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Dear Friends,

after one week of work to first sample of electronics , we are ready with workspace enviroment for developer that want join our team.

Electronic Specification: 

In VR Gimbal We decide to use this kind of electronic parts  :

• as micro we use STM32F1 64 pin.
• 1 MPU6000 + HMC5883 for Z axis Direct Drive CAM using i2c bus.
• 1 MPU6000 on spi bus. for Roll and Pitch cam.
• EEPROM for storage the parameter of gimbal.
• 3 ST Driver for manage 3 Brushless Motors with 9 Hardware PWM Output.
• 1 input for Ublox GPS.
• 4 PPM Radio Input or 1 PPMSUM radio input until 8 channel or more.
• 1 Telemetry port for mavlink control.

As developer enviroment we use VR Ide Universal (based on eclipse) compatible with VRBRAIN and MP32 board now also with VR GIMBAL.

The developer lib and hal at the begin will be compatible with our APM_LIB ported to STM32F1 library the same used on MP32F1 board. 

That support all the APM library available and arduino language sintax .

In our code we decide to port on VR Gimbal :

• AP_COMMON
• AP_VAR
• AP_InertialSensor
• AP_IMU
• AP_Camera
• AP_Mount
• Mavlink

and other utility yet available on our standard F1 package ... 

We would develop also a utility for manage the board from 

If you are interest to join our work in developing stage will be a special price for you of 75 euro of 3 axis control board + 15 euro for IMU  (at the moment is available only 20 board) .

You name will be in the list of developer of this great project. The code will be opensource as other in this great community ... the support in development and donation are welcome .

For more info about the project contact me at info@virtualrobotix.com

In our roadmap the first  stable version of code will be available in 1 month. 

In the next week will be available the enviroment , with hal and library , then starting to implement the code functionality for manage the first opensource 32 bit 3 axis direct drive.

I hope that you like our project and join us in development.

In VR Lab mecatronix group are working hard and is yet available a good gimbal for GOPRO

And also is coming Gimbal for pro and semi pro camera.

I hope that you like our work :)

Best

Roberto Navoni

for more info : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/group/vr-gimbal-user-group?xg_source=activity

Earlier my plan was to mount my Galaxy Nexus 7» tablet on my radio, but I decided that the Nexus7 is too large and heavy for this.

Therefore, I decided to use my Samsun Galaxy S III phone in this project. I have used the same type of back cover so it is simple to add/remove the phone on the radio.

On the back of the Galaxy S III back cover, I have mounted a 433Mhz 3DR telemetry radio module in a small plastic box. Then all you need is a USB OTG cable to connect the 3DR radio to the phone.


Ready to go

Without the phone

From the side - have used an FPV monitor Mount from goodluckbuy, that I have modified

From the rear, showing the 3DR telemetry radio mounted on the backcover.

Dear Friends,

after 4 months of hard work the first Virtualrobotix RTF frame is ready , we received first two sample yesterday . We are very happy to this result .

We start some month ago presenting some design concept.

http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/what-kind-of-design-do-you-prefer-for-your-next-drone

Then after a long selection and technical evaluation of platform doing on 3d cad , testing the frame with FEM simulation and then send the prototype to our maker company.

The next step is test on air. Inside we put our flight control platform VR Brain , 3DR Ublox GPS , 3DR radio telemetry module , VR ESC and VR Radio .

We are working hard on a lot of component and we'll be on air in one month .

• The VR Copter design is from italy :) 
• This Copter is in a 550 category. 
• The weight of frame is around 330 gr.
• Below support different configuration of payload ad in front will be available a revision of VR Copter with VR Direct Drive Gimbal that's coming ,too
• The tile is removable , so if drone crash you can change the tail or in future will be different configuration available.
• We are available also to customize the frame with your colors or texture on it . With our modular approach we haven't limit to customize our platform.

We need your help to understand if you like our new and innovative drone platform and what kind of feature do you like on it :)

We are searching farm in the world that have competitive price for production of this frame . We have two kind of version of project one for going in production with professional 3D printer. We are evaluation also to buy one . If someone have some suggestion about a good product at competitive price that's welcome :)

The other opportunity is to produce by molding technology process , but we need a good price for it :) In italy is not enough competitive price :)

 if you can help us comment this post or contact us at info@virtualrobotix.com 

Best

Roberto Navoni

After a long time with wind, rain and snow, the weather turned in my favor, so I was able to test my frame using my great VRBRAIN + LEA-6 GPS.

