Arctic UAVs: Update

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Update

Sunday I took the plane out flying and had it taking pictures of a residential area in autopilot mode. It is now flying itself but is "snaking" back and forth between waypoints, like it is over correcting for the turns. After a few flights the battery died and in gliding it in for a landing I crashed it, hard. The photos tell it all. I glued it back together and it should be just fine now but it was one of those "well that's not good" moments.

This morning I ordered the FPV camera, tx/rx. It is a RangeVideo 1.3ghz 800mW transmitter with a V antenna, a color camera with night mode, mic and multi channel receiver with 3db whip antenna.

Don't worry, I fixed it. lol

1 comment:

Corey UptonMarch 30, 2011 at 5:20 PM
Camera should be here in about a week
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Acronyms and Terms

· APM- Ardupilot Mega board, commonly includes the IMU shield (also refers to the firmware loaded on the board)

· IMU- Internal Measuring Unit, Blue sensor board on top of the APM that contains a pressure sensor, 3axis accelerometer, a x-y gyro, and a z gyro.

· RTL- Return To Launch, a auto mode where the plane will fly to its take off location and loiter.

· Loiter- A mode where the plane will lock onto its current point and circle around it even in wind conditions.

· GCS- Ground Control Station, a program that runs on a computer to display readouts sent from the plane.

· AMP/APMP- Ardupilot Mega Planner, program that is responsible for loading firmware, flight plans, interfacing with Xplane simulator, and has a simple ground station.

· HIL- Hardware In Loop (simulator), a mode where a flight simulator inputs data to the APM which sends outputs to control the plane in the simulator, used for testing autopilot function.