Finally getting back to VRBrain testing. Just got it working with the latest MissionPlanner and AC2.6 that has some enhancements I am using for work. Originally developed and loaded via linux (OpenSuSE 12.2). Configured for a Y6 and Hexa. Hopefully will be flying by the weekend. Looking good!
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Dear FOX TEAM Member
Happy Halloween
FPV Tri-Copter Halloween Movie - Funny!!! from Pepelatz on Vimeo.
Dear Friends,
in these days i'm starting to test a lot of configuration using MP32 + VRIMU and Ardcuopter NG 32 and Arducopter32 2.0 .
The main problem is to set PID , in my revision of code i add Mixertable for fast Setup of different configuration.
In this video you can see my Heavy Lift Configuration ... we are working on complete RTF Hexa that include professional Gimbal with Pitch Roll and YAW stabilization.
What do you think about our last creation ? :) This is only the begin ...
Hello everyone,
a year and a half ago came Multipilot 1.0 an inertial platform for applications and semi-professional hobby. After the excellent results obtained from the marketing of these cards, and participation in development projects as open source and Aeroquad Arducopter and 'born www.virtualrobotix.com community.
Today our community is proud to present the evolution of our project: Multipilot 2.0 ST.
The characteristics of Multipilot 2.0 are:
- Hardware:
- Arm 3 Cortex processor STM32F103VET6. 72 Mhz
- Flash 512 Kbytes RAM 64 Kbytes
- 16-bit Timer 4
- SPI 2 (ADC Interface, MicroSD connection)
- I ² C 2 (First I2C (sensor), Second I2C control until ESC 12)
- USART 5 (GPS, DEBUG Console, XBee Pro Telemetry)
- USB 1 (Upload Firmware, Debug Console, Power Board for Debug)
- CAN 1 (Interconnection with Professional ESC 1 Mbit update rate)
- 6 PWM Output Bit 16 (ESC / Servo Control)
- 8 PWM Input 16 Bit (RC Input Channel, accept PPM SUM)
- 8 Analog Input 12 Bit.
- Professional 4 layers PCB.
- DC: DC 30 V (6s Lipo): 5 volts and 3.3 volts
- Sensor Board:
- Diydrones OilPan . (High quality entry level board)
- LN Professional Sensor Board: 3 Axis Accelerometer, 3 Axis Gyroscope, 3 Axis Magnetometer , 10 HZ Gps , High Quality Sensor for certify professional application.
- IDE and Development tools:
- Arduino IDE.
- Arm GCC Toolchain.
- Fully compatible with arduino wiring language.
- Firmware:
- On this platform will be available a lot of RC library developed by Virtualrobotix and Diydrones community.
- Standard software will be an improved revision of Arducopter , Ardupilot , Multiwii , Aeroquad . The first revision of code will be Arducopter NG .
- MultiFox Rev 4 special Arm Edition.
- Special Feature :
- Multipilot 2.0 is fully compatible with ArduPilotMega DiyDrones Board.
- OEM revision of Multipilot 2.0 available.
Official Thread : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot-20-sample-will-be
if you need more information or want support this project contact me by pm or in skype at contact virtualrobotix
We start to send the first batch of Multipilot32 to user and DevCoreTeam , i hope that this video will be usefull in power on and uploading firmare . In the next day will be available more info about the first flyable code . The first software that i upgrade to MP32 is Arducopter NG. The first revision of code will be only a porting of mono task application to new micro controller . This is only first step of our work , a starting point this micro is more fast until 24x more flash 512 kbyte , more ram 64 kbyte ram. An a lot of advanced feature. And is cheaper :)
I open a Call for C / C++ developer and beta tester that would support the development of our project.
This is the repo of code : http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/
In the next day will be available new code and doc in source branch inside redfox74. if you need more info contact me directly in PM or leave a message in the thread.
The board is compatible with all the DiyDrones accessories and is an upgrade of cpu from avr 8 bit processor to 32 Bit Arm Cortex . In this first stage we need advanced user that can develop code and have experiences on writing code on micro processor.
This is the official thread where there're some info about the project and roadmap.