The quad feels very responsive and stable (using the latest firmware). Tested standard mode, simple mode, alt hold, loiter and auto land – all without any problems.

Did not have anyone to help me filming, so I have only filmed a short test of loiter

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uT_29bg_Fl4

It’s me moving in the end of the film, not the copter.

Hope to get more days like this

Thank you  Roberto, Emilie  and the rest of the team 

After 4 months of work we finish to port AP_HAL library to VR Brain.

so now we are ready for test Arduplane on VRBrain and see our VR Plane fligh in the sky :)

In this video you can see only first test that we doing last week.

Our configuration are :

• VR Brain 4.0 
• Mediatek GPS 
• Radio Hitech aurora 9 
• Battery 3S 1800 mah
• We decide to use a Sail Plane EasyGlider Pro for our first test , it fly very well :

We are using  3 servos configuration 1 for control the roll of plane connect to two servo ,  one for pitch control and other for YAW control.

We try to fly 3 mode :

• manual for have a full direct control of Plane .
• stabilize for control auto stabilization of plane when we putted the stick in the center.
•  return to landing , this is the fist automatic functionality that we test on our VR Plane :) It's work very well and when reach the point start to Circle .

Fly a Plane is a lot different that fly a Multicopter , I fly for 4 years only multicopter but my first impression is that the plane fly in more natural way than a multicopter ... less problem .... more simple to control  but could be only a first impression :) 

So the plane have a lot of limit respect of Multicopter but it could be a very long flight time respect to Multicopter especially in Sail Plane configuration.

The video is developed by VR Media division , the Chief of division is Daniele that's  our beta tester of  VR Plane.

Thanks to the DevTeam and beta tester  for this great result.

Best

Roberto Navoni 

This is main board normally put on Gimbal frame near the Quad . 

This is the two options imu available normally is on camera module: 

2 axis with 3 accelerometer and 3 gyroscope 3 magnetometer in one version we use mpu6050 and in other we use mpu 9150 1 chip 9 DOF sensor.

Some friends start to design different kind of gimbal for our new board. The main difference respect of standard gimbal is that the mechanical frame need to be develop for each video sensor that you would like to use for your video. This frame is for Gopro Hero 2-3 in the design is important to move CG of camera for obtain better result during gimbal stabilization :)

This is the caratheristics of our : VR Gimbal :

Micro Controller is STM32F1 at 72 mhz.

3 Axis Brushless Direct Drive gimbal :

• Roll    (MOT1)
• Pitch  (MOT2)
• Yaw    (MOT3)

For each channel we have 3 high power pwm output .

I2C IMU that support 3 axis . It  is on camera module , so we can know exactly the position of camera and control in realtime the 3 Brushless motors.

We are developing two option :

• more traditional approach : MPU6050 (6 DOF) + HMC5883 (3 DOF)
• new sensor from inversense MPU 9150 (9 DOF)

1 USB port.

1 Serial port that support mavlink protocol.

1 Power module that support until 3S battery.

4 Radio RC Input for :

• Control ROLL Setup.
• Control Pitch Setup.
• Control YAW Setup.
• IR control repeater.

4 Analog Input 0-3.3v

1 IR Out , so is pssible to control a remote camera by its ir receiver.

The first batch of production will be available in 3 week it's better to reserve your board because there is a big request of this gimbal.

for more info send a mail to info@virtualrobotix.com

Best

Roberto Navoni

Today Marco doing a great test with his Hexa and VRBrain  he used firmware Arducopter32 2.9.2b developed by official DIYDRONES Team and ported on VRBrain and supported by VRI Lab Team.

The Dev Team doing a great work :) The main advantages of VRBRain is that is 30x faster of standard APM 2.5. The main difference is processor: VR Brain use STM32F4 168 mhz  and integrated FPU . APM used a standard AVR 8 bit processor at 16 mhz.

