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Awesome images from Google Earth based on ELEV-8 V2 autonomous flight — Parallax Forums

Awesome images from Google Earth based on ELEV-8 V2 autonomous flight

NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
edited 2016-04-27 16:05 in Robotics
I'm so impresed from these images created from Google Earth and based on Elev-8 V2 autonomous flight.
12705360_10153906173574137_8013213541108818607_n.jpg?oh=19917b4d1ca5d0b969d6b02d88b4d229&oe=57260023
https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12654169_10153906174264137_158275718336517216_n.jpg?oh=8c3c38dff713d24260b0140779771454&oe=5738317F
That first autonomous flight took place on 3rd General Lyceoum of Patras on 02/02/2016

Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Fine job, Nikos, is that your work? Will you be doing rectilinear orbits around Syntagma Square any time soon? :)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Very cool and all.

    Am I'm to understand you are testing autonomous flight of a big heavy flying machine next to a highway ? !
  • erco wrote: »
    Fine job, Nikos, is that your work? Will you be doing rectilinear orbits around Syntagma Square any time soon? :)
    Yes! this is the school I teach. If I had an advanced technology battery that could last 4-5 hours, then I could send the ELEV-8 autonomously to Syntagma Square in Athens!
  • Heater. wrote: »
    Very cool and all.

    Am I'm to understand you are testing autonomous flight of a big heavy flying machine next to a highway ? !
    Elev-8 is not so heavy.... However you have absolutely right. I had some risk with that flight but before leave the ground I had made all the necessary test of the equipment and the most important I had done successfully tests of the "loiter" mode and the "return to launch" mode.So I was sure that GPS was ok! I also could see the ELEV-8 during all the flight and I was ready to take the control manually if something was wrong.....
    I had also the advantage that flight rules are still not so tough in Greece .....
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Check what you like. It can fall like a rock from the air at anytime.

    Regulations may not be so tight in Greece but doesn't someone come a kill you when you drop a drone through a windshield ?



  • Heater. wrote: »
    Check what you like. It can fall like a rock from the air at anytime.

    Regulations may not be so tight in Greece but doesn't someone come a kill you when you drop a drone through a windshield ?

    You have absolutely right!
    especially in the next image as you can see our half flight was above the street (we tried to make a circle 25m radius).

    12688250_10153907843084137_8912604071484360556_n.jpg?oh=a65da575041477d0d4fcb36f82370afe&oe=572F9B8A

    It was a mistake, I didn't follow none of the rules for safety.
    Anyway nothing happened but for the next time we must start from here: UAV Safety, Laws, and Good Citizenship
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    I know nothing of the http://learn.parallax.com/uav-safety-laws-and-good-citizenship or whatever regulations various countries are now adopting.

    I always thought common sense was enough.

  • Heater. wrote: »
    I know nothing of the http://learn.parallax.com/uav-safety-laws-and-good-citizenship or whatever regulations various countries are now adopting.

    I always thought common sense was enough.
    .
    Common sense ain't so Common . .
    .
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2016-02-07 22:49
    Per Nikos, concerns duly noted, thanks guys. Let a guy share his excitement over a Parallax project and Google Earth, it's very cool.

    Nikos, it's almost like your Artist robot has taken to the sky. Your circle is half a Figure 8, now do the right thing. :)
  • Heater,
    I have a lot of respect for your contributions but I think you are being a little harsh here.
    Regulations aside, Nikos seems to have taken all precautions to substantially reduce the risk of a crash.
    The likelihood of a failure resulting in the drone falling "like a stone through a windshield" is also very, very unlikely.
    I am not sure a proper risk assessment would make this drone flight any more risky than any other flight (light aircraft, helicopters) over urban areas.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    A little harsh. With the best of intentions. I don't want to see NikosG's, or any ones, fun spoiled by a silly accident.

    Let's just say that I personally would not risk flying such a machine over or near people. Perhaps I' just timorous.

