3 Flights, 3 auto-lands. It’s not an exact science, but we just need to get the aircraft down onto the ground safely and gently. And here is the onboard video of the 3 sunset landings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fgVt5OetlI
It most certainly is science, “Aeronautical science”
I’m trying not to spam this group too much, but here is the onboard video from the 3 autolands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fgVt5OetlI
How you made it?
Hi Rickardo, I have some opencv + python scripts that load/parse the flight data and draw over the top of the onboard camera footage.
Curtis are you sharing any of the code at RCGroups or some such thing? I am more into the hardware make and upgrading rather than the code aspect of things but this is fascinating!
Hi Chris, all the code is open-source and available here: https://github.com/AuraUAS
It is not derived from px4 or arduplane, it’s a completely independent project based on my last 10 years or so of experience.
@clolsonus Like OSD, but its more complicated, is it in FC or in OSD? what FC you use? i think it is good auto landing.
Hi Rickardo, the flight controller is self designed based on beaglebone but with my own cape. I do use some APM2, but only the sensor part. All the sensor data gets sent to the beaglebone for processing. The hud and augmented reality components are drawn in the video after the flight. The main purpose is to show the accuracy (or lack of accuracy) in the EKF and be able to watch the FC do it’s work in real time. I work full time for the U of MN aerospace eng. dept, but I started working on my FC long before I joined them.
Here’s a picture of my ‘old’ flight controller. I’m in transition though … the APM2 will go away and get replaced by a ‘teensy’ real soon. Or I might just go with bolderflight hardware which is way nicer than I can build myself: http://bolderflight.com/
missing/deleted image from Google+
hm, I think we cant move on yet from pixhawk, or apm, but its great to hear new FC that maybe going to be wide market (or at least we use it and reliable. Its good to hear that you working for new technology of UAV. maybe someday we will use your tech.
Hi Rickardo, I’m not trying to talk anyone out of px4 or apm… they are both pretty amazing and cool. Also, pixhawk hardware is hard to beat when it comes to functionality and price. The AuraUAS effort is primarily to support university research right now, (previously it was developed to support some NOAA research and also some business efforts that are mostly on pause right now.) I also wanted to have something that I understand from bottom to top. I mostly do fixed wing work, and the rest of the world seems to be concentrating their efforts more on multi-rotor. So my stuff is different … it might do many things worse, might not do other things at all, and might do one or two things better … I think the overall system is simpler than the “big tent” px4/apm software stacks, but then I wrote most of the AuraUAS code myself so I’m not totally objective.
For whatever it’s worth, my HUD overlay system is written in python/opencv and I have code to import the px4 flight logs, so anyone flying px4 could make these videos from their own flights if they wanted to experiment with this. All you need is an action cam taped to your airplane, press record during the flight, and save the flight log. The software automatically figures out the alignment of data and video and draws the HUD overlay. If you had a test flight you could share, I could whip up a quick render for you.
My existing system uses an APM2 board (with custom firmware to transform it into a sensor head) along with a Beaglebone. I designed a cape to help streamline the packaging and reduce external wiring, and provide power regulation for the avionics. That’s open-source and you could get that design built from expresspcb if you wanted. I don’t have high level instructions for how to do this, and don’t really have capacity to sell/support the cape myself. Longer term I’m moving towards a teensy based sensor head system. Pretty much all my code and design files and available docs are here: https://github.com/AuraUAS This isn’t currently a plug an play system like the px4 … but I think it does some things pretty nicely, I’ve tried to keep the code and structure as simple as I can, and it is all open for inspection and reuse if you follow the license terms of the code.