R_Lefebvre
Arducopter Developer
This past weekend in Colorado, Sparkfun hosted an Autonomous Vehicle Competition. Arducopter controlled quads completely dominated the event, sweeping the top 5 positions. I did some runs with my Arducopter 450 heli, but was not competitive against the quads.
Basically, the event required a full-auto take-off, fly out to a peninsula 400 meters out over a lake, and return, all in full auto. Bonus points were awarded for dropping a tennis ball on the peninsula, flying under a 20x10m wicket, full-auto-landing, and precision full-auto-landing.
I brought my 600 heli, as well as the 450. I could not fly the 600 because of a confluence of factors. Air Canada didn't let me take my lipos on board even though I had complied with the regulations. I did beg/borrow/steal enough batteries to fly, but didn't have the right connectors. Had to change the ESC wiring, but didn't have a big enough soldering gun... Also, I didn't feel the spectator arrangement was very safe.
So I used the backup 450. I had to abort the first attempt. I hadn't had time to calibrate the magnetometer due to the battery/wiring problems. So it set off about 45° from the intended direction. By the time I realized it wasn't able to adapt, it was 3-400m out. I had to fly it back (a 450!) manually from that 3-400m. It was just a tiny speck. And I had to hold the transmitter over my head because I was getting signal strength warnings. But, Stabilize worked perfectly as usual.
After calibrating the magnetometer, it flew a good mission out to the peninsula at 15 m/s (54 km/h) in auto mode and came right back. I had to take back manual control for the landing as it wasn't looking good.
The third mission I set it to 20 m/s (72 km/h), and it did another perfect run out and back. Came in, and did a perfect auto landing. Completely hands-off. I should point out, 72 km/h is the same speed most large commercial/military Heli UAV's cruise at.
The 450 was too small to mount a tennis ball dropper on, and I had no chance of winning the competition after the scrubbed run, so I never attempted the wicket. A couple quads hit the crossbar and crashed, so it just didn't seem worth the risk.
Dave Crone won the event with a very powerful Arducopter controlled quad. He is one of our beta testers, and had a lot of experience with the system. His best run had the quad flying at 20 m/s, and got every bonus point. After it was done, he did a demonstration run at 30 m/s, 108 km/h! In a Quad. Full auto. He even flew under the wicket.
Our two core developers also had similar performances, but each suffered a bad run due to luck. A GPS glitch on one, and the other clipped the wicket and crashed.
The latest Arducopter code, 3.0 and still in Beta testing, is shockingly good. As far as we can tell, it far surpasses any available commercial or military quad flight controller dynamics. But it will take a while for me to bring the latest dynamics enhancements to Helicopters due to the extra aerodynamic complexity they present.
Some videos of the event are here:
Here's a video of my 3rd run, you can also back it up to catch some of the other competitors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_vwC1r3k2g&feature=youtu.be&t=5m52s
This video is a compilation of all of Dave C's runs, including the 30 m/s demonstration run at the end that unfortunately got clipped short so you can't see the stop at the end which is the most impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kjIJZoXoYbU
Basically, the event required a full-auto take-off, fly out to a peninsula 400 meters out over a lake, and return, all in full auto. Bonus points were awarded for dropping a tennis ball on the peninsula, flying under a 20x10m wicket, full-auto-landing, and precision full-auto-landing.
I brought my 600 heli, as well as the 450. I could not fly the 600 because of a confluence of factors. Air Canada didn't let me take my lipos on board even though I had complied with the regulations. I did beg/borrow/steal enough batteries to fly, but didn't have the right connectors. Had to change the ESC wiring, but didn't have a big enough soldering gun... Also, I didn't feel the spectator arrangement was very safe.
So I used the backup 450. I had to abort the first attempt. I hadn't had time to calibrate the magnetometer due to the battery/wiring problems. So it set off about 45° from the intended direction. By the time I realized it wasn't able to adapt, it was 3-400m out. I had to fly it back (a 450!) manually from that 3-400m. It was just a tiny speck. And I had to hold the transmitter over my head because I was getting signal strength warnings. But, Stabilize worked perfectly as usual.
After calibrating the magnetometer, it flew a good mission out to the peninsula at 15 m/s (54 km/h) in auto mode and came right back. I had to take back manual control for the landing as it wasn't looking good.
The third mission I set it to 20 m/s (72 km/h), and it did another perfect run out and back. Came in, and did a perfect auto landing. Completely hands-off. I should point out, 72 km/h is the same speed most large commercial/military Heli UAV's cruise at.
The 450 was too small to mount a tennis ball dropper on, and I had no chance of winning the competition after the scrubbed run, so I never attempted the wicket. A couple quads hit the crossbar and crashed, so it just didn't seem worth the risk.
Dave Crone won the event with a very powerful Arducopter controlled quad. He is one of our beta testers, and had a lot of experience with the system. His best run had the quad flying at 20 m/s, and got every bonus point. After it was done, he did a demonstration run at 30 m/s, 108 km/h! In a Quad. Full auto. He even flew under the wicket.
Our two core developers also had similar performances, but each suffered a bad run due to luck. A GPS glitch on one, and the other clipped the wicket and crashed.
The latest Arducopter code, 3.0 and still in Beta testing, is shockingly good. As far as we can tell, it far surpasses any available commercial or military quad flight controller dynamics. But it will take a while for me to bring the latest dynamics enhancements to Helicopters due to the extra aerodynamic complexity they present.
Some videos of the event are here:
Here's a video of my 3rd run, you can also back it up to catch some of the other competitors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_vwC1r3k2g&feature=youtu.be&t=5m52s
This video is a compilation of all of Dave C's runs, including the 30 m/s demonstration run at the end that unfortunately got clipped short so you can't see the stop at the end which is the most impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kjIJZoXoYbU