On VRBrain the scheduled time task  is respected at 99% , we have 80 % of cpu time in idle  and 3/4 flash free for  future development of firmware and 1 year of test by our VRI flight team.

With this feature you have a great smoth flight and the attitude is processed at 500 hz  , sensor is update at 1 khz instead of 250 hz in APM 2.5. 

In this test the VRBrain is controlled directly by AndroPilot. The application is available on Google Play and supported by Android 4.x Pad and Smartphone.

The AndroPilot is connected to VRBrain by 3DR radio telemetry module directly connected to USB port of ASUS Pad.

In video is possible to see the guided mode and Follow me functionality available on AndroPilot application.

The AndroPilot use internal GPS Pad for position of Marco and send every some times and when Marco move the new point to drone that follow Marco during his travel in the field.

I think that this result is very impressive . The integration of different technology is developed very good , It's only an early stage prototype but the result is yet very good . 

The board use by Marco is VR Brain 4.0 with enclosure and 3DR Ublox the quality of fix is very good. 

For more info of VRBRAIN : 

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-brain-v4-0

Best

Regards

Roberto Navoni

We are working on our new store and website . We are working hard on new and exting technology for advanced next generation drone.

On our website you can found a lot of information and detail about our product : BOD a new concept of customizable drone ...

Gola-kele  a great and professional frame for advanced waterprof application.

Will be available minisite with tutorial and a lot of video from our community .

A lot of info about our great 32 bit advanced Flight Control VR Brain , fully compatibile with Arduplane , Arducopter and Ardurover firmware with different option and special add on for have on your drone a real advanced linux pc based on 454 mhz arm cpu.

We have inside our catalog a lot great product ad also resell and support 3DR product like a GPS , Telemetry module and a lot of new advanced MADE IN ITALY products :)

if you would buy our product , need more info or would became a partner send us a mail at : info@virtualrobotix.com

if you would buy using our new ecommerce website going here : 

http://www.virtualrobotix.it

Best

Roberto Navoni

After an hard work  VR Lab team finish the porting of AP_HAL library to VRBRAIN.

Now we start doing first test on Arducopter rev 3.0 and Arduplane 2.71 . 

Emile yet start to do first test on Arducopter rev 3.0 the great news is  that in the next week we start to doing the first test of Arduplane on VRBrain . Our beta tester is Daniele Avagadri . He is member of Virtual Robotix Italia team and have a 12 years of experience on RC airplane.

here info about VR Brain the price start from 150 euro.

http://www.virtualrobotix.com/page/vr-brain-v4-0

Last video doing by Marco Robustini

Here you can find the firmware repository :

http://code.google.com/p/vrbrain

ap_hal project is available in ap_hal_newdir branch.

This is mini site for ready to fly firmware :

http://vrbrain.wordpress.com/

for more info send a mail to : info@virtualrobotix.com

original blog post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter-arduplane-and-ardurover-firmware-based-on-ap-hal-libra

Thanks to Emile , Andrew , Pat and the other member of the team for the support to our work and for the ap_hal multi platform code revision.

Best

Roberto Navoni

By John Baichtal

It’s remarkable how the MIT Hobby Shop presages aspects of the hackerspace movement…

In the 1937-38 academic year, Vannevar Bush, then Vice President of MIT, granted a group of 16 MIT students permission to use a room in the basement of building 2. With equipment they found around the Institute they set up a wood and metal shop in the 16-foot by 22-foot area. The club members chose the name “Hobby Shop” based on their belief in the philosophy that the well rounded individual pursued interests outside their profession – hobbies.

Now in its 75th year, we take a look back how the Hobby Shop began, and evolved to what it is today.

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted here given it's raising a lot of discussion elsewhere in regards to flying safely and it's safety month here.

Discussions on other forums have gone from 'what an idiot' to 'what a great job of being prepared and doing the right thing'. Personally, I thought it was a very good example of doing the right thing. The pilot was no where near the crowd and flying only over water where there was no chance of hurting anyone if anything went wrong, which it did. They had CAA approval being right next to the London city airport.

More information about the event including how a diver recovered the camera on the UAS Vision website.