    Like I said, it's pretty cool. I'm a bit jealous...
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2016-02-14 00:39
    saravali_heart3.jpg
    Happy Valentine's day with a "Heart" aerial path from Elev-8 V2 above my parents farm on Saravali (a vilage on Patras suburbs).
    There I had 100% safety, as I flew the ELEV-8 over my parents farm with olive trees without people or animals
    982 x 942 - 479K
  • erco wrote: »

    Nikos, it's almost like your Artist robot has taken to the sky. Your circle is half a Figure 8, now do the right thing. :)

    Erco,
    I promise you a smoking figure "8" in the air soon!.

  • It's beautiful, Nikos.
    But now, you run the risk of getting lost in the forest and eaten by wild animals...

    Do you have any video from the flights?

    -Tommy
  • Nikos,
    This is very impressive.
    Do you mind sharing your method of data capture and data processing/plotting on Google earth?
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Totally bitchin', Nikos. (That means awesome!)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Sweet. What a romantic.

    You have just reminded me I have forgotten something very important. Got to go....
  • Ttailspin wrote: »
    ......

    Do you have any video from the flights?

    -Tommy

    Not yet Ttail.
    I expect to make my smoke maschine in order to capture these images in the real world !
  • NikosGNikosG Posts: 705
    edited 2016-02-15 18:34
    macrobeak wrote: »
    Nikos,
    This is very impressive.
    Do you mind sharing your method of data capture and data processing/plotting on Google earth?

    Of course no!
    I intend to make a detailed analysis (software and hardware) when I reach and my final goal which is the same shapes with smoke in the air !
    Till then I hope that this video can help .
    It describes how we can manipulate flight data from APM autopilot with the Google earth. The process is very similar....
  • Google Earth will take the data from anything that can log it. Here's another great place to start - https://support.google.com/earth/answer/183681

    You can also "fly" your log which I thought was really neat.





  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Oh, that's badass, Jon! I thought I was watching your video. Holy Smokes, that's the awesomest thing ever!
  • I agree, that's really cool. I guess the kinks in it are because Google Earth didn't agree with the altimeter?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    You mean, we don't need to go to the trouble of building quadcopters, attaching cameras and flying them any more, just enter the flight path into Google Earth and watch the video?
  • Thanks guys. I think it hits because the steep ledge in the video is actually much smaller. I'm sure there's some sensor error as well. My model aircraft always find new ways to hit the ground...
  • Can this visual feedback be done anywhere near realtime?
  • Sounds great, Nikos, smoke signals have been around for a long time.
    Shifting wind will be a fun challenge over a long course. Looking forward to see some video...

  • MikeDYur wrote: »
    Can this visual feedback be done anywhere near realtime?

    I haven't looked at GE in a while, but we used to use a "near real-time" hack that might work for you. It works like this: GE reads KML files, and KML files can contain a meta-refresh whose URL points back to itself. What we did was run an external script that would rewrite the KML file at regular intervals (e.g. every second). With the meta-refresh, GE would pick up the new KML and slew to the new position, attitude, etc. The biggest issue we had with this was that the meta-refresh couldn't be too fast, as GE took a non-trivial amount of time to read the file and process it.

    Alternatively, there used to be a GE browser plug-in, which could be manipulated with JavaScript. This allowed much more fine-grained manipulation than the KML approach. I don't recall, though, why we stuck with the KMLs.
  • Seairth,
    Thank you for the insight, I'm still a land lover, I want to get in the air some day, I wouldn't think of controlling one through the internet, still pretty cool. It's kind of an altered reality what you can do with Google Earth.

    Mike
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,178
    edited 2016-02-18 00:59
    xanadu wrote: »
    Google Earth will take the data from anything that can log it. Here's another great place to start - https://support.google.com/earth/answer/183681

    You can also "fly" your log which I thought was really neat.




    Partner, that's amazing. No not the obvious one from NikosG. The realization that the we can import the regular GPS data into GE.

    It happens that the gadgetry from Lady Ada, as applied to her "wearables", actually they are available from three sources, Sparkfun and Makershed, and Adafruit. One of them is a GPS device and a controller based on the Arduino ideas. They can do that.

    But I first encountered cheap GPS devices as a Parallax device. That batch above also can be used for something else to support pets. But as for a Parallax gadget? I've seen the UAS that Parallax makes, it was the first gen bird. Now? Wow.
    ----
    Odd? Erco your robot is near you, visiting Disney. He's being welcomed as if he was a celebrity by Mr. Mouse.
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