VUELA

Alfin logramos que el ArduCopter vuele!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWtVtmx6Y0g

El problema principal resulto ser la posicion del APM y el IMU en la nave. Para el codigo nuevo el posicionamiento es el mismo para X y + mode. Pero tuvimos que enfrentar muchos otros problemas. Por ejemplo los motores se estaban apagando solos por que los bullet connectors no eran buenos. El PPM enconder estaba mal configurado. Los ESCs estaban mal configurados entre muchos otros problemas.

Flight testing

Today we will continue with flight testing. Yesterday we made a lot of progress. I think we are getting closer and closer to actual flight. Today we will solder the ESCs and the motors directly since it seems that some of the bullet connectors were working poorly and causing some of the motors to suddenly stop. We hope that this will help fix that problem.

Today we will continue to do fly attempts and PID tuning. I think we have reached a good P value. We are going to stay close to that P and change the I and D values. Let's see what happens.

Arducopter Beta 2

Recientemente salio una version nueva del codigo de Arducopter. Esta nueva version trae muchisimos cambios y mejoras a la plataforma. Espero que esto nos ayuden a lograr finalmente volar!

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-beta-2-releasegps

Gabriel

Another forum post at DIYDrones

After doing lots of tests and PID tuning today we made another post at DIYDrones talking about our current situation and the problems we are having. We also posted some videos of our tests.

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/arducopter-pid-tuning-and

I really hope we get some good replies. Anyway things are looking good. Also tomorrow we will pickup new packages from SparkFun and Aeroquad with some goodies that might help us out.

New Aeroquad order

Today we will make a new order from Aeroquad. Now that we have more time to work on flying until the happy hours we want to take this time to upgrade our platform. We will be buying new props since the ones we have were scratched in a crash. Also we want to buy new ESCs, the ones we have are pretty low quality. In addition we will be getting new bullet connectors. We have read that poor quality bullets can result in lots of problems so we want to eliminate that variable since a lot of people are complaining about the bullet connectors we have.

Forum posts en DIYDrones sobre nuestros problemas con el helicoptero

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/wobblyness-and-oscillations

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/flight-worthiness-of-trunk

Creamos estos dos nuevos posts en el foro de Arducopter para ver si la comunidad nos puede ayudar para hacer que la plataforma vuele. Esto despues de haber una conversacion inicial con los desarrolladores a traves del live chat de los foros, incluyendo una conversacion con Jani, uno de los desarrolladores principales. Espero que nos puedan ayudar a encontrar el problema pronto.

Primera prueba de vuelo del arducopter

Todavia no vuela pero estamos haciendo bueno progreso ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loExSfeFE4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpyKBsFlA54

Gabriel

Comunicacion entre Arducopter y ArduRC

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/Quad_Serial_Commands

Esto es lo que vamos a utilizar como base para la comunicacion entre los proyectos de ambos equipos. Hay que anadirle la habilidad de recibir los comandos de vuelo y la habilidad de enviar la data de los sensores nuevos y otros datos que todavia no ofrece el codigo.

Gabriel

New IR Thermometer

After doing more testing with the old IR thermometer (MLX90614) and re-reading the data sheet Ive realized that it isn't appropriate because the field of view (FOV) is too wide. Since our target is very small we need a thermometer with a smaller FOV in order to get a more accurate reading. This seems like a very good option. Let's buy it ASAP.

http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/technologies/semiconductors/analog/sensors/temperature/Pages/4099248-MLX90614ESF-ACF-TU.aspx


MLX90614ESF-ACF-TU

Francisco

Conexion de los arduinos a traves de I2C

Probamos hoy conectar dos arduinos y comunicarlos a traves de I2C. Resulto ser bastante sencillo. Creo que podemos considerar esto como una posibilidad para el proyecto.

Gabriel

Calculadoras de Prescalers y otras cosas de ATmega

http://www.et06.dk/atmega_timers/
http://www.b9.com/elect/avr/kavrcalc/

Esto nos debe ayudar para el Lab :)

Gabriel

Tutorial para conectar Arduinos a través de I2C

http://www.instructables.com/id/I2C-between-Arduinos/

Con esto podríamos hacer lo que dice el Profe de usar un Arduino controlado por APM para conectar los sensores.

Gabriel

Setting up Timers in AVR

Aqui hay un tutorial de como utilizar timers en AVR usando assembly. Esta muy bueno.