The evolution of the code, the improvements made by the development team and the passion that we are putting in all this public project is bearing fruits that much hoped for.
ArduCopter is reaching commercial products, offers even more potential at an affordable cost.
Roberto Navoni and Emile Castelnuovo by "Virtualrobotix Italia" was the pionieer of ARM platform for ArduCopter code with the powerfull “VR Brain” (in this video), the new “PX4” now ranks at the same level but delayed on the roadmap, although we are almost ready for the first official stable release, i will start my hard test this week.
This blog post is dedicated to people, like me, using heart and mind for this passion, and this video to Leonard for making Acro mode much better!
Just to say thanks to the whole “ArduCopter Dev Team”, DIY Drone community, “3DRobotics”, “Virtualrobotix Italia” and all those who like me are following this project with the right spirit, that of fun and sharing experience… enjoy with ArduCopter!

Bests... Marco
-= ArduCopter Dev Team =-
https://www.facebook.com/marcouav
http://diydrones.com/profile/marco67

I can't help but notice that allot of time in the discussions on DIY Drones is spent arguing. Clearly this saps the energy of this community. It is best never to get involved. That being said I think everyone who is active in any open source community (not just owners) should watch this video.

Bike sheds

Original blog post : http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/dissent-in-an-open-source-community

"Cheap ADS-B on Amateur Drones":

Get a head start on the NASA Centennial Challenge's ADS-B requirements by plugging a $20 USB dongle into your drone and tracking nearby aircraft:

1. Start with an AR.Drone (or other ARM-based amateur drone).
2. Buy a $30 USB dongle.  See the rtl-sdr wiki for recommendations.
3. Compile and install the dump1090 Mode S/ADS-B decoder software with my easy-to-use cross-compiler setup: ardrone-dump1090-cross-compiler
4. Plug in the receiver.

And now you're decoding packets:

ADS-B sense-and-avoid is seen as critical to integrating unmanned aircraft into the National Air Space, and this is the beginning of a cheap "sense" solution.  Next up: "avoid".

Origina blog post : http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ads-b-decoding-on-an-ar-drone

This is first halt hold (acc z compensation)  + loiter of VRBRAIN using TauLab Firmware (Open Pilot Fork)

Dear Friends,

after some months of work Stefan send me last update about his work on Taulabs Project.

this is his Repo on Github : 

https://github.com/scenkov/vrbrain

Taulab is a fork of Original Open Pilot project , some guys decide to fork it and develop a code that support a lot of different platform .

The main advantages of this project is that native at 32 bit , use a operating system and all the code is write in pure c , not use c++ class. 

A lot more complex of other project but very interesting for developers.

The other advantages of work doing by Stefan is the opportunity to doing some benchmark between two firmware that use same hardware VR Brain . 

Could be interesting evaluate the quality and performance of firmware ported to 32 bit platform as Arducopter32 rev 2.9.1.1 and TauLab that instead use an Operating system and is 32 bit native. 

This is only a introduction of work doing by Stefan he promise me that create a post with more info about his works :)

So this is some example of how vrbrain fly with TauLab Project firmware 

Stable fly :

Simple Fly :

The next step will be : return to home , auto landing and navigation waypoint :)

Original blog post : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/vrbrain-and-last-update-on-taulab-project-by-stefan-first-loiter

In last two months we are working to new special console for control our drone , gimbal , rc models ... we develop a special application on android and some hardware interface for interconnect different kind of tx radio module. Our idea is to virtualize the hardware interface and have a flexible enviroment for control different kind of application.

This is only a preview of our work in the picture above is possible to see the direct interface with Jeti radio tx module.

In this kind of configuration the VR Droid PAD connect directly by a custom hardware the Jeti Tx module.

So is possible to use same reciver on your drone without change it. 

Description

News on revision 1.4 27/03/2013

1) New name , we change the name to application the old was VR DROID RC Trasmitter , we change it in VR Radio RC , more simple , we change also the link in google play:) 

2) We deactivate the limit inside the application and add some special function for customize the widget available on main screen , we prefer mantain priority on control of drone . So on the scrreen you choose to have only virtual stick.

3) Add the configuration of radius of virtual stick it's customizable directly inside the option pannel.

4) Improve Option pannel its more simple and better organized.

5) Add the Expo control for the stick.

