Blogs

All Posts (14039)

Sort by
3D Robotics

Where are the "add blog post" and "add forum discussion" links?!

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 21, 2008 at 8:07am
Last night Ning, our social network hosting platform, pushed out a few new features and in the process changed our look and feel a bit. Among those changes: the "Add a blog post" link at the bottom of the blog listings and "Add a discussion" link at the bottom of the forum listings are gone. So now how do you do those things? Answer: use the tabs above. You add a discussion topic on the "Forum" tab and add a blog post on the "My Page" tab (under the "My Blog" subtab). This isn't ideal, and I assume it's just temporary until Ning rolls out a more flexible layout toolset. But in the meantime, the tabs are your friend ;-)
Read more…
3D Robotics

Autonomous blimps at MAKE NYC meetup

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 21, 2008 at 7:30am
MAKE Magazine's New York City meetup (a hardware hackathon open to all) is next week, on the 27th, and this time they've got blimps! Here's the announcement: What can a group of Makers do with a tank of helium? We're not sure! Care to find out? The sixth Make:NYC Meeting includes: Challenge: Blimps You've got brains, we've got blimps. Two teams will compete to make an ordinary RC blimp perform extraordinarily. Arrive on time to make sure you get in on all the lighter-than-air action. Show and Tell Meet your fellow NYC Makers and show off your creations! Bring your gadgets, gizmos, sketches, ideas… anything you’d like to put in the spotlight. We encourage NYC Makers to collaborate on and discuss DIY projects. If you’re planning to bring a project, drop us a note at meetings@makenyc.org. If you’d like to attend we have plenty of space for everyone, but please RSVP! Location Make Offices, 2nd Floor (Google Map) 325 Gold St. at Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11201
Read more…
3D Robotics

Minimum Blimp V2 update

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 19, 2008 at 6:00am
As mentioned before, for the second version of our Minimum Blimp Jordi and I decided to mod a RC toy blimp on the grounds that it will be cheaper and more robust than trying to build the whole mechanical assembly ourselves (the aim is to have a fully programmable and hackable blimp UAV kit for less than $100). Jordi started with $15 toy (gondola shown above), ripped out the RC electronics and built his own Arduinio board, IR sensor package and added a Ping))) sensor for altitude hold. Here are a few shots of the first version (please forgive the protoboard disasters--we'll neaten it up for the next rev!)

Underside of the blimp gondola, showing custom IR sensors for navigation and Ping))) ultrasonic sensor for altitude hold. (enlarge to check out the DIYDrones branding on the IR board!)

Inside of the blimp gondola, showing the custom Arduino board. This Toy blimp just got a major brain transplant! We'll be showing a more polished version of this blimp at the FIRST Robotics National Championship in Atlanta, April 17-19.
Read more…

UAV Project Progress - flight gear simulation, first steps

Posted by Cory on March 18, 2008 at 8:22pm

I am working on using flight gear to simulate and test my UAV code. The screen shot shows flight gear and the C# application that is receiving the data. the way I see it, the first step is to read some data out of flight gear. I am using a TCP socket to read the data. I have achieved display of the raw string of data. My next step will be to parse the data into meaningful bits. I have been looking all over the net for information on using flight gear for UAV simulation. I haven't found anything I can use, so I am trying the roll your own approach. The idea is to be able to run my own control algorithms on live flight gear data.Let me know in the comments if you know of any prior work that I could use to facilitate this.
Read more…

Autonomous UAV Aerobatics Project

Posted by Cory on March 18, 2008 at 6:54pm

_autonomous_UAV_aerobatics_airplane_hover.jpg

here are two notes below that describe the fantastic video demonstration of the MIT Autonomous Airplane Indoor Flying test. Keep your eye on this page for more info in the future."In these flight tests, a fixed vertical landing platform was designed and attached to a concrete pole in the middle of the RAVEN flight space to allow the fixed-wing aircraft to land and perch on the pole. This test is similar to the test performed on January 28th, 2007 except in this test the platform was attached to the wall. This test was repeated number of times and a video shows repeating the vehicle take-off, hover and land sequence twice. In this flight test, the aircraft took off from the vertical landing apparatus and autonomously moved to a location in the northeastern area of the room in the hover configuration. Once the vehicle reached this location, the vehicle was commanded to transition to level flight mode and flew 3 laps around the room. These three laps were completed in about 10 secs (since the vehicle was flying at approx. 6 m/s during the flight). Following the laps, the system commanded the vehicle to transition back to the hover mode and once it stablized itself began its decent to attempt a landing on the vertical landing apparatus. Note that room is approx 8 meters wide."I found this post on DailyDiy.comThe site is fantastic. It is impressive work.
Read more…
3D Robotics

What does "Open Source Hardware" mean?