Gabriel

http://www.avrbeginners.net/

Setting up a Timer

Setting up a timer is pretty simple - once you know how it basically works. Once you've set up a timer successfully you can also use the other modes without much learning as all timer modes are based on the same principles.

Right now, we just want to let an LED light up for 1 second after reset. What do we need for that? The best way is to set up a timer (Timer1, the 16 bit timer), switch the LED on and wait. As the timer overflow has an own interrupt, we can write an ISR that switches the LED off again.

First, some stuff that has to be prepared/kept in mind. The following is assumed:

- The program is running on a AT90S2313, the LED is connected to PortB.4 (this pin doesn't have any special functions), cathode connected to PortB.4 via a current limiting resistor and the anode connected to Vcc. That means that the LED is ON when the port pin is LOW.

- The micro is running at 4MHz

- How do we get the timer to overflow after 1 second? 1 second means 4 Million cycles, so we need a big prescaler: 1024 seems to be good. 4,000,000 / 1024 = 3906,25; so after 3906 timer clock cycles the timer has to overflow. As the timers count UP and then overflow from $FFFF to 0 (that's when the ISR is called), we have to load TCNT1 with -3906 (=0xF0BE)

- The interrupt vector for Timer1 overflow is at address 0x0005

Here's the code: (don't forget to include 2313def.inc!!!)

.org 0x0000 rjmp reset .org 0x0005 rjmp led_off reset: ldi r16, low(RAMEND) out SPL, r16 ldi r16, high(0xF0BE) out TCNT1H, r16 ldi r16, low(0xF0BE) out TCNT1L, r16 ldi r16, 0b00000101 out TCCR1B, r16 ldi r16, 0b10000000 out TIMSK, r16 sei sbi DDRB, 4 cbi PortB, 4 loop: rjmp loop led_off: push r16 in r16, SREG push r16 ldi r16, 0 out TCCR1B, r16 sbi PortB, 4 pop r16 out SREG, r16 pop r16 reti

; reset vector address ; when reset occurs, jump to label "reset" ; Timer 1 overflow interrupt vector address ; jump to "led_off" ; ; reset handler: ; setup stack pointer ; ; ; load timer 1 register (TCNT1) with 0xF0BE ; ; ; ; ; set CS10 and CS12 for 1024 cycle prescaler ; ; ; set bit 7 in TIMSK to enable Timer 1 overflow interrupt ; ;and enable global interrupts ; ; set PortB.4 to output ; switch LED on ; ; loop forever (we're waiting for the interrupt) ; ; ; This is the ISR: ; preserve r16 ; save MCU status register ; ; ; stop Timer 1 (clear CS10 and CS12) ; ; Turn off LED ; ; restore SREG ; ; restore r16 ; return from interrupt

Simulating this code in AVR Studio showed that the LED is turned off after 3999759 cycles. When changing the timer value to 0xF0BD the simulator turns the LED off after 4000783 cycles (3999759 + 1024).

This is not the fastest code you can write for this specific problem. As the micro isn't doing anything during the loop, the ISR doesn't need to preserve any register or the SREG, but I included this anyway to remind you of that important step.

No it's up to you to alter this code to use a prescaler of 256 or turn the LED off after some other time interval. Then the TCCR1B and TCNT1 values change. You can also connect the LED to PortB.3 (Output Capture Pin) and use the Output Compare mode of Timer 1 to make the LED flash! It's now just a matter of reading the datasheet or the AVR Architecture -> Timers page (see "modes").

ArduPilot Telemetry Protocol

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-telemetry-protocol

El autor dice al final:

"I know the protocol sucks but is very flexible and i can add and remove new strings when ever i want without damaging the parsing of every groundstation. In ArduPilot Mega i will use ONLY binary protocol with Message ID's, Payload Bytes and CheckSums, better/faster/efficient/flexible..
"

Hay que explorar si vamos a usar esto como una base para la comunicacion con el ArduRC.

Frames, frame, frames

El frame de Rusty no se si llego a enviar por que PayPal cancelo el pago. Yo recibi un email que traía un tracking number pero lo verifique y no parece que lo haya llegado a enviar. Así que lo mas probable no salio nunca. El esta de vacaciones hasta el 15 así que si no lo envió ya pues no podemos contar con ese frame.

Francisco había conseguido un frame de una compania de Polonia que se ve bastante nice y esta bastante barato. Pero no hab contestado asi que no sabemos si de verdad no los va a vender o no.