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/vros-01-white-paper-simple
This is the main thread where you can found info for start to use Multipilot32
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-getting-started
Dear Friends ,
I'm happy to present the new revision of Multipilot32.
This new revision of product use STM32F4 as micro controller.
The VR Ide Pro is available and downlodable here :
http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/list
In the framewark is available :
- Eclipse IDE.
- GCC compiler that support MP32F1 and MP32F4.
- Debuger that use ST-link v2.
The library available for MP32F1 are :
Maple first revision and last revision that support DMA and new timer functionality as timer capture.
The library available for MP32F4 are :
ST std library and ChibiOS operating system complete with an example of makefile and firmware.
We open a developer group on virtualrobotix website:
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/group/armcopterdevgroup?xg_source=activity
the next step is porting all available APM library for MP32F1 to MP32F4.
The board is available for pre order :
MP32F4 95,00 euro
MP32F1 85,00 euro
* this revision use STM32F103 the firmware is yet available.
The MPU6000 Option is available as option at 35,00 euro
send a mail to virtualrobotix@gmail.com for info.
Hardware:
- ARM Cortex-M4 processor STM32F407VET6. 168 Mhz
- Flash 1024 Kbytes RAM 196 Kbytes
- DSP + MCU + FPU - Hardware floating point -
- 16-bit Timer 4
- SPI 2 (ADC Interface , MicroSD connection Option)
- I ² C 2 (First I2C (sensor), Second I2C control until ESC 12)
- USART 5 (GPS, DEBUG Console, XBee Pro Telemetry)
- USB 1 (Upload Firmware, Debug Console, Power Board for Debug)
- CAN 1 (Interconnection with Professional ESC 1 Mbit update rate)
- 6 PWM Output Bit 16 (ESC / Servo Control)
- 8 PWM Input 16 Bit (RC Input Channel, accept PPM SUM)
- 8 Analog Input 12 Bit.
- Professional 4 layers PCB.
- DC: DC 30 V (6s Lipo): 5 volts and 3.3 volts
We integrate on same board the MPU6000 that use SPI bus and DMA to transfer data between the micro and imu sensor.
in this sensor is available:
- Tri-Axis angular rate sensor (gyro) with a sensitivity up to 131 LSBs/dps and a full-scale range of ±250, ±500, ±1000, and ±2000dps
- Tri-Axis accelerometer with a programmable full scale range of ±2g, ±4g, ±8g and ±16g
- Digital Motion Processing™ (DMP™) engine offloads complex MotionFusion, sensor timing synchronization and gesture detection
Check this link for more info about the product :
http://invensense.com/mems/gyro/mpu6000.html
For MP32FX is available the VR Navi Board :
VR Navi board Option :
- 1 Magnetometer 3 Axis HMC5883 compass functionality.
- Barometer : BMP085
- GPS Mediatek all in one (Default) protocol MTK16 10 Hz update integrated Aerial.
- GPS Battery Backup.
- 1 FET for ON / OFF subsystems.
Input Output:
- 6 12 Bit analog input available for Board Setup or for interconnect accessories.
- 4 Digital Output
- 3 Status Led available
Price 70 euro.
Complete Kit STM32F4 + Navi Option 199 euro.
Preorder Open Today !!!
Original link for more info : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/profiles/blogs/arducopter32-and-multipilot32-11-11-project-update
Dear Friends,
today i'm starting to doing the test of Quadfox v3 GPS . I check the functionality of GPS and Magnetometer during the navigation . I happy of my results . I put on my car my quad and going around the city. For doing thist test I start to evaluate the status of our advanced 3D Groundstation developed of my company Laser Navigation srl for professional application. Our company is available for develop some customization of our technology for different kind of application on air , on land or underwater.
The functionality of 3D Navigator Ground Station are :
- TCP/IP Architecture.
- Realtime telemetry view.
- Simulation and Replay log view.
- 3D Gis Engine for visualization of terrain , veichle , waypoint , live video and 3D Landmarks.
- Continuos mapping feature.
