Recent News
August 25, 2007: Update
It's been a long time since our last update. Sorry for not keeping up with the website
during the summer, but it has been an extremely busy summer for the club. It's hard to know
where to begin. We will start with Sig3.
Sig3:
We finished construction of Sig3 after a semester of carefully thought out design and
construction. It took its virgin flight at the beginning of summer in a RC flight testing its
airworthiness. Everything was going well for about eight minutes into the flight when for no
apparent reason the motor shut off. Brandon was at the sticks and was able to dead stick the
plane into a runway approach. In the last turn before the plane could land it stalled and fell
from the sky. The front end was smashed up pretty bad after the crash, but Cory and Brandon were
able to rebuild the plane in less than a week.
The cause of the crash was blamed on the unreliable large glow motor used on the plane. We then
purchased a Fuji Imvac gasoline motor and hoped that would be much more reliable and maintenance
free. The next month and a half was spent breaking in the new motor and trying to work out the
interference issues between the radio system and the electronic ignition system for the new motor.
After weeks of various trial and error methods of eliminating the interference the gasoline
engine was abandoned and a two stroke O.S. FT300 glow engine was swapped out. This engine had
been used by the club for a long time and would run even if one of the cylinders stopped firing.
With the engine installed and tested Sig3 was finally ready for autopilot integration. Time was
running out before competition however and autonomous flight testing and configuration would
have to wait until we were at the military airspace at Fort Benning. While installing the cameras in the plane a large flaw
was found in the overall design of the plane. The saddle tanks that were mounted on the side of
the plane prevented any cameras mounted in the large payload section from actually seeing anything
through the sides of the fuselage. We then bought a large 64oz fuel tank and installed it
internally in the plane and mounted the camera's on the shelf above the autopilot. Gains and
surfaces were then calibrated at a com range test was performed. Sig3 was then packed up into
the van and driven to Georgia.
Sig2:
At the flyday in early summer Sig2 was flown for the first time since last years competition
and was found to fly flawlessly. This plane was going to be the back up plane to Sig3 in the
competition. Sig2 went under autopilot integration and was quickly finished. Gains and surfaces
were calibrated and Sig2 was packed up and driven to Georgia.
Rover:
Cal worked on the rover as was able to take the CAD design and make it a reality. All of
components were able to be placed inside an inch and a half PVC tube except for the camera and
transmitter. The rover was able to drive around and wall follow and therefore was a prototype
proof of concept. We would unofficially attempt level 3 with the Rover.
Tracking Antenna:
This was not completed as hoped. By competition the antenna was able to
accurately point at any GPS point fed into the program. It was not able to grab the GPS
information from the piccolo software and therefore was unable to autonomously point at the plane
during flight.
Competition 2007:
Overall we completed all the goals we went to competition wanted to complete.
We were the first team ever to seamlessly transition from Level 1 to Level 2. We had both Sig2
and Sig3 flying autonomously in a reliable manner. We got video footage of the town from the
camera's mounted on the planes and still images from Sig3. The ground station and video capturing
systems worked out well in our extremely mobile HQ. Overall a very good competition. The only
problems the club had was Sig2 tail wheel fell off during one of the flights and Sig1's tail wheel
was used as a replacement. Then on our 3rd attempt of the day there was a problem with Sig3's com
antenna and mid-flight, shortly after take off com went down and continued to phase in and out.
The kill device was used to shut off the motor to prevent the plane from going ballistic.
However, Brandon was able to dead stick Sig3 and glide it into a semi-hard landing near the runway
and the only thing that happened was some bent landing gear and a cracked wing support.
April 17, 2007: Update
Sig3 is almost complete. Both tank covers have been constructed, painted and mounted.
The four fuel tanks have been mounted and the fuel line system has been hooked up. The
antenna's have been mounted and the side cover of the plane has been installed. Wheel
covers have been made and installed. The linkages have all been finished on the plane.
The pitot and static tubes have been constructed to be easily removable. Here is a picture
of the plane fully assembled to this point. Technically it could be flown under RC control
this weekend.
Rick is 80% done with the new tracking antenna code which will be used to keep the video reciver
point at the plane as it flys keeping the video streaming. He should have that completed and ready
for testing in the next few weeks.
