Re: [Paparazzi-devel] Discussion point around toss and fly drone

[Oswald Berthold]

hi,

wanted to throw that in, davide scaramuzza's group published some
related work earlier this year [1], see refs at the bottom of that
page. there seems to be additional ROS power at work too [2]. i don't
know how much lily is actually using vision for stabilzation but it does
use a dedicated relative positioning system (wearable dongle). as michal
says, its probably mostly about changing some assumptions about the
IMU/AHRS init procedure, levelness etc.

bst, opt

[1] http://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/aggressive_flight.html
[2] http://www.ros.org/news/2015/05/the-lily-camera-developed-using-ros.html

David Conger writes:

> Thank you Michal for that thoughtful reply. I agree completely in all 
> respects.
> My BeBop and ARDrone2 take considerable time before I fly them doing
> Mag calibrations, waiting for GPS lock etc. FWIW: My BeBop has Parrot
> firmware for the moment I am waiting for someone (TUDelft) to publish
> their workings with the SkyController (Wiki) engineering and latest
> with BeBop firmware work...I search, and find node.js and other simple
> things but nothing very detailed so I wonder if those who do the work
> are too busy to update the rest of the World on what they find?
>
>
> On 8/24/15, Michal Podhradsky <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hello David,
>>
>> it is truly an impressive video. But it is a promo video, so I would
>> imagine that not every single time it takes off so flawlessly and they used
>> the "best" shots only. (here is the link btw https://www.lily.camera/)
>>
>> I don't think anybody tried it with Paparazzi, although it is possible.
>> IMU/AHRS can initialize very quickly, and you don't necessarily need to
>> initialize it levelled. One example would be external AHRS/INS devices,
>> such as GX3 or Vectornav, which give you orientation quickly after startup
>> (I assume they use gravity vector as a reference). Lily will have some
>> cheaper solution, probably even the very same sensors as Lisa board. So the
>> "only" missing part would be a better AHRS algorithm that doesn't need a
>> long initialization.
>>
>> I don't know about the GPS - maybe you can get some "fast" lock, although I
>> doubt it. Maybe Lily flies without GPS just in altitude hold (barometer)
>> until it gets a lock. The wrist control device is connected via bluetooth -
>> so maybe some kind of RSSI is used to guide the copter while it waits for
>> GPS lock.
>>
>> Anyway, if the company delivers what they promise, it will be a cool
>> product in a reasonable price range.
>>
>> That's my 2 cents:)
>> M
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 6:24 AM, David Conger <address@hidden>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello, I hope everyone is having a good Summer. I start this
>>> discussion because I am often interacting with people who consider a
>>> MAV for a business or research etc. It seems the "Holy Grail" to have
>>> something that can power on and fly (even just hover in place) with
>>> zero setup. The follow a GPS dongle is also something I can see many
>>> uses for (following wildlife or toss the dongle into the sea and let
>>> the current carry it etc).
>>> I saw a surprising drone video for "Lily". A feature is no setup just
>>> take it out and toss it to fly. Video seems to support this.
>>> Interestingly in this discussion list I remember someone asking about
>>> just this for their Paparazzi quadrotor.
>>> How is this possible to take Lily out of a backpack, power on (not
>>> even level on the ground), then toss it and it recovers and flies? How
>>> will Lily know about magnetic variation? GPS fix? Level attitude so
>>> quickly?
>>> It seems an interesting discussion because in all these years I have
>>> never seen anything like this or thought it possible, then again
>>> things are only impossible until they are done no?
>>> Has anyone done such a thing with Paparazzi based multi-rotors?
>>> Cheers,
>>> David B Conger
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Paparazzi-devel mailing list
>>> address@hidden
>>> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/paparazzi-devel
>>>
>>


-- 
Dipl. Inf. Oswald Berthold

Institut für Informatik
Adaptive Systeme (RUD25, Raum 4.119)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

 Tel.: +49 30 2093-3116 | Fax.: +49 30 2093-3045
Email: address@hidden