Comments

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  Stephen Gloor March 10, 2013 at 6:32am

  Sunday sounds good however mid week after work is also best for me.  If Sunday, is early OK?  I can get out early Sunday morning the easiest.
• James masterman March 10, 2013 at 6:22am

  To illustrate my previous point about the size of Joe from the air. The attached image is from some software I wrote to capture analogue video streams. It's a frame of me taken from a downward pointing security camera in my plane earlier today. This is from an altitude of around 50m. I am in a red shirt as indicated by the circle!

   

  A better camera would make it easier of course, but when the plane is kicking around in the wind and the camera is not stabilised, it's easy to get motion sickness!
• James masterman March 10, 2013 at 5:53am

  Cool, I'm in Bayswater so not too far away. How about we meet at CopterCam HQ on Sunday morning say 10am? JB, Stephen, would that suit?
• James masterman March 10, 2013 at 5:50am

  Autonomous is of course the goal, but I guess it would be best to build up to that. Get a reliable manual find to make sure the camera and search strategy are working, then add autonomous object recognition on the returned imagery. "Joe" will just be a dot in most images, even at low altitude, so things like thresholding selection are critical. This can be as hard to tune as your average PID :-)

  There is also the thermal option since he usually has an IR lamp next to him. NIR may help - at least running visual and NIR cameras side by side would be good. Proper FLIR is even better if we can afford it!

   
• Moderator

  Hai Tran March 10, 2013 at 5:46am

  I'm available this Sunday, the Coptercam office is located in Malaga, 15mins north of Perth is also available.
• Moderator

  Hai Tran March 10, 2013 at 5:42am

  Some considerations:

  - the more autonomous the more points awarded

  - any IP and methods is going to end up in the public domain so commercialization and OBC aren't  going to go well together

  Evenings mid week is best for me as I fly on a weekly basis east for a day or two for work.  We can use my office and workshop as a meeting location.
• James masterman March 10, 2013 at 5:40am

  Sounds good JB. I hope I can have it "under control" :-). I'm free anytime this weekend so perhaps Sunday, when Stephen is back, would be good. Anyone have a room with a whiteboard where we can sketch out a few ideas. I'm happy to bring a few Matso's beers to get the ideas flowing!

   
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  JB March 10, 2013 at 5:20am

  I agree with James and Hai it's a big commitment .. that's why I mentioned that it will only work with the required support mechanism. Now as part of the commitment I really think we should use the obc development project to also kick off a business opportunity for SAR and environmental monitoring platforms. No use in squandering our efforts just for one event. Hopefully that will keep the levels of commitment up too. 

  We need all the skills as well. I'm more hardware orientated, so electronics hardware and design shouldn't be much of a problem, I can always get my electronics engineer to help anyways. On programming it would be good to have James on board to have a fixed programmer that has it "under control". 

  I'm not very confident with the automated find though. I'd rather concentrate on fast find and accurate drop. The auto find might be more hit and miss. What type of parameters are there to focus on? Just some colored jacket? You'd probably get away with a simple color scan then maybe?

  I can also help with the documentation requirements etc...I do feasibility studies as part of our business etc, so it shouldn't be too hard.

  As a first step we should meet up on the weekend or so. Then setup a group server for sharing info and communicating outside of this forum. Then start with the optics and downlink, get it as compact and effective as possible and then look for a airframe on which it will all fit.
• Moderator

  Hai Tran March 10, 2013 at 4:55am

  And btw, if we get a team together, my business would be able to sponsor the team substantially.
• Moderator

  Hai Tran March 10, 2013 at 4:54am

  Guys,I have been taking a very passive role on diydrones over the last few months due to the number of trolls on the general membership base.
  
  I did mention a while back that I had unsuccessfully tried to get a team going at my former workplace, Curtin University over the last 3 years. As has been mentioned, it is a big time commitment, and while a number of people who I have spoken to said yes, there was a lack of commitment and nothing happened.
  
  I have been researching the obc for over 3 years, and I found that many teams didn't even make it to the flying stage due to not making the documentation deliverables.
  
  I have a licensed uav business, with workshop facilities, airframes, r/c, autopilots, and a/v equipment. I have a MAAA gold wings instructor in my team, and I have experience in objective c.
  
  But I have said before i don't want be on an obc team unless the other members are willing to sign up for a two year commitment.
  
  Plane flying a autonomously, easy, the challenge is autonomous visual location of the target, and then calculating bomb trajectory.