The rover has been fully programmed and the new rover chasis is in the design stages. Cory is
currently building the new chasis in Solidworks. Calvin and Brandon are working on minuraterizing
the circuitry to be as samll as physically possible. They are done with the design and are working
on consturcting the circuit.
March 31, 2007: Update
The clubs recruiting efforts have already started to pay off. We would like to welcome
our new members Eric VonderReith and Calvin Gosla to the club. Hopefully many more new
members will join soon.
The rover project for level three is making progress headed up by
Calvin. Here is a picture of the rover. Currently it is able to be placed anywhere in a
room and using a sonar sensor to take accurate distance measurements froms it's position it
can find the exact center of the room where it enters into a search pattern to identify objects
that may be located in the room.
The tracking antenna was designed and built by Brandon on Saturday. Now the software team
will be able to get the tracking antenna code working properly. The tracking antenna will
be used to maintain a video stream from the plane mid-flight by being able to continuously
be pointed directly at the plane.
Tank covers are almost on last stages of completion. Designed by Brandon and constructed
by Brandon and Dan the tank mold has been made out of figerglass from the positive and the
first tank cover is being completed from the mold today.
Brandon has started an attempt at vision software and currently has a photo filter working.
The effects of the filter our obvious from the pictures below.
Progress on Sig3 remains steady by Cory and Brandon.
March 28, 2007: Update
Last Thursday Matt stepped down as Vice President due to heavy school load, starting
internship at ARC(Advanced Ceramics Research) and other obligations. He is still an
active member however. Dan has been appointed new Vice President until end of the club
year and Cory has been appointed new Secretary until same time. Rover parts arrived over
spring break and rover project is comming along quickly. The supplies for the tank covers
have arrived and Dan is currently heading up construction of the tank covers.
March 20, 2007: Update
The tank cover mold is finished and the club is waiting on supplies to start
construction on the tank covers. Work on Sig3 continues. Motor is ready to
so that the throttle servo can be attached. The tail section of the plane is
90% complete. It only needs some washers and a few covering additions to be
added before it is complete. The new wings arrived during spring break and
construction on them to insert the static and pitot tubes will begin soon. Also
the rover parts came during spring break so construction on that can begine also.
February 26, 2007: Update
Here are the CAD files created while designing our external fuel tank covers.
There will be two Sullivan BT-16 fuel tanks on each side of the plane. To
design the fuel tank covers the club made the fuel tanks in CAD using measurments
of the real tank. Then built a CAD cover to go over the fuel tanks to reduce drag
and protect tanks during transport. After the CAD work was completed the club took
the drawings and slowly cut out the mold out wood. Next step is to use the mold to
make the figerglass coverings that will be on the plane. Here you can see the two
tanks under a transparent covering and what the covering will look like finished
and attached to the plane.
February 16, 2007: Update
Since our last update many various club activities have been completed and started.
The last flight we tested the max weight sig2 could fly stable at. We found that
we could add around 15 lbs of weight to the plane. The new composite plane was
completely designed and construction was started during winter break, but stopped
because of unforseen problems with the construction process. Sig3 has been under
construction for a few months. It has been modified from a tail dragger to a tricycle
gear. The tail section is being designed to be completely removable. The fuel tank
covers which will be placed on the side of the plane has been designed in Solid Works
and the mold has almost been completed. The programming team has been working getting
the tracking antenna working with the piccolo software. More detailed information will
be added to the systems overview page.
September 29, 2006: Update
Since the beginning of the 2006 – 2007 school year, the Aerial Robotics Club has
obtained many new members. The contributions of the new members have been
invaluable towards the completion of team’s goals. In addition, new members have
been actively participating in club business. This club business includes giving
presentations to Introduction to Engineering classes in hopes of enlarging the
member base to an update presentation at Raytheon. The projects that the club is
currently working includes the construction of a full size IARC symbol for vision
system testing, new tracking antenna design and construction, tracking antenna
coding, maximum take-off weight calculations for the Sig Rascal 110, training of
members for pilot positions, and vision system coding.
September 23, 2006: T-001 Flight Day
For the first flight day of the 2006 - 2007 year, the Aerial Robotics Club decided to
have a RC flight day. At the RC field, all members present were given the opportunity
to fly the newest trainer for the ARC. In addition, Chris Poole was qualified to be a
back-up official pilot for the team.
