Mods to better support petrol rovers

I’m looking at making some code mods to support petrol rovers, and wanted to see what functionality other people would be interested in. So far, I’m considering:
[]Separate brake and throttle channels - will need to think about how to map “negative” throttle to brake out of the throttle PID code.
[
]Engine start sequencing
[]Failsafe modes for engine kill vs. just idle / brake
[
]Tachometer input
[]Wheel speed encoding for traction control / ABS
[
]Rollover detection -> failsafe mode

Open to any other suggestions.

Hi Mr Roberts,

Sounds like a good idea.

I’d like to see wheel encoding capability for precision low speed position control as well as ABS.

Also proper back up control as well. :arrow_right:

Best Regards,

Gary

Hello,
I am currently studying with a gasoline-Rover. (APM2.6) Where two separate accelerator and brake servos required.
As I can read, this is still in development.
Did I currently a way the brake before and to go to a planned Mision to a certain point and I control the channel in Manuel mode by RC?
(sorry for my bad english) :frowning:

Greetings
Steven

@Steven,
Unfortunately it may be some time before our Programmer, Tridge, can get to supporting petrol powered rovers.
His main Mission is to support the ArduPlane and Ardupilot libraries firmware so he has a lot on his plate besides supporting the ArduRover2 effort.
Also, since most of the rover users are using electric power, the main thrust of the feature additions will be for electric powered rovers for the near future.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer

bump. - 9 years later
ICE_ENABLE looks great for arduplane.
“Unfortunately it may be some time before our Programmer, Tridge, can get to supporting petrol powered rovers.”
Hoping there is sufficient demand for ICE motor management in the Rover space… ?
Thanks in advance.

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bump bump - im thinking i need to post this as a new topic/post
Is the solution to use ARDUPLANE for the mower which still supports skid steer and ICE_OPTIONS ?
what does Rover have that Arduplane doesnt (thats a better topic for a post)

Post in Rover. Many are using Rover with ICE engines (mowers, boats, etc).

I’ll make a quick reply here and then await your new topic on the subject.

I just use a series of generic servos and relays for starter, ignition, throttle, and choke. A combination of Lua scripting and simple RC passthrough has worked fine for my purposes without the complexity of complete engine monitoring on the autopilot itself.

Not saying there isn’t a case for it, but it hasn’t been hard to work around.

Thanks Dave, im looking to automate the stopping and re-starting of the ICE engine, that seems easy in Arduplane, but missing in ArduRover. ICE_ENABLE look perfect.
Its a mower, so im looking to increase throttle if the motor slows down (long grass) via RPMs etc
https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/common-ice.html

As Yuri says I’m sure you can do what you want with the current Rover code.

thanks Yuri, Im sure i can make it work with relays and scripts.
The mower we are converting im guessing (hoping) will become more common.
Im motiviated to get the ICE stop/start working - becuase its directly drives the mower blade, and taxiing around over loose stone paths is a risk we can mitigate by ICE off as the tracks are battery/servo driven. chz

@Yuri_Rage acknowledge that it’s not too hard to work around start with scripting and specific procedures, but lack of support for RPM (IIRC) is challenging. That would be the big change that would make life much easier.

Discussion continues here, where some improvements are mentioned since last the topic came up as well as a few suggestions to explore for full firmware implementation.

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