La otra opción es una tienda alemana que se llama MikroKopter. Ellos venden un frame que se ve bastante nice aunque es medio caro pero eso no importa. También esta nítido que venden hasta el power distribution board. Otra ventaja es que un tipo en los foros de DIYDrones esta usando este mismo frame así que le podemos preguntar a el si nos pasa algo malo o si no nos funciona. http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/MikroKopter Algo que me preocupa es que dicen que quedan pocos de todos los frames.

Los motores y los props están disponibles en store.aeroquad.com. Ambos están en stock. Lo único que me preocupa un poco son los motores que quedan como 30.

Para pagar en estas tiendas se necesita PayPal. Vamos a tener que crear una.

Gabriel

StackExchange de Electronics y Robotics

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/

StackOverflow pero para electronicos. Aqui podriamos hacer preguntas y buscar mas informacion.

Omar

Beagle Board - Es como un Arduino pero para aplicaciones donde se necesite mucho mas poder

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Beagle_Board

The Beagle Board is a low-power, low-cost single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key. The Beagle Board was designed with open source development in mind, and as a way of demonstrating the Texas Instrument's OMAP3530 system-on-a-chip. The board was developed by a small team of TI engineers.^[1]

Si fuésemos a hacer lo de computer vision para el copter podríamos usar algo así. Pero ya eso seria para Capstone u otra clase.

Gabriel

GPS Locked , Incorrect Longitude

Tengo reflashear el GPS! FUCK YEAH!

:D

... PERO... el APM+IMU sirven!

y el GPS tambien...soon :)

Pero reflashear implica soldadura... asi que no podre hacerlo este fin de semana =*(

Dato curioso:


Nuestra longitud es mas o menos -67 o 67 hacia el oeste. EL GPS reporta 188.

188 - ( - 67 ) = 255

Siempre que veo 255 me llama la atencion. Me atreveria apostar que el bug del GPS es por un error de signos. (Estan usando numeros unsigned cuando deben ser signed, o una inconsistencias en los complementos) ... Anyways, thought I'd share with fellow nerds..

Francisco

Recibimos este reply

Esto es relacionado a si la plataforma es viable para el demo:

if you really need it why don'T you build it yourself?
you have apm and oilpan, ok
you need 4 motors+propellers+ESCs
and a battery
some aluminium profile should do for testing and demo

Creo que esto nos trae un poco de esperanza.

Francisco

Motors, ESC and the like

Hey guys,

I've been reading up information on which ESC motor combination to use...and its a whole lot of information. This choice is not trivial at all. I'm gonna keep reading, and get more information to see if I can truly make an educated choice about which to get, but it would be REALLY ideal if we got that whole frame with the motors and electronic stepper controller together, the world would be wonderful. Anyways, I'll keep on reading but I'm not a hundred percent sure I'll make the right choice.

Regards and all that good stuff,

Omar Ferrer

Tutorial para bregar con strings en AVR

Este tutorial esta muy bueno para aprendar a bregar con strings en AVR.

http://www.avrbeginners.net/

AVR Architecture -> SRAM and Flash -> Working with Strings

El resto de los tutoriales en site son buenos tambien.

Gabriel

Problem? Si, bien grande.

Nos dieron reply al post. Jani, aparemente uno de los desarolladores tiene esto que decir.

Jani Hirvinen replied to your discussion "Is Arducopter an appropriate platform for our project?" on DIY Drones  ------------ Simple answer is: No Could it do it: Yes Due date December: No way  Then a bit more explanations. I don't thing any one the currently available quad/hexa platforms can do this. It needs a lot of extra programming and working with sensors. Ok ArduCopter would be rather good platform to start making this happen and this is due that there has been already obstacle avoidance and sonars on ArduCopter and we are working more with those.  Developing this type of application even with one of the best quad platforms like AscTec/Mikrodrones etc would take a lot more than few months, you said that project due date is at end of December. Will be really hard if not impossible with this time frame.  Ok if we just have simple GPS navigation and possible bottom/sideways ultrasonar systems to make simple obstacle avoidance and altitude hold, yes in that case it would be possible but to make it follow this 6" line.. No i'm afraid that this is too much.  MikroKopter / MicroDrones have good GPS hold, best hold is on MicroDrones what I've seen on videos but then again MD systems starts around +20.000 USD what I know so they are totally different level systems. AscTec Quad prices starts at 4-5000 USD. AscTec allows external programming but MD is closed. MK as far as I know does not have any sonars facing down or sideways. They use barometer for altitude hold. I never even saw sonars on their sites.  Could ArduCopter platform used for this: Yes you could use it, and this is not yes just because we make them in here. There are many reasons, like I said we already had obstacle avoidance, we already used sonars, we already had basic GPS hold and we also have totally open and hackable software where nothing is hidden or closed.  So to include infrareds and others would not be impossible it just needs a lot of work to do this. Maybe in your case we can create even special frame for this purpose. Only enemy on this project would be your time frame.  Following that physical cable, ummm sonar might not be the best idea but maybe visual tracking could do the trick. There are already some projects to make camera based tracking but those projects also needs some time.  But after all.. This is exactly for what ArduCopter and whole ArduCopter development platform has been designed and planned for. Eg modifying it to higher purposes.  I would loooove to see more this type of applications done with ArduCopter. Path is long but it creates really good applications. ------------