September 1, 2006: Update
It has been a couple of weeks since we have returned from competition, where the
team completed most of its goals for the IARC 2006. These goals were to:
a. Fly autonomously during competition day.
b. Capture video of the town.
c. Record and process the video with software.
While the first two goals were accomplished, the team was unable to complete the
third, as the new CS members simply did not have enough time to put a software
package together that would complete the necessary tasks.
Some other things that are important things of note: The team was the first to fly
autonomously during the practice day which was due to the use of AT-002. By using
their trainer, Matthew Douglas, the ground station operator, and Brandon Napier, the
pilot, were able to get acclimated to the environment (runway, Piccolo settings, line
of site, ect.) without risking the plane that they planned on flying during competition.
During competition, the team was also the first to get their plane off the ground and
autonomous without any issues. In addition, for being one of the few teams to
attempt any level, the team was also awarded $1000. The day after competition the
team was invited to visit Georgia Tech’s UAV lab were they were given a tour. It was
a great opportunity to visit with and learn from a team which is so highly held.
Some Thoughts:
While at competition, the team noticed that other teams has rather extravagant
setups. At first, it seemed a drawback to have only the back of an Excursion to
operate from. However, after a few soldiers who had been training walked over to
talk to us, our minds changed. They said that our setup was almost exactly what they
would need. From this, the team has decided to adopt a small, modular design
outlook while preparing for the next years’ competitions.
The use of the AT series was invaluable. Not only was it a great way for the team to
learn the operations of autonomous flight before competition, but it was a great way
to get comfortable at competition. While we may use different airframes, the use of
autonomous trainers which are easy and quick to build will continue. This way the
team can test out new ideas and concepts, as well as solidifying old ones, without
risking the more expensive and time-intestine planes that will be used for
competition.
The team has continued to move forward since competition. There are already new
members working in the lab on a weekly basis alongside old ones. There is a lot to
do in the coming year, and in the next update, there will be a new page outlining our
timeline for IARC 2007. The team looks forward to moving forward and once again
becoming one of the leading teams.
July 11, 2006: Update
It has been a couple of weeks since the website has been updated, but the team has
been very busy preparing for competition. Below are two updates which outline two
flight days.
July 9, 2006: SR001-232 Flight day
Since the teams first flight with SR001-232, the gains and .tel files had been sent to
Cloud Cap Technologies and they had sent back suggestions for changes in both
flight pattern and gains. The plane had also been tweaked, with a few changes and
additions being made since the last flight.
With Paul Anderson as pilot, SR001-232 was taken up again in order to finalize its
gains. Again, Matthew Douglas and Andrew Stevens went though the test cards. By
the second flight, the plane was tracking waypoints, changing altitude, and changing
airspeed without any pilot intervention. New flight plans were sent to the Piccolo on
board the SR002-232 as well and SR001-232 performed well, changing to match
these new plans, again without any pilot intervention. In all, it flew autonomous for
over 20 minutes un-interrupted.
The flight did not end perfectly; however, as allowable fuel time was over-estimated.
The engine died, but Paul was able to make a landing in the field it was over. The
landing gear was only slightly damaged, leaving the rest of the plane in perfect
condition. A low altitude while in autonomous mode prevent him from making it back
to the runway and will be corrected in the coming flights as well as limiting our flight
time by about five minutes.
The day was very productive with the team learning more about the procedures of
autonomous flight as well as getting closer to being ready for competition. They plan
to fly at least once more before competition to finalize their design and test their
automated tracking antenna for video capture. Pictures can be found in the Media
page.
July 1, 2006: SR001-232 Maiden Flight
With the knowledge gained in creating and flying AT001 and AT002 as well as
the competition date coming closer, the team decided to take the competition plane up
for its maiden autonomous flight. It had previously performed well as an RC plane
and did likewise on July 1 as an autonomous aircraft.
Our new pilot, Paul Anderson, performed standard RC maneuvers and the plane
performed well. Level passes over the runway were then made in autonomous mode
while operator and co-operator, Matthew Douglas and Andrew Stevens, ran through
the first of the test cards setting gains before fuel time ran up and a landing was
made.
SR001-232 was then refueled, checked over, and run through the preflight by Jake
Rader before going up again. After this flight, only the last three test cards were left.
After landing, the team decided to pack up for the day as it was getting windy.