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 18, 2008 at 2:00pm
Here at DIY Drones, we adhere to open source principles wherever possible. That means we aim to share (that means post it, not make people ask for it) code, schematics, PCB files, parts lists, instructions, and algorithms for every project featured here. In practice, that's not always possible (not all project have PCB files; not all projects need schematics), but it's our philosophy. Is that "open source"? In spirit, yes. But in letter, it's more complicated, because hardware is more complicated than software. We can't GPL a parts list, and the license that we do use for this site, a Creative Commons "Attribution" license (use/modify what you want, but give credit), doesn't have the same viral characteristics of the GPL in the sense that people who use our intellectual property are free to keep closed their "derivative work" if they want. This is all a bit messy and complicated, but fortunately Phil Torrone of Make Magazine gave a great talk on Open Source Hardware at Etech that helps explains all this, and it's now available.
Read more…
3D Robotics

A clever approach to indoor beacons: ultrasound + IR = GPS

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 18, 2008 at 5:13am
A Luxembourg-based team has come up with a really clever indoor navigation system that combines ultrasonic beacons with IR to achieve absolute position ("synthetic GPS"), much like the NorthStar system we use but entirely DIY. As they describe it: "The infrared flash of a single beacon arrives instantaneously at the robot that is equipped with a combined infrared/ultrasonic receiver. But the ultrasonic signal only arrives with a certain delay, due to the "slow" sound velocity, in comparison to the speed of light. The receiver is able to measure the time lag between both signals and deduce the distance between the robot and the beacon." Features include: # participation of up to 7 beacons that may be placed at strategically interesting places # the beacons send out strong IR and ultrasonic signals that don't require reflectors on the receiver side # like RF-beacons, these beacons transmit their identification number, making localization easy # always one beacon acts as the master beacon, sending out a synchronization message to all other slave beacons The project is entirely open source and is in the proto-board stage (see below). It was designed to work with LEGO Mindstorms NXT and as such uses I2C output. But that, of course, is also readable by any microcontroller, so it could work as well with Arduino or Basic Stamp. Looks like a great opportunity for one of our PCB whiz's to make a small and light version for blimps!

Read more…

YARB 1.0 - added compass and ultrasonic sensors

Posted by Howard Gordon on March 16, 2008 at 5:01pm
I attached some additional sensors today - a pair of Maxbotics EZ0 ultrasonic ranging modules and a Honeywell HMC6532 I2C compass. Also, I added an extender to the camera module to point downward about 30-degrees and I finally adjusted the focus. I think the camera angle is pretty good now - the wide angle lens has a field-of-view of approx 120-degrees, so the bottom of the frame captures objects almost directly below.I haven't yet filtered the sensor data. The ultrasonic data is pretty solid - the forward looking readings bounce around a bit, but the download readings are fairly consistent. However, I am thinking about going with a narrower beam module - probably the EZ1. Also, I would like to add a couple of side-looking modules to enable some degree of mapping capability.The compass is less consistent, but I suspect the may be due to magnetic field interference from the motors. When I was recording, I wasn't paying attention to the readings, so I will have to run some tests to see if the compass reading change depending on whether or not the rotors are firing.Here's a snapshot of the gondola with the additional sensors -

I'll work on cleaning up the data a bit, and then will start to write a script (there's an onboard C interpreter) to let the blimp wander around on its own, perhaps following a course based on heading. After that, I will add some logic to use the camera to lock onto an object and follow it around while maintaining altitude and avoiding collision - that will be a bit more challenging.Here's a short video clip of the latest test -
Read more…

YARB 1.0 update - first untethered flight

Posted by Howard Gordon on March 13, 2008 at 4:26pm
Here's a video clip from YARB 1.0's first untethered flight. I captured the video while sitting in my office while the blimp explored the hallway and front room (the dogs completely ignored it). The camera is a bit out of focus, and the afternoon light washed out the picture somewhat, but you get the idea.You can see the modified console with buttons to vector the props and invert the video. I'm actually surprised with how easy it is to pilot YARB - it is very responsive. Next step is to add the ultrasonic sensors and compass.
Read more…
3D Robotics

