project is to both make the world's cheapest full-featured UAV and the first one designed to be within the reach of high school and below kids, as a platform for an aerial robotics contest. Like the Lego FIRST league, but in the air.

But there is another aim, which I ended being asked about a lot at Maker Faire. At the moment the FAA regulations on UAVs are ambiguous (we believe that by staying below 400 feet and within line-of-sight we're within them). But there is a good deal of concern that as small and cheap UAVs become more common, the FAA will toughen the rules, making activities such as ours illegal. I hope this project will illustrate why that approach won't work.

By creating a UAV with Lego parts and built in part by kids, we haven't just created a minimum UAV, we've created a reductio ad absurdum one. If children can make UAVs out of toys, the genie is out of the bottle. Clear use guidelines (such as staying below 400 feet and away from tall buildings) would be welcome, but blanket bans or requirements for explicit FAA approval for each launch will be too hard to enforce. The day when there was a limited "UAV industry" that could be regulated are gone.

May 13th, first test flight of both the Lego UAV and the stealth "minimum" UAV at Alameda Naval Air Station. Video coming soon.

(These analysis has still room for improvement, it will be resolved by the computer evolution. and I heard a humor of Tesla Motors that Model S Easter egg turns car into submarine. So In the next step, I'll show the biomechanical fish fins which can replace the conventional screw propellers. It useful for the unmanned underwater vehicles. 

As well as I'll study the structural design from the American railway locomotive industry before the physical implementation.)

Details :

Already a lot of people were surprised to this wing mechanism.
I observed their reaction, and understand the importance.
In the academic field, it was a discovery become crazy.

Now, I talk a truth about these ideas a little.
But, it is what hard to imagine.

Vortices inherently create drag. we can understand that with as the Cardoid curve movement, our formula (later mention) generate a symmetric vortex street pattern, unlike the Karman vortex street. and animal machine can recapture some of this energy and use it to improve speed and maneuverability.

This wing mechanism is attributed to some biomechanical techniques from Wing Chun Kung Fu. (This martial art was invented by observing the movement of white crane which was fighting against snake.)

1) Bong Sao (A.K.A. Wing Arm)
2) Tan Sao (Dispersing Arm)
3) Gan Sao (Cultivating Arm)
4) Luk Dim Boon Gwun (Long Pole)

I'm learning the above arts from an european-styled exercise method called "Wing Tjun" and Donnie Yen's IP Man movies series.

As well as, that fundamental geometric formula of voluntary movement has been attributed to the oriental philosophy in Tai Chi Chuan.

1) Yin and Yang (Dark—Bright)
2) Bagua (Eight trigrams)

I got an opportunity to learn about the above internal arts in Switzerland from a Tai Chi master Cornelia Gruber through a german-styled board game that she made. She studied Tai Chi Chuan from a grand master Bow Sim Mark (Donnie Yen's mother) in Boston.

[ EJ Marey ]

I research the voluntary movement of animals using the motion picture. this is a method started by a physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey in the 19th century in France. He took the world's first motion capture of birds while inventing a chronophotographic gun. Then his observation studies has led to the development of aerial vehicles by Étienne Œhmichen's quad copters and Louis Charles Breguet's Gyro planes. (Muybridge took a motion pictures of horses locomotion. his work is more known. despite it was for dullsville gambling. lol)

[ OEhmichen ]

[ Breguet ]

I also study European Horology. in this way, I can discuss about the movement of machine animals from the field of astronomy, space physics. this approach leads to the following studies
self-organization, dissipative structure theory, fluid dynamics as like as turbulence or tourbillon, discrete optimisation, collective intelligence... these are also closely related to the artificial intelligence development.

Amazon CEO which hopes to practical use of the drone for business, Jeff Bezos has a project to create an astronomical clock called The Clock of the Long Now, also called the 10,000-year clock. Someone of his project noticed immediately after I have published a mathematical formula of the voluntary movement on the web. their presented surreptitiously it in the blog of the Long Now. I called them, but does not reply. Before dozens of years from now, after the French Amazon was opened, I took their delivery service for get valuable books needed to start my project. It became a big opportunity. then I received a tiny gift and a letter of Jeff Bezos for the sake of gratitude of understanding to new business.

[ Books ]

In 2012-2015, all activities related to my

http://www.bigwhite.com/passholders/drone-session-contest/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SP+-+March+18&utm_content=SP+-+March+18+CID_45b387d3f9aeb7aeff87bcbc0959cc6b&utm_source=StickyMail&utm_term=Drone%20Video%20Infomation%20%20Enter%20to%20Win

This just popped up on a Canadian Commercial Operator Facebook group and we're discussing the implications and legal possibilities.  Apparently the operator claims that this has been cleared with Transport Canada, but nobody is sure yet what the details of that are.