5) Add feeback on 3 channel : gas ( on 1 speaker channel) and pitch  (on vibro) is fixed and you can add 1 other feedback and decide if is on yaw or roll on vibro . 

This is the link at : Vr Radio RC rev 1.4 in  google play :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laser.VrRadioRC&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5sYXNlci5WclJhZGlvUkMiXQ..

Try it and send us some suggestions for improve the application and the interface.

Best

Roberto Navoni

As a harbinger for the Paramount film “Star Trek – Into Darkness”, starting in May in Europe’s cinemas, last night a swarm of 30 mini-helicopters equipped with the LED lights drew the Star Trek logo into the skies over London. The choreography for the show was developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab from Linz (Austria). Quadrocopter maker Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the aircrafts.

30 LED-equipped mini-helicopters, for its four rotors also called quadrocopters, started last night to a spectacular show: They drew the Star Trek logo into the night sky over the city of London. Film producer Paramount had commissioned the flying light sculpture.

http://www.suasnews.com/2013/03/21782/quadrocopter-swarm-as-a-harbinger-of-paramounts-star-trek-into-darkness/

This week end we doing first Virtual Robotix Hacking day . 

Our Pilot meet Emile and assist to a first course for use VRBrain 4.0 on their drone.

In the morning we introduce the basic functionality of VR Brain and Mission planner and in the afternon we going to field and doing some flight test.

The next meeting will be about the advanced functionality of VR Brain.

After two days of teaching and testing  all Drone are on air and we help our Pilot to found a lot o small configuration problem. During the day we test all functionality available in last revision of code available for VRBrain 4.0 Arducopter32 rev 2.91-RC2 all work fine. The code after some bug correction work very well and   could be affordable , we need doing some hours of test before to confirm first impression.

Thanks to all guys that support this events :)

Marco join us in our test with his great review of VRBRAIN during a storm mounted on a medium okto coaxial quad.

more info FB  page : http://www.facebook.com/pages/VirtualRobotix-wwwvirtualrobotixcom/149125448465971?ref=hl

Best

Roberto Navoni

I´m going to start testing Roberto´s New VrDroidRC Android app.

To have a platform where I can use my Nexus 7 tablet as a combined Ground Station and radio (using AndroPilot or VrDroidRC), I have made a combined Nexus 7 dock and enclosure to mount the electronics.
 Maybe later VrDroidRC have telemetry and FPV support, so I don´t have to use AndroPilot ?

Here I have mounted a G10 plate and some 30mm standoffs on the back of a Nexus 7 protective back-cover

The other side

The other part, where I have made hole to support an Futaba style TX module and a 3DR 433Mhz telemetry module

From the other side (I´m using an ASSAN TX module in my test setup)
In the other hole I plan to Mount a display showing my TX LiPo status

From the side

Front

Running Roberto´s great app :-)

As it is now, it can be used as a mobile AndroPilot ground station (only need an USB OTG cable between the 3DR telemetry radio and the Nexus 7 tablet).

I´m waiting for some Components that I need to make Roberto´s OpAmp adapter that is needed to Connect the TX module to the mini-jack on the tablet.

I also need a battery (plan to use a 9,6V LiFe Tx battery) to Power the TX module + an 5V UBEC to get 5V for the OpAmp module.

I have used a small USB hub between the Nexus and the 3DR radio, so now I have 3 free USB if I want to test other modules..

I´ll continue when my OpAmp adapter is ready - showing how I made it..

When it is ready, I plan to test The App controlling a quad in a SIM, and if it Works my next test is controlling a Q-BOT micro quad.

Use this forum thread to discuss The app

Sorry about my bad speling..

After one year of first experiment with 3d fast prototyping frame , we try to choose a new design for the next step ,  help us to choose better : 

Some upgrade to proposal (B) :

Original design Proposal (0)

We start to evaluate next step and start to promote to our customers and our community new  design ... 

These are first proposal , reply to this blog post with your prefered design help us to choose better: 

First proposal (A):

Second proposal (B):

Third proposal (C):

If you want to propose some upgrade or different kind of approach  write your suggestions ... 

This is only first selection ... to be continued ...

by a young italian designer :  Carlo Ceruti  a www.virtualrobotix.com project :)

Best 

Roberto Navoni