Minimum Blimp UAV (Version 1) schematic and code

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 11, 2008 at 9:30pm

For those who want to reproduce what we did with the Minimum Blimp, the schematic is above. The Arduino code is here. We're now moving on the Minimum Blimp Version 2, which will be based on a custom PCB. Rather than use the flimsy and expensive BlubberBot kit as the starting point, we're probably going to mod a $15 RC toy blimp. We just rip out the RC unit, put in our Arduino processor board and sensors, and presto, instant UAV! And under $100...
Read more…

Prairie Predator Build

Posted by Ron Jacobs on March 10, 2008 at 4:43pm
I've been working on a Nitro Predator for about a month and ahalf now. I'm stalled trying to figure out some problems with an Airtronics radio system I have that doesn't want to work. Everything "seems" OK but when I hook up servos to the receiver and try to control with the TX, no luck. the servos jitter when I apply power at the receiver, but no response at all to TX commands.am playing with adding a controllable rudder to the Predator for no other reason than the real one has one. So, I'm making it more difficult, I know. I'll probably end up fixing the rudder, but its fun to play with.
Read more…
3D Robotics

Regulatory FAQ

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 9, 2008 at 8:30pm

[These are Frequently Asked Questions about the current state of UAV regulation in the US. Regulations elsewhere are different, but here is a similar post giving the rules for Canada.]

Q: Are UAVs legal in the United States?

A: Under certain conditions, they are. There are two ways to legally fly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the "National Airspace", which is to say all but certain restricted areas: 1) Get a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA, a process that can take months or more. 2) Fly under exemptions granted to non-commercial ("recreational") flyers who adhere to certain restrictions. More detail is here.

Q) What are those restrictions for non-commercial UAVs flying without a COA?

A: You MUST do the following: 1) Stay below 400ft. 2) Maintain a "pilot in control", which is to say that you must always be able to take manual control and fly the aircraft out of danger (in general, that means maintaining line-of-sight contact with the aircraft). 3) Stay away from built-up areas. More detail is here.

Q) Who can apply for a COA?

A: Typically only government agencies (Law enforcement, Civil government, etc). This is not an option for a private individual.

Q) I've heard that the FAA doesn't allow unmanned aircraft with cameras and/or GPS. True?

A) No. Commercial use of aircraft with cameras is regulated as above, but aircraft flying under the recreational exemption may use cameras and GPS.

Q) What countries have more relaxed UAV regulations?

A) Australia and New Zealand are famously progressive in their UAV policies. Other countries, such as Mexico, have been know to be relatively friendly, too.

Q) What are the prospects for FAA regulations that allow amateur UAVs more freedom?

A) There is currently a rulemaking proceeding that aims to improve the regulations on UAVs. It will take a while; indeed, you shouldn't hope for anything before 2010-2012. There may be a special category for UAVs under 4 pounds, which may be more lightly regulated. But then again there may not. It's all up in the air, so to speak, and the forces that oppose amateur or commercial UAVs in the National Airspace are many and powerful. Speak up!

Q) What about universities and other students. Any exemptions for them?

A) Not automatically. But they may be able to get COAs more easily if they are federally funded and go through that agency.

Q) What if I break the rules?

A) Well, for starters, we don't want to hear about it here! We realize, of course, that people break the rules all the time on the assumption that if they use good judgment and stay away from built-up areas, they won't be caught. That may indeed be the case, but it will only take one cowboy flying a UAV into an airport landing zone and endangering civil aviation to set our hobby back by decades. So please don't do it! (Plus you could go to jail)

Q) Okay, I'm obeying all the rules. Are there any other guidelines for safe and responsible UAV operations?

A) Yes. RCAPA (the RC aerial photography association) has some excellent guidelines that are a great place to start.

Read more…
3D Robotics

PicoPilot software updated

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 9, 2008 at 7:47pm
The good folks at UNAV have been listening to our complaints about the way their software handles communications errors if you don't have your Com ports set up just right when running the software (it basically barfed up a cascade of mystifying error messages, with no indication of what was really wrong and what to do about it). They've now created a new version of the main program (the waypoint editor) that handles Com port problems much better (see screenshot). You can download the new version here. (It will only work if you've already installed all the other software that comes with the PicoPilot). Thanks, UNAV!
Read more…
3D Robotics

Testing the real world range of the Pololu IR transcievers

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 8, 2008 at 8:00pm
As you know, we've had a lot of trouble with the short range of our Pololu IR transceivers that we use with our Blimp UAV. They're rated at up to 20 feet, but we can't seem to get more than 10 feet (and usually more like 5) in real world conditions, with the usual amount of IR noise and the two transceivers not being on the same horizontal plane. I know that the power of the transmitting LEDs should be roughly proportional to input voltage (they're rated from 6-16 volts), so I thought I'd test them at different voltages. Here are the results:

