Dev Call Jan 15, 2018 2300 UTC

Development Team
1

Votes

  • Contribution of the Month
  • New Dev team Members
  • Code Of Conduct
  • Funding Committee Charter

Plane

  • plane 3.8.5beta1

Common

  • ChibiOS in master
  • Scripting in ArduPilot
  • EKF3 enabled by default - should we try to run EKF2 in the background as well?

Rover

  • Update

Copter

  • Update

Issues & Pull Requests




Partner renewals Overview

Google Summer of Code preparations

Shenzhen June 22-24 2018 UAV show

Votes

2

Attendee count (max): 20

UTC2301 - Votes that have taken places / currently open

  • contribution of the month is currently unanimous
  • Mark Whitehorn
  • Nick and Mark as new developer members
  • charter for funding committee
  • Code of Conduct passed
  • tridge is working on getting it added to the Wiki
  • Randy will look at this
  • also should be added to the github repository

UTC2306 - tridge and Plane

  • 3.8.5beta1 is out now
  • probably building now
  • airspeed sensor release
  • ms5525 address change
  • to deconflict with ms5611 baro
  • new airspeed sensor
  • need someone to do a testflight with it
  • dual airspeed support
  • might put improvements to Septentrino in too
  • make it more like uBlox one e.g. prearm checks
  • port configuration fixes
  • e.g. too much data being sent
  • control logging to SD card for the GPS

UTC2309 - ChibiOS and master

  • long time coming
  • lots of changes in last week
  • port to MindPX board
  • Sparky2 board in progress
  • lots of improvements to v3 and v4
  • easier to port to a new board!
  • Used to be lots of ifdefs per board
  • now you may only need a hwdef.dat and adding something to boards.py
  • thinking of even fixing this
  • so you may only need a hwdef.dat
  • also does derived boards
  • include hardware from other boards
  • “like fmuv3” but with an extra …
  • control vehicle build from the board directory (add extra options)
  • automates ADC and UART configuration
  • thanks to everyone who’s been working on this, esp Sid
  • still need to do a few things
  • another PR to track more stuff to go in
  • PixHawk1 and PixHawk2 should fly now
  • no buzzer
  • PixRacer still needs RCIN
  • how long 'til we can do stable releases on ChibiOS?
  • depends on how much testing it gets!
  • SkyViper 2450 into master?
    • PR open for that
  • should work in both PixHawk and ChibiOS
  • tmode support is a little controversial
  • not a flight mode!
  • more an input method
  • several hooks in various places
  • e.g. hook for changing descent speed close to ground
  • might want to move these things into main code
  • not built by default
  • when your build target is v2450 it changes the defines in ArduCopter to enable tmode
  • adjust flightpath during RTL
  • new compass learning system
  • well tested by everyone flying SkyVipers
  • no calibration required before flying
  • declination system tables update
  • and a script to update them
  • ability to turn off flight mode channel!
  • needs review
  • travis isn’t building on it
  • out of disk space?
  • out of g++
  • generally having trouble with Travis reliability
  • SemaphoreCI stuff which Michael is working on will be good
  • funding committee is already on top of this!
  • data96 packets
  • Peter flagged as not-a-happy-thing
  • ID to say what the user is

UTC2330 - scripting