Between flights, team members were able to fly a .60 Trainer provided by Armin
Kurz which made the trip more enjoyable. In all, it was a very productive day and left
the team with a good base for completing its goals for competition. Pictures can be
found in the Media page.
AT002 First Autnonomous Flight
Building on the ideas and techniques used in constructing AT001, AT002 was built
with considerably more forethought and robustness.
AT002 utilized two external saddle tanks in order to free up space inside the
fuselage. This extra space was used to encase the Piccolo in foam and enclose that
within a protective break-away balsa wood case. In AT001’s crash landing, the
Piccolo slid forward with enough force such that the face plate was crushed. The
design used in AT002 would disperse energy through foam and the break-away
balsa wood case in the event of a crash.
The antenna, both GPS and Comm., locations did not change as they worked well
on AT001. Servo locations, previously all held in the tail, did however. Both the
rudder and elevator servos were located outside the fuselage, near the rear to allow
for short linkages. The nose wheel and throttle were controlled by separate servos
located in the nose for the same reasoning. To protect these forward servos from
interference from the Comm. antenna, carbon fiber was utilized. The pitot and static
tubes were mounted through two hard points instead of only one this time.
On Saturday, June 24th, AT002 successfully flew in autonomous mode. It tracked
waypoints, but the roll and possibly elevator gains could not be completely set due to
the flight time, though they were close. When coming in for a landing to refuel, heavy
crosswinds caused the plane to roll into a ditch after touchdown. Though there was
no damage discovered after a thorough inspection, it was decided that we should
not attempt another flight before going over the plane in the lab. It was also decided
that a larger engine should be installed before another flight is attempted. This
installation should be completed early this week and another flight is planned for later
this week.
Pictures can be found in Media section.
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AT001 From Development to Flight Operation
To gain more experience with our autonomous flight operations our club decided
build an autonomous trainer, dubbed AT001. This airplane would allow us to perform
real autonomous flights without risking our competition vehicles.
The airframe used was one of the trainers given to us by ACR. We integrated the
system using the same types of equipment and avionics that are used in our
competition planes. This symmetry helps with the learning process and assures that
by knowing how to operate the autonomous trainer, we can operate our competition
planes equally as well.
For the maiden flight of our trainer we had a veteran UAV operator on site to help us
through the entire process step by step. Our testing and field calibrations went as
planned with no problems along the way.
For the first flight we flew with all the autonomous systems in the plane, but kept it
under manual control and decided to just take data. All systems worked correctly and
the plane successfully landed.
After checking the plane over we attempted a second flight. While on initial ascent
the left wing developed a severe flutter. The pilot turned on to down wind approach
so that an emergency landing could be attempted. Just prior to turning right on final
approach the left aileron failed and caused the plane roll hard left, the plane crash
landed in the nearby field.
Although we will not be able to continue practice with AT001 we did learn a lot about
the entire process from integration to flight. This was our ground stations operator,
ground station operator assistant, and flight technicians/ co-pilot’s first autonomous
flight. We all have a better understanding on how to setup and operate our system
and plan to create AT002 in the coming week and test soon thereafter.
Pictures are in Media.
The previous groundstation set up was deemed too cumbersome and fragile for
the use it is expected to have. It was previously mounted on a stainless steel cart with all
of the components Velcroed in place. It left components exposed and was not
operator-friendly in its organization. To remedy this, Matthew Douglas and Andrew
Stevens were tasked with creating a new groundstation platform incased by a
Pelican case, similar to the one sold by Cloud Cap Technology, Inc. This new
groundstation is completely self contained, but is generally powered by a generator
and not batteries. It can be carried easily by one person, is weatherproof, and can
take abuse while insuring the safety to the electronics within. Set-up was also a
drawback with the previous design, but takes about a minute with our new system.
It was fully tested on June 14th, 2006, when it successfully preformed all of its
functions while controlling AT001. It's ergonomic design and internal organization
eliminated previous safety hazards and complications, allowing greater focus on
other tasks.