Note that this is on the same horizontal plane. If you're not on the same plane, as we usually aren't, you need to cut those figures in half. So basically it doesn't look like we're ever going to get more than about 7 ft of range reliably. That means it's time to make our own custom IR transceivers with high-power LEDs and a dome array (to handle 3D positions). We'll save weight and money in the process, so this is well worth doing.
Read more…

Yet Another Robotic Blimp (YARB)

Posted by Howard Gordon on March 8, 2008 at 2:42pm
Frustrated by difficulties in achieving adequate stability with my coaxial and quad flyers, and inspired by the efforts of Chris and Jordi with their BlimpBot project, I commenced yet another attempt to defeat gravity with a robotic entity.This new project employs a relatively inexpensive 66-inch helium blimp from RC Guys, modified for direct motor control using the H-bridge built into the radio board portion of the SRV-1 Blackfin board set. The build was pretty simple - the only real challenge was in mounting the vectoring servo in the gondola. I would guess that I have spent 2-3 hours total on the build.

I haven't yet mounted my other sensors, but wlll be adding two Maxbotics EZ0 ultrasonic ranging modules (forward and down views) and an HMC6352 compass. First, I need to work out flight controls and invert the video feed, so all testing thus far has been with the blimp tethered.

Here's the first captured (inverted) video from the tethered blimp - it's not very exciting to watch, but I am using the motors to rotate the blimp. Untethered flight should follow in the next 1-2 days.
Read more…

Wiring - First Experiements

Posted by Gareth Farrington on March 5, 2008 at 8:46pm
I finally got my Wiring board form Sparkfun! Wiring is a platform similar to the Arduino but using an AVR atmega128 chip. This chip is clocked at 16Mhz while the Arduino is clocked at 20Mhz. The advantage of the 128 is the increased RAM, ROM & Flash capacity over the Arduino. Both share the same development environment and code written for one can be made to run on the other. A 'mini' version of the board is due out on March 5th and should fit easily inside a Park Flyer sized UAV.I got the drivers, plugged it in and got it to accept some code. Then I did a little hello world program and I had it flash the on board LED. So far so good, this is pretty cool. Time to break out the RC gear for a more UAV related hello world.

This is a pic of the board and the gear. I have an AR6000, a little 10A Hyperion ESC and a 2S 300mAh lipoly battery. The funny gold thing bridging from the Rx to the board is a tree of female servo connectors. I'm going to make some test jumpers with those.I tried to read the input from a servo pulse pin and have the LED flash in time with it. First result was a bright glowing LED which didn't seam right. The signal should be off 95% of the time. Further experimentation seem to indicate that the Spektrum Rx I'm using holds the voltage on the signal pin "high" most of the time and only brings it low for the pulse. This is the exact opposite of what I expected! Is this also true of the Futaba gear?The board is pretty neat and its already teaching me things about my radio gear I didn't know. When I get more time I'll see if I can read the uSec time of a servo pulse using interrupts.
Read more…
3D Robotics

ETech BlimpBot demo report: Success!

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 5, 2008 at 4:00pm
Well, that went better. After last week's disaster, Jordi and I worked hard to make the Etech demo of the Minimum Blimp UAV go smoothly. It was almost a full hour, and the room was a bit smaller, so we were optimistic. But we weren't counting on optimism alone: Jordi had done a lot of work on the blimp since TED to help it handle air currents better, including:
  • Using the voltage regulators on the Pololu Motor Driver boards rather than a stand-alone voltage regulator.
  • Adding a separate battery for the motors so high current drains and voltage drops don't risk crashing our Arduino. (This is a short term hack while we get our power management properly fixed and switch to LiPos)
  • Upgrading the vertical motor to a low voltage N20, which has a better power to thrust ratio than the motor we'd been using
  • Tweaking the code to give full thrust when needed, which is allowed by the better power management
  • Other tweaks in the software to adapt to the inertial momentum and laggy physics of a blimp in a moving fluid

  • The result: success! The range of the IR transceiver is still less than ten feet in a noisy environment like a conference hall, but it nicely follows you around if you hold the beacon and walk around the room and otherwise does what it's supposed to do. Presentation went great, full room, people seemed to love it and video crews interviewed us afterwards. (Links to coverage when they go live)
    Next: Minimum Blimp UAV 2.0 with a custom PCB, single LiPo and integrated motor driver chips. And then a kit you can buy and build for less than $100. Stay tuned! [Photo of Jordi credit: Phil Windley]
Read more…