SpaceFest 2013

SpaceFest 2013 at the Intrepid, Sea, Air and Space Museum

Daniel and Eric controlled the drone by Python scripts

Daniel demonstrated aerobatic flight of the drone by using a joystick

Daniel explained the drone project to visitors

Eric demonstrated controlling the drone by a mobile device

Visitors (Photo taken from the drone)

Visitors (Photo taken from the drone)

Eric, Daniel and visitors at the CCNY GSOE booth

Space Shuttle Enterprise

Updated AR Drone SDK API Developer Guide

I just found an API Developer Guide webpage which includes all the missing graphs from the previous API Doc webpage. It might provide the keys to unlock the mystery we had encountered in past two weeks. Please read through it carefully. I have also updated the links of my previous posts to reflect this new finding.

Documentation for AutoFlight and AutoScript

The User Guide for the AutoFlight can be found at http://www.lbpclabs.com/docs/autoflight/gettingstarted.html. 

 

The Tutorial for AutoScript is under your AutoFlight directory when you installed it, and can be found at "AutoFlight directory"\help\AutoScript\index.html.

Breaking the Code...... by Sharing and Collaboration

There are lots of info hidden in the FreeFlight code, API Wiki documents, and the Developer Guide. It takes time to dig them out and link them together in order to decipher the App. If you find any valuable info or you get some conclusions or comments, please share with everybody by posting it here as comments. Thanks in advance for your contribution.

AR.Pan & AR.Drone SDK Resource (Shared by Eric)

AR.Pan

Here is a technical write-up from someone who programmed the drone to take panoramic photos.  He includes the source code and links to some software that may be useful:

http://mattkeeter.com/projects/arpan/technical.html

AR. Drone SDK Resource
 
Here is a list of files and their source codes that appear in an older version of the SDK.  It has superior search functionality compared to projects.ardrone.org and allows you to easily search all files for functions and methods and see where they are declared.  You can also click on most functions/data types within the source codes to see where they are defined:

http://mediabox.grasp.upenn.edu/roswiki/doc/api/ardrone_brown/html/globals.html

AutoFlight: An Open Source Flight Control Tool

 

AutoFligh is a Windows/Linux-based tool for AR Drone 2.0. It provides AutoScript function for user to program the drone using Python. You can use pre-defined functions to control the behavior of the drone. I just tested the basic functions such as takeOff(), time.sleep(), and land() and it seems working well! Further investigation and evaluation are needed. Since it is open-source, you might be able to learn something from it. 

The AutoFligh website is http://www.lbpclabs.com/autoflight.html. You can download and install the Windows version. After running the program, you will see the AutoScript button at the buttom-right corner. Click it, and you will see a pop-up window for your Python script. The Help is at the bottom-right corner. You can click it to find a simple tutorial. Within a few minutes, you will be able to fly the drone! Good luck!

A discussion thread for the AutoFlight can be found in the ARDrone-Flyers.com's forum: http://www.ardrone-flyers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4685&sid=5974697a852ad69e74f6d6b90dcbec3e.

TED Talks on MAVs

An interesting presentation about MAVs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErEBkj_3PY.

Missing Images from the AR Drone API Doc

As mentioned in class, I attach the missing images from the AR Drone API Doc. 

AR Drone 2.0 Test Flight

XCode and Objective-C Programming Tutorials

Xcode is the IDE for iOS programming. If you have a Mac, go to the Apple App Store to DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL the latest version Xcode 4.6.3.

Objective-C is the primary programming language you use when writing software for iPhone or iPad. The following links are a few playlists of Objective-C programming tutorials on YouTube. They provide a hand-on learning path to pick up a programming language in a brief time frame. Please use them as your self-learning course materials.

• Objective C Programming Tutorials by thenewboston
• Objective-C Tutorials by Mac and Computer Help
• Learn Objective C Programming Tutorials by mybringback
• Objective-C Programming Tutorials by easyaspnet
• Objective-C essential training by mashhour's channel

If you come across any good online tutorial, please share with the class in this blog.  Thanks in advance.

FreeFlight and the iOS Programming

Welcome to the iPhone/iPad Apps development world. The AR Drone can be controlled by an iPhone

Application called FreeFlight. FreeFlight is an open source app which we are going to work on. The following information is for your reference only if you want to know more about the iPhone/iPad (iOS) programming.

The first thing you can do is to visit the iOS Dev Center, and register yourself as a member. The good news is that it's FREE!

Some iOS guides in the iOS Developer Library are very valuable to give you the big pictures of iPhone/iPad programming in various aspects, and they will guide you into much more specific topics of iOS programming.

1. iOS App Programming Guide
2. iOS Technology Overview
3. Programming with Objective-C
4. Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C
5. iOS Human Interface Guide

Feel free to browse the vast amount of resource at the iOS Developer Library, and enjoy your journey!

AR Drone 2.0 Resource

During the summer, we are going to use AR Drone 2.0 as our MAV research platform. We plan to develop mobile apps (on iPhone) to implement some autonomous navigation functions in the drone.

Spend some time to browse through the AR Drone 2.0 website to get familiar with the basic information and applications of the drone. There are also tutorial videos teaching you how to operate or repair the drone.

Then, go to the AR Drone API website to access the resource for developers including documents and forums. Download the latest AR Drone SDK 2.0.1 if you haven't done so. After unzipping the file, you can find the AR Drone Developer Guide under the Docs folder. The guide is the most important document describing the functionality of the drone, the AR Drone Library/Tools, and the drone configuration and data streams. READ THROUGH THE DEVELOPER GUIDE OVER THE WEEKEND.

Under the Examples > iphone folder of SDK, you will see the FreeFlight project folder. This is the source code of the iPhone App used to control the drone. Under the ControlEngine > iphone folder of SDK, you will see the ARDroneEngine project. Under the ARDroneLib folder of SDK, you will see the ARDroneLib project. We are going to work on these folders next week. You can use text editor to read the files in this folder. Feel free to take a look at those files.

The API Wiki Doc page in the AR Drone API website explains the process to create an application for AR Drone. It is worth reading in details.

Have a nice weekend!

Quadrotor Flight Control

Here are some Flight Control resources for Quadrotors. Please use them for your research.

1. Attitude and Altitude Control of an Outdoor Quadrotor
2. Design of Control Systems for a Quadrotor Flight  Vehicle Equipped with Inertial Sensors
3. Control of Quadrocopter
4. Simulation and Control of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
5. Stabilization and Control of Unmanned Quadcopter
6. Design and Control of an Indoor Micro Quadrotor
7. Design and Control of a Miniature Quadrotor
8. Quadrotor Helicopter Flight Dynamics and Control- Theory and Experiment
9. Intelligent Flight Control of an Autonomous Quadrotor 
10. Flight PID Controller Design for a UAV Quadrotor
11. AR-Drone as a Platform for Robotic Research and Education

 If you find some good articles and papers, welcome to share with the class.

Class Presentations

Welcome to the MAV Research blog. Here are the class presentations we went over during the first week. Feel free to use them for review or further reference.

1. Robotic Locomotion
2. Micro Air/Aerial Vehicles (MAVs)
3. AR Drone 2.0
4. Control System