Successful Lab Tests of Symbol Detection Software
Today in the lab we had our first successes with the 2006 Symbol Detector. This
year's software works on radically different algorithms and technologies than
previous years. We are fairly confident that nobody in the history of the competition
has tried to tackle the vision component in the manner that we are attempting this
year - so things will be interesting to say the least! Our software was successfully
able to identify two seperate symbols and tell the difference between the two when
the camera was pointed at them, as well as determine a third control image was
noise and not a target. A second experiment involving training the computer to
recognize three different soft drink cups of varying size was run successfully as well.
The point of this second experiment was to demonstrate the versitility of the
technique and show it could be adapted to detect things other than the competition
symbol. Due to some issues with a V4L1 capture interface (we've got a buggy card)
we ran these tests With a Logitech Quickcam that has a max. resolution of 360x296
and has absolutely horrendous optics. It is very encouraging that we still got good
results depite not having decent resolution and the fact that the camera made
everything blue. This configuration got us 7-8 frames per second, which we currently
believe is due to the fact that this is the frame limit constrained by USB 1.0
bandwidth. We're looking forward to trying out our EX-980S Block camera at full
NTSC resolution with Sony-quality Optics once we get the driver issue sorted out.
We've made a video and that should be online in about a day as soon as Max
finishes the edits.
Ongoing Integration and Preperation of New Sig Rascal 110
With the loss of the "Red Menace", the team is currently working on getting another
Rascal ready for flight. A careful analysis was made of the previous aircraft, and
every attempt is being made to correct deficiencies in our first design - in regards
to the aircraft itself, assembly procedures and flight operations procedures. Some of
the significant changes on the aircraft in this next iteration include: new vibration
dampening and installation of Piccolo autopilot, shielded servo cabling with locking
connectors, high-torque servos, a less powerful engine, steel machined static
pressure tubes, and a dual 900 Mhz antenna setup so we can run experiments at the
field to determine which of the two installed antennas will give our aircraft the best
performance. Pictures of this ongoing effort will be made available in the Media
section as soon as our webstaff gets some time to clean them up and post them.
Results of Crash Investigation
In an investigation into what caused the loss of the "Red Menace" it was determined
after reviewing all the available evidence and data logs, that a faulty 900 MHz
antenna extension cable responsible for connecting the data communications
antenna to the autopilot failed in flight, resulting in a non-recoverable loss of
communicationss with the pilot and the ground station. This investigation also
determined no fewer of ten distinct areas that our flight operations techniques and
team members could improve in. While the loss of the aircraft is regrettable and a
definate set-back, some progress was still made by the team by analyzing its
performance and finding ways to improve for next time.
First Autonomous Attempt
On Saturday the team took one of its Sig Rascal 110's, "The Red Menace" for its
first attempt at autonomous flight. During manual control and the adjustment of trims
radio communications strength with the aircraft rapidly deteriorated and control of
the aircraft was lost. The aircraft crashed several seconds later. Although it was
definitely regretable that the aircraft was lost - the team gained a lot of valuable
experience and the day was still a net positive gain for the club. Right now, meetings
are being held by the individual subgroups on the team investigating the crash and
discussing ways to improve reliability in future flights. This week will be spent on
analysis on the crash as well as doing preliminary work to ready the next aircraft.
Pictures found on Media page.
New Website
We're putting the finishing touches on a new website design! The new layout is much
easier to use and is much more visually appealing. Remember to add this URL to
your bookmarks if it is not already there, because we are now dedicated to keeping
our website up-to-date with current news items and project status.
jVISCA Library
Max is wrapping up development on his jVISCA system, which is a Java library
that builds the packets needed to interface with VISCA-compliant cameras. The program
can interface with the cameras directly, or communicate over the network interface
which relays the packets to the autopilot and eventually to the onboard RS-232 port.
This will enable us to create our Camera flight planning software, which in
conjunction with a Pan-Tilt system in development will eliminate many of the
problems encountered in the past regarding aerial video.
Frame Grabber
The club recently purchased a PCI TV tuner card for a minimal $25 that will allow us
to grab frames from a live video input. Once individual frames are grabbed, they can
be processed by our vision software. Soon our system will be able to recognize
symbols and display information in augmented reality. Everyone is quite impressed
at the quality of the card compared to ones we have owned in the past.
PNI Online
Kevin has finished all of the main components of the Piccolo Network Interface (PNI),
and it is now fully operational and online. This system allows any program, such as
Max's JUAV, to access the autopilot from the network. This means that the top level
AI can be run in any language on any OS as long as there is network support.