- Visualization of flight instruments , realtime data of Multipilot HDR Imu : ACC , GYRO , Magnetometer , GPS
- Realtime control of payload , using Joystick or inertial 3d device as Iphone / Ipad.
- OSD for realtime video recording with different kind of page : for eng. , Pilot , Payload ecc.
We can develop driver for implement different kind of device , sensor , payload ecc . 3D Engine is developed in our company the project was started in 2001 .
for more info : www.virtualrobotix.com
company url : www.radionav.it
Regards
Roberto Navoni
CEO Laser Navigation srl
Ciao a tutti!
Si tratta di una recensione delle nostre autonomie di volo in funzione delle nostre configurazioni.
Potrebbe essere utile per un principiante che non sa ancora quale materiale acquistare.
Il documento è in formato .xls Excel ed è modificabile.
The awesome Norf has posted a test of the latest ArduPirates code showing GPS and altitude hold in a 15 kmh wind. Impressive!
Just saw this on Reddit, thought others would find the AP work interesting:
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp/daiichi-photos.htm
quadfox v3 is ready to be tested for integration with the magnetometer and GPS functions . This is my first prototype configuration. In the coming days I will start to conduct the tests. The reference code is:
http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/source/browse/#svn/branches/Redfox74/quadfox_v3_gps
Thanks to all Arducopter DEV TEAM members.
The components are :
Firmware:
- Arducopter MP rev. 3
- Multipilot 1.0A http://code.google.com/p/lnmultipilot10/wiki/multiboard
- 3 Gyro ADXLrs 610
- BL-CTR 20 AMP i2c
- reciver graupner 1 wire PPM modificata.
- Diydrones Magnetometer HMC5843 con level shifter 3.3 volt 5 volt
- GPS Skytrack 65 Channel 10 HZ
- Sonar range until 6 metri.
- Barometer 20 cm until 1500 m .
- GoProHD Full HD CAMERA
Telemetry:
- Xbeepro 2.4 Ghz
- Standard FOX Fiber Carbon Frame without enclosure and landing gear for testing.
FOX TEAM CLAN : http://www.virtualrobotix.com
for more info contact me to skype contatcs : virtualrobotix
Aerial video. Made in Italy by Foxteam applications of aerial photogrammetry and promotion of tourist destinations. The shootings have made some resorts in the Italian territory. For now, Google has not yet copied! , As it did with Google Earth and StreetView: (
http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-getting-started
Some video of FoxTeam member with their QuadFox ..
We're flying and testing stable mode using Arducopter MP ( MultiPilot revision) .. the result is fantastic ;)
Then next step will be GPS hold and return to home ... ;)
Put GoProHD on QuadFox and fly only using throttle and yaw i don't touch roll ..
Arducopter GPS hold Work fine !!!
Today I start to import the last update of Jose code to HexaFox V2 so we can test this function on MultiPilot.
Great Job Jose ... :)
Dear Friends,
after some time of evaluation of software architecture for Multipilot32 I decide to put on it a Real Time Operating Systems.
Instead of choose FreeRtos or other clone . I found this interesting operating system that yet support HAL .
Above there's an introduction of Chibi OS , what do you think about ? My idea is to rewrite the lib of our Arducopter project using a professional approach with a Realtime Kernel on low level OS call.
A video of Chibios User that develop his quadcopter ... :)
I'm waiting your feedback :)
This is official Discussion Thread : http://www.virtualrobotix.com/forum/topics/multipilot32-need-a-rt-os-what
Chibios Introduction :
This document will help you understand what ChibiOS/RT has to offer in a world with so many similar products.
Why another RTOS:
The first question to be answered is: there was really the need for yet another RTOS? There are several reasons:
- The ChibiOS/RT ancestor has been created more than 15 years ago and while it had far less features than the current product it was complete and functioning. ChibiOS/RT is just a new (and silly) name given to something created when there were not many free RTOSs around (actually none, at least none in my knowledge, there was no widespread Internet at that time).
- When, after a while, I needed a RTOS again, none of the existing FOSS projects met my expectations or my ideas of how a RTOS should be. I decided that work on that old project was a better idea than contribute to, or fork, something else.