In short: Cool idea, no way for december. Tenemos que reunirnos lo antes posible y hablar con el Profesor para ver que vamos a hacer al respecto.

Francisco

Post para el foro de DIY Drones - Is Arducopter an appropriate platform for our project?

Vamos a poner este post en el foro de arducopter para ver cuan viable los developers piensan que es nuestro proyecto y hacer cualquier cambio que tengamos que hacer ASAP.


http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/is-arducopter-an-appropriate

We're a group of 3 senior computer engineering students and we're thinking of using Arducopter as platform for a class project. We want to build a prototype for what we call a "Power Line Analyzer". This power line analyzer would be an autonomous quadrotor vehicle that would fly over high voltage power lines and gather temperature data of the power line. The actual prototype that we are considering would do the following. Using GPS coordinates of the "power lines" and sonar data, from an a on-board sonar that would be located under the copter, the copter would follow a 6 inch in diameter tube and using infrared thermometers it would store the temperature data of the tube. When a certain threshold temperature is detected the copter would snap a picture and save it on an SD card. Inside the tube we would place some kind of heating elements to increase the tube temperature. In addition the copter would avoid obstacles in its path which it would detect using sonar. This obstacle avoidance would be implemented in the simplest way possible e.g. only avoidance through the sides would be considered. Although this last requirement is not essential if it's too hard to implement. The final due date for the project is around late December. Do you think the Arducopter project is mature enough currently to build this project?

Some components we are thinking on using:

• JPEG Trigger
• JPEG Color Camera
• Infrared Thermometer
• Ultrasonic Range Finder
• XtramBee Board

Gabriel

TODO for parts ordering.

We've made good progress at making a good list of parts we have to order. But we still have a lot of doubts. Here are some TODO items that we have to deal with shortly.

TODO:
*Determine which GPS component to use, and if we have all the pieces sets.

*Determine if the RC receiver/transmitter is the best one.

*Read up more on sonar.

Omar

Possible arducopter parts, possible outdated

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/arducopter-parts-list-help

I'm still looking for a good parts list for arducopter. This seems like it can be helpful but I'm not sure if it's complete.

Omar

Interesting project related to Arduino

http://code.google.com/p/python-on-a-chip/

Python-on-a-Chip (p14p) is a project to develop a reduced Python virtual machine (codenamed PyMite) that runs a significant subset of the Python language on microcontrollers without an OS. The other parts of p14p are the device drivers, high-level libraries and other tools.

Interesting but this definitely reminds me of:

"Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems." - Jamie Zawinski

Francisco

Store for arducopter frame

http://store.fahpah.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ackit1sol

Parts Missing

We are at a stalemate. Neither of the projects have the required shields.

For the Arducopter:

IMU/Oilpan 1.0v

http://store.diydrones.com/product_p/br-0012-01.htm�

Programa para hacer esquematicos para Arduino

http://fritzing.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxhd4HKrWpg

ABOUT FRITZING Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers, artists, researchers and hobbyists to work creatively with interactive electronics. We are creating a software and website in the spirit of Processing and Arduino, developing a tool that allows users to document their prototypes, share them with others, teach electronics in a classroom, and to create a pcb layout for professional manufacturing.

Esto nos debe ayudar con el proceso de diseno :)

Gabriel

ArduCopter Ships in November!?

DIY Drones

A message to all members of DIY Drones

ArduCopter pre-orders are now open! $499 for the full UAV, with autopilot and GPS. $270 for the airframe. Shipments will begin in early Nov, first come first served, so get your pre-order in now! Details here Order here.

Ok, WTF?

No seriously, bien BIG WTF?

We need to sit down and think this shit through, hardcore, FAST.

