Autonomous Flight for the Non "Ryerson Geniuses"

[sihinch]

Some of you may know that I was playing around a little with flight controllers and iNav earlier this year, to create Robo-plane. 

Robo-plane was my test bed whilst I learned iNav.  I managed to get it to fly stabilised, plus "SAFE" style mode, and with GPS loiter and GPS return to home.  So, it was capable of basic autonomous flight, but I didn't manage to program missions.  And then I crashed it (or to be more precise, it came apart in the air after repeated repairs!)

So, this winter I will be building Robo-Plane 2.  This is based on a Sonic Modell HD Wing but will have more gadgets.  I have an improved, more capable flight controller, the same GPS from the last one, and a digital airspeed sensor.  Plus it will be hooked up to the DJI digital FPV system for an OSD (showing me data as it flies.)  Oh, and I'm using TBS Crossfire Tx/Rx for the radiolink, to give me safety of long range (this is a 915MHz system.)

I will have a series of objectives, using iNAV, each building on the success of the last.  This is what I hope to accomplish:

1) Stabilised flight
2) SAFE straight and level flight
3) GPS loiter
4) GPS return to home
5) autolaunch
6) waypoint missions
7) auto-land

Pics to follow of the build so far.

[sihinch]

Photos so far

[Bill B]

This is awesome!

Is SAFE mode an 'angle' control mode?

[sihinch]

Hi Bill, yes, angle control mode.  So it will fly straight and level until a control input is added and the input has to be held to maintain the attitude. I actually hate this mode!

Question for you, since you are Genius and are reading this  .....do you think the pitot tube is too close to the fuselage to get a good airspeed reading?

[Andy Hoffer]

Some of you may know that I was playing around a little with flight controllers and iNav earlier this year, to create Robo-plane. 

Robo-plane was my test bed whilst I learned iNav.  I managed to get it to fly stabilised, plus "SAFE" style mode, and with GPS loiter and GPS return to home.  So, it was capable of basic autonomous flight, but I didn't manage to program missions.  And then I crashed it (or to be more precise, it came apart in the air after repeated repairs!)

So, this winter I will be building Robo-Plane 2.  This is based on a Sonic Modell HD Wing but will have more gadgets.  I have an improved, more capable flight controller, the same GPS from the last one, and a digital airspeed sensor.  Plus it will be hooked up to the DJI digital FPV system for an OSD (showing me data as it flies.)  Oh, and I'm using TBS Crossfire Tx/Rx for the radiolink, to give me safety of long range (this is a 915MHz system.)

I will have a series of objectives, using iNAV, each building on the success of the last.  This is what I hope to accomplish:

1) Stabilised flight
2) SAFE straight and level flight
3) GPS loiter
4) GPS return to home
5) autolaunch
6) waypoint missions
7) auto-land
avoid fate of Robo-Plane 1

Pics to follow of the build so far.

Does Robo-Plane 2 come with a lawn chair so you can just sit back, relax and watch it?!! 

Andy

[bfeist]

Simon just tosses it out the window of his house and it flies to TEMAC to have a great day of flying on his behalf.

[Bill B]

Hi Bill, yes, angle control mode.  So it will fly straight and level until a control input is added and the input has to be held to maintain the attitude. I actually hate this mode!

Question for you, since you are Genius and are reading this  .....do you think the pitot tube is too close to the fuselage to get a good airspeed reading?

Maybe, I would get it as far away as possible to be safe. But I would also be worried about the pitot tube picking up prop wash and not the actual airspeed.... where is the motor?
Is there an airspeed autotune? How is it calibrated?

[sihinch]

The motor is at the back! So no prop wash.

I need to find out about calibration, so more YouTube vids!

Thanks for the response Bill.