- I wanted another toy.
How is different ?
Well, there are some design choices that should be explained and contribute to make ChibiOS/RT a peculiar design. Nothing really new in itself but the whole is interesting.
Not Just a scheduler.
While the ChibiOS/RT kernel can be used even alone, see the General Architecture document, the RTOS also offers other subsystems:
- Support for startup and board initialization.
- An HAL abstracting many common device drivers, see the Features Matrix.
- Integration with other open source projects like File Systems, Networking Stacks etc.
ChibiOS/RT is meant to be a whole operating system not just a scheduler.
Static Design.
Everything in the kernel is static, nowhere memory is allocated or freed, there are three allocator subsystems but those are optional and not part of core OS, dynamic services are built as a layer on top of the fully static kernel.
Safety is something you design in, not something you can add later, using memory allocation in the kernel is unnecessary and relying on that is just asking for trouble.
No Internals structure and tables.
The kernel has no internal tables, there is nothing that must be configured at compile time or that can overflow at run time, no upper bounds, the internal structures are all dynamic even if all the objects are statically allocated.
No error Condition.
System APIs have no error conditions, all the previous points are finalized to this objective. Everything you can invoke in the kernel is designed to not fail unless you pass garbage as parameters, stray pointers for examples. The APIs are not slowed down by parameter checks, parameter checks (and consistency checks) do exist but only when the related debug switches are activated.
All the static core APIs always succeed if correct parameters are passed. Exception to this rule are the optional dynamic APIs that, of course, can report memory exhausted.
Very Simple API.
Each API function should have the parameters you would expect for that function and do just one thing with no options.
Fast and Compact.
Note, first “fast” then “compact”, the focus is on speed and execution efficiency and then on code size. This does not mean that the OS is large, the kernel size with all the subsystems activated weighs around 5.5KiB (STM32, Cortex-M3), see the section ”Performance and Testing Data” for more details about performance and footprint.
It would be possible to make something even smaller but:
- It would be pointless, it is already really small.
- I would not trade efficiency or features in order to save few bytes.
Test and Metric.
I think it is nice to know how an OS is tested and how it performs before committing to use it. Test results on all the supported platforms and performance metrics are included in each ChibiOS/RT release. The test code is released as well, all the included demos are capable of executing the test suite and the OS benchmarks. See the section ”Performance and Testing Data” for more details about performance and footprint.
I'm working on my first quad.
My project is based on Aeroquad software with some changes :
- Arduino Mega board
- Sensor board is a Sparkfun 9DOF
- Integrated SD logger (blackbox)
- Venus GPS
- Lipo cell monitor
- GPRS telemetry
Frame is :
- 50 cm motor to motor (diagonal)
- brushless motor KD 2213-22T 17A 924Kv
- APC 10x4.7 propellers
- Spektrum 6 channels RC
- Weigth is 1.4Kg
Main idea is to move all sensors calculation to 9DOF board and use main Arduino cpu to perform other tasks.
Yesterday i did my first flight. I've changed Aeroquad source code to read raw sensor data from 9DOF on serial connection. It seems ok, i made many tests with Aeroquad configurator and it works.
Problem is : i'm not able to leave ground because quad flip over at 10cm from ground :(
Ok, i'm a RC newbie but i suspect something in wrong in configuration or software.
I'm just looking for help to make my first, quite stable, fligth and if possible, to compare my Aeroquad configurator data with a working (your) one.
I noticed a problem : in stable mode, with quad on my desk and throttle command only (50%) motors command in not equal on 4 motors but it's different. Is it strange, no ?
Please see attached screenshot of Aeroquad.
Many thanks to anyone who help me :)
Kinect + Ros for Teleoperating Humanoid Robot
a great Job of Taylor Veltrop.
I am continuing the ArmQuad software development.
I believe that soon I will release a ACRO software version with performance that can be seen in these 2 videos.
Ringrazio Roberto per aver creato questa community, aggregatrice di persone e idee che dimostrano nei vari loro progetti e sperimentazioni che anche l' Italia puo' dire la sua in questo ambito.