Francisco

Arducopter IMU

I'm still exploring if the Arducopter IMU will offer us enough ports to add all the new sensors we want to add. I found this diagram that might help us out.

Francisco

Some assembly notes

Output:1
Input:0

Orden de SparkFun esta noche

Esta noche estabamos pensando comprar varias cosas en SparkFun. Hasta ahora pensabamos pedir:

1 sonar (para ir probandolo)
1 JPeg Trigger + Camara (Para ir probandolo y la camara estaba out of stock y ahora esta de nuevo disponible pero no quedan mucho)
1 Kit de Arduino (Para Carlos)
1 IMU (Quizas)

Gabriel

Diametro de una linea de transmision

Estaba buscando el diametro de una linea de tranmision de 400kv para ver que sonar deberiamos comprar y encontre esto: http://www.see.asso.fr/jicable/2007/Actes/Session_A1/JIC07_A11.pdf

Este dice que es de alrededor 5 pulgadas de diamertro. Yo creo que eso es buenas noticias por que es bastantre grande asi que es mas facil de detectar con el termometro y el sonar. Asi que me imagino que para la prueba usaremos algun tubo pvc de ese diametro o algo a si.

Gabriel

Great avr tutorial

http://www.google.com.pr/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQhgIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avr-asm-download.de%2Fbeginner_en.pdf&ei=6B8NTfLgFsOC8gaJ5aiTCg&usg=AFQjCNEEWUugo7owiAGnl4DOzR1UURVS7g&sig2=ZyQi9Iiq3f7BJ7FY8uV4vg

This is really great AVR tutorial I found. I really hope it helps us prepare for the next lab.

Omar

Arudino Programming con Eclipse

Aparente y alegadamente se puede hacer todo nice desde Eclipse. Programacion en C/C++ y assembly en adicion a subir al codigo al board sin avrdude por command line o algun otro truco feo. Ya casi termine de configurar a Eclipse para usarlo para esto pero me quede trancado con algo. Les envio los tutoriales que estaba siguiendo y si pueden tratenlo y den sus resultados. Si lo hacen en Linux se les va hacer la vida mas facil, creo.

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/Eclipse
http://robertcarlsen.net/2009/10/31/arduino-in-eclipse-989
http://www.chipkin.com/articles/using-eclipse-with-arduino-duemilanove

Gabriel

A Tour of the Arduino Internals: How does Hello World actually work?

http://www.urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2009/05/an_tour_of_the_arduino_interna.html

Todos deberian leer eso para entender como funciona el Arduino. Aun no lo he acabado pero me esta gustando mucho.

Omar

Assembly and Arduino

http://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/dpw17/assembly_and_arduino/

We are still not one hundred percent sure how to code in assembly for the arduino so we asked on our favorite site!! :) Let's what the reddit community has to say about this. I really love it that reddit has a /r/arduino.

Gabriel

Costo estimado del Arducopter y otra información

COSTS

Motors 4 x 20$ = 80$
ESCs 4 x 20$ = 80$
Frame = 70$ - 150$
APM = 60$
IMU = 160$
CON/PIN HEADERS = 10$
CABLE = 10$
CONNECTORS = 10$
SUM = 480$ - 560$

COMPASS = 40$
GPS = 35$
CABLE = 5$
SUM = 80$

+SHIPPING ~ 10$ - 60$

COMPLETE ~ 570$ - 700$

Supuestamente esto esta viejo así que no sea cual confiable sea. Tienen mas información útil: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=316305

Gabriel

Información de contacto de los desarroladores de arducopter

Decidimos que deberiamos contactar a los desarrolladores de arducopter para ver cuan viable es nuestro proyecto y para ver si la plataforma provee todo lo que necesitamos. No encontré manera de contactarlos así que hice un issue en el bug tracker de ellos: https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/issues/detail?id=50

Gabriel

Estatus actual del proyecto

En la reunión del viernes el Profesor dijo basicamente que nos olvidáramos de lo del vídeo y lo de computer vision por varias razones. El propuso que hicieramos el tracking de las lineas y la evasión de obstáculos con sonares. El sabado me reuni con alguien que fue director de la AEE y le dije de la idea del proyecto y le gusto mucho. También con las cosas que me dijo me surgió otra idea. En vez de estar buscando obstrucciones en las lineas simplemente hacer un trace de la temperatura de la linea y cuando hayan temperaturas por un encima de un umbral pues se toma una foto. En vida real esto sirve para ver donde hay conexiones de lineas que están en peligro de romperse por la alta temperatura causada por la alta resistencia en estas causada por toda la materia que va cayendo del ambiente.

