ELEV-8 vision control
Raphael Linker
Posts: 7
I am looking for a small Quadcopter for a student project. Basically we would like to maintain the Quadcopter hovering at a fixed position relative to a moving object (such as a slow-moving vehicle). The position of the Quadcopter will be controlled via images recorded by a video camera mounted on the Quadcopter. Initially the image will be tranferred to a PC via a cable (so transmission rate won't be an issue). The PC will analyze the video stream in realtime and generate control signals (left, right, up down, ...) that will be sent to the Quadcopter. Is this something we will be able to do with the ELEV-8? Has anyone done somehting similar? I work on control systems and automation but I have no previous experience with Quadcopters and the main "unknown" for me is how will the command signals generated by the PC be transmitted to the Quadcopter? Is the ELEV-8 system open enough to do this? Is an open application or SDK that enables a PC to be used as a remote control for the ELEV-8 available?
Thanks
Raphael
Thanks
Raphael
Comments
This isn't something that could be done with the HoverFly control board. You'll probably need a control board with open source software (which the HoverFly isn't).
There has been work done using the Propeller to control quadcopters with open source software (here's a link).
It is possible to use closed source software by intercepting the signals from between the RC receiver and the HoverFly (or other) control board and modifying the signals based on other inputs but this is really more work than it's worth (I've done this a couple of times).
You'll probably want some sort of self leveling control board. I don't know of a Propeller based self leveling software for a quadcopter (though I plan to work on this myself).
Some of the Multi-Wii (and other) control boards support serial communication with the control board rather than using the pulses from a RC receiver. It's also possible to send serial input to the RC transmitter which allows one to more easily build a custom remote. I used this trick to fly a helicopter with a Wii Nunchuck (I used a Propeller microcontroller to translate the Nunchuck input to the appropriate serial signal).
Unfortunately this is one area where Ardunino/AVR based controllers are currently superior to any open source Propeller solutions (at least that I'm aware of).
I'm pretty sure Parallax is planning to sell the ELEV-8 without a control board so you could add whichever control board you think would work best for your application.