This does not appear to fit in with existing commercial regulations.  It seems unlikely that a commercial operator would be able to get a permit to fly in a crowded area like a ski hill.  I have taken a guess as to what is going on here:

The operator is not operating the drone.  They are renting drones to recreational users.  Not much different than selling drones to recreational users.  The user is the pilot in command, not a commercial operator.  The user captures images of himself.  Then the operator edits the footage.  It would bypass all of the commercial regulations.  Some disagree that this would be legally possible, but I don't see why it would not.

Currently, a person can rent a Uhaul truck, without being required to possess a commercial truck license.  And I think it would be over-reaching if the government tried to stop a person from paying somebody to edit footage for them, no matter how it was captured.

The kediydrones.com

http://www.bigwhite.com/passholders/drone-session-contest/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SP+-+March+18&utm_content=SP+-+March+18+CID_45b387d3f9aeb7aeff87bcbc0959cc6b&utm_source=StickyMail&utm_term=Drone%20Video%20Infomation%20%20Enter%20to%20Win

This just popped up on a Canadian Commercial Operator Facebook group and we're discussing the implications and legal possibilities.  Apparently the operator claims that this has been cleared with Transport Canada, but nobody is sure yet what the details of that are.

http://www.bigwhite.com/passholders/drone-session-contest/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SP+-+March+18&utm_content=SP+-+March+18+CID_45b387d3f9aeb7aeff87bcbc0959cc6b&utm_source=StickyMail&utm_term=Drone%20Video%20Infomation%20%20Enter%20to%20Win

This just popped up on a Canadian Commercial Operator Facebook group and we're discussing the implications and legal possibilities.  Apparently the operator claims that this has been cleared with Transport Canada, but nobody is sure yet what the details of tha

Dr. Charlie Rush and Montana State graduate student Ian Johnson have been using the 3DR Y6 for some foundational disease detection and prevention research. Their project aims use aerial imagery to detect wheat crop diseases. These pest-caused diseases can lead to poor water uptake by the diseased wheat, and ultimately wasted water and wasted money.  Here's the full story from Agrilife:

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Charlie Rush, 806-354-5804, crush@ag.tamu.edu

AM

Dr. Charlie Rush and Montana State graduate student Ian Johnson have been using the 3DR Y6 for some foundational agricultural disease detection and prevention research. Their project aims use aerial imagery to detect wheat crop diseases. These pest-caused what viruses can lead to poor water uptake, and ultimately wasted water and wasted money.  Here's the full story from Agrilife:

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Charlie Rush, 806-354-5804, crush@ag.tamu.edu

AMARILLO – Dr. Charlie Rush hopes to use a unique method – helicopter drone – to track disease progression across wheat fields to eventually help producers make better irrigation decisions.

A helicopter drone is being used by Dr. Charlie Rush, Texas A&M AgriLife plant pathologist in Amarillo, to track disease progression across wheat fields. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo by Kay Ledbetter)

Rush, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist in Amarillo, has enlisted the help of Ian Johnson, a Montana State University-Bozeman graduate student who is using his work in the university’s Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program to help scientists conduct research.

Approximately 1.1 million acres of wheat in the High Plains are irrigated, Rush said, making wheat the second-largest user of irrigation water from the Ogallala Aquifer. In this same region, mite-vectored virus diseases are the predominant pathogenic constraint to sustainable wheat production each year.

The viruses causing these diseases are transmitted by the wheat curl mite, he said. Infected wheat plants not only have reduced grain and forage yields, but also greatly reduced root weight and water-use efficiency. Therefore, fertilizer and groundwater applied as irrigation to diseased wheat is largely wasted.

Rush’s team is using the helicopter to take remote images of a field study where they are trying to develop an economic threshold for irrigation of wheat infected with wheat streak and other mite-vectored diseases.

A helicopter drone used by Dr. Charlie Rush, Texas A&M AgriLife plant pathologist in Amarillo, flies over a wheat field to track disease progression. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo by Kay Ledbetter)

“The problem for farmers is that these diseases develop in gradients over time and they don’t know whether or not they should apply new pesticides or fertilizers or water,” he said. “Most of these practices are done in April, and that is when the disease is just starting to show up. They may know they have disease in the field, but they really don’t know how much damage it might cause.

“So what we are trying to do is be able to go in early in the season and look at the disease development at a particular time and then based on what it looks like, say in early April, be able to give them a prediction of what the crop will be at harvest time.”

To do that, Rush said his team has been going into the field using different types of remote imaging, such as the hand-held hyperspectral radiometer, to measure and quantify the severity of disease development in the field.

I want to share my journey of designing a drone in India, start to finish, hopefully for cheap and mainly built from recycled items to keep the costs down.

I started this project as a free-time project, but I would like to carry it on as a mainstream project with help from you guys.

My aim is to keep the costs down as I am only 13 years old and its a bit difficult for me to spend a lot of money on shipping,etc.

Plans:

• Delta-Wing airplane with Depron (something like this http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1173701)
• DIY Autopilot based on Arduino Mega 2560 (ADK) -- FreePilot Autopilot
• DIY IMU with AHRS *
• GPS navigation,waypoints,etc.
• Basic