Hoy nos reunimos con el y le propusimos la siguiente funcionalidad:

• Seguimiento de lineas con sonar + GPS
  
• Perfil de la temperatura de la linea con termómetros infrarrojos
• Cámara para tomar fotos
• SD reader para grabar fotos y data
• Evasión de obstáculos en 2D con sonar. Osea si hay un objeto en el rumbo de navegacion se trata de evadir moviéndose hacia aun lado y que antes de moverse a un lado verifique que no haya obstáculo en esa dirección

El parecia bastante complacido con este feature set pero aun no estamos convencidos de cuan realizable sea tomando en cuenta el tiempo que tenemos. Asi que le dijimos que ibamos a investigar mas, especialmente sobre la evasión de obstáculos, los termómetros y el seguimiento de las lineas entonces que después le decíamos cual iba a ser la funcionalidad final que íbamos a implementar. Nos dio hasta el lunes para hacer esto.

Gabriel

Compra de SparkFun

Hoy nuestro grupo va a pedir varias cosas de Sparkfun, la mas importante siendo el ArduPilotMega (APM). Esto para poder ir familiarizandonos con nuestro micro y quizas usarlo para los laboratorios. Si este no llega a tiempo o no lo podemos soldar y preparar a tiempo pues planeamos usar el Arduino Diecimila de Omar. Es un board bien diferente pero tambien es compatible con arduino.

Gabriel

Aeroquad and ArduPilot - More Research

El aeroquad usa un arduino duemilanove o un arduino mega CON un IMU 5DOF aparte.
PERO ese IMU ya no lo venden asi que recomiendan Oilpan que es el imu de arducopter.
Asi que efectivamente el ardupilot y el aeroquad son bastante similares "hardware speaking".
El ardupilot es simplemente un arduino mega + oilpan (IMU, la placa azul de arriba)
This is how i understand it so far.

Francisco

Is the Aeroquad using the ArduPilot?

I've kept reading information about Aeroquad but I'm still not sure if the Aeroquad uses the ArduPilot. But if it does then it seems like a great option.

Omar

Aeroquad build instructions and other information

Encontre las instrucciones para construir el Aeroquad: http://code.google.com/p/aeroquad/source/browse/trunk/Documentation/Tutorial/AeroQuad%20Manual.pdf

Esto elimina una de las preocupaciones que Omar tenia sobre la plataforma.

Fracisco

ArduPilot thoughts

Hey everyone,

I read up a bit on the ArduPilot as planned and I have a few thoughts. Frankly I would like to spend a bit longer before giving a full opinion, as the amount of info available to read is staggering, yet its hard to find exactly the information we need. However, this is my preliminary opinion, and if any of you have read or skimmed over it, and disagree, by all means correct me. The ArduPilot definitely has potential to support a quadcopter, but I'm afraid it has too much potential. As in, there is actually very little done for us.

For starters, the ArduPilot is "divided" into two projects. The ArduPilot, and the ArduPilot Mega. As seen here though, only one of them (ArduPilot Mega) is apt for a quad copter (at least according to the people in charge, so we should trust them :P) http://diydrones.com/notes/ArduPilot (scroll to the bottom).

The ArduPilot Mega seems to still be in development. Though it says so in the home page, this information (on the homepage) seems to be a but out of date, but regardless, I'd honestly have to browse the code base further to get a better feel of how far in development it is. Over all, what does worry me significantly, is that I couldn't find much documentation supporting specifically the use of board/kit in use of a quad copter. Again, I'd have to further browse the code base/site to see, but from what I've searched I haven't found any diagrams, recommendations, or samples of how to set it up physically to a quad copter. This could work as a great disadvantage, unless the professor actually prefers us to do this that way. In general, to me it seems like this kit/project is more aimed at those who have some RC experience, that already know a bit about aerospace and the science/physics behind it, where you may already have a frame and a model set in mind, and you are just looking for something to control said frame/model.

My biggest worry is that there doesn't seem to be someone who has fully documented the process of mounting a quad, which its probably too complicated for us to do from scratch. That is my biggest worry. But honestly I haven't read enough, so I may be wrong. Also, as carlos mentioned, w could use it for other dines, so if we want to do another kind of drone, then we could

Preliminary Verdict: I'll have to browse further to get the complete opinion, but right now, it seems to me, like this kit does not fit well with us.

Regards,

Omar Ferrer