Saluti a tutti
This article is take from DiyDrones Post , original article Posted by Michal B on February 1, 2009 at 2:00pm
Here is another ArduPilot simulation inspired by Jordi's
simulation.
My simulation requires minimum additional hardware, all you need is
ArduPilot connected by FTDI cable to PC.
Actual simulation runs in X-plane simulator. ArduPilot get simulated GPS
data over serial, and it returns back proposed servo positions back
over serial as part of telemetry info (servos can also move physically).
ArduPilot also reports bunch of variables - lat/lot/alt, next waypoint,
distance to it, etc.
What you need to repeat the simulation:
- Modified ArduPilot code from this
blog post
- X-plane 9 demo
(buy full version if you wish, but demo works just perfect, it only
ignores joystick input after 10 minutes, but we control it other way so
it really doesn't limit us)
- Google Earth
- ArduSimulator ArduSim_20090211.zip
(developed by me), which is simple application that does following:
1) Connects to ArduPilot over serial for sending/receiving data
2) Connects to X-plane on localhost (same PC)
3) Reads data from X-plane (lat/lon/alt/course), sending these to
ArduPilot as GPS sentences
4) Simulating FMA copilot stabilization on ailerons/elevator
5) Reads and displays telemetry and servo positions from ArduPilot
6) Sends servo positions to X-plane to control throttle and rudder
7) Records fly path and sends it to Google Earth to display
Here's how to repeat the simulation:
- Start X-plane, go to Menu->Settings->Net Connections, select tab
Inet 3 and enable "IP of data receiver", change IP address to 127.0.0.1
and port to 49001. It looks like this:
want to fly RC plane which has ail/elv/rud/thr controll)
- Select airport Innsbruck
- You can open this KML path: Innsbruck.kmz
in Google Earth, which was my testing fly plan configured in ArduPilot;
this will show you the waypoints
- upload compiled ArduPilot code to the board and leave it running; LOCK
LED should keep flashing
- start ArduSim.exe (simulator tool); it will connect to serial port and
X-plane; if it can't connect to serial, specify correct port and
baudrate and press Start button
- click [Google Earth] button in ArduSim to make connection with GE
- hit B in X-plane to release brakes, and try keys A/W/C to choose
various views
Now simulation should be running if everything is connected
successfully, and you should see plane in X-plane to fly and
visualization path & icon in Google Earth to move. Don't control
plane in X-plane! ArduPilot will take-off and fly on its own.
Here's video how it all looks in action:
And complete flight path visualization for Google Earth: Flight.kmz
You can see original waypoints in white, and real fly path in yellow.
And also final circulation over start point when all waypoints were
visited...
Now about problems and future tasks:
- I have strong impression that controlling altitude by throttle with
use of copilot stabilization doesn't work properly, this simulation
showed me that plane didn't want to drop altitude from high point to
lower one... see results in above flight path in GE. I'm not sure how
real plane behaves (didn't went out to real world with this yet), we'll
see.
- For this reason I plan to start playing with complete stabilization in
ArduPilot, and controlling both elevator+throttle to get desired
altitude.
- You can play with dozen of various parameters to control behavior,
most obvious are PID settings for throttle/rudder in ArduPilot, but also
PID values in stabilization (which is here provided by simulator tool,
in real world it is FMA Copilot which you can control by its sensitivity
setting). Then you can change maximal servo rotation for ArduPilot to
work with. All these values make the plane fly smoother, make more
precise turns, etc etc. And the settings seem to depend on actual
aircraft and its physical behavior. So there won't be single settings
working for everyone.
- It's somehow cumbersome to specify different altitude for various
waypoints; while I converted waypoints from KML file out of Google
Earth, I had to specify individual altitudes manually in waypoints.h
file in ArduPilot code.
After all, I'm pretty happy to see the plane flying in simulator and
doing the task! Note that it's ArduPilot doing the navigation work. And
in a real airplane, this simulation allows to reuse the ArduSim
application as a base station, getting telemetry from plane over Xbee
modem and displaying what it does as well as showing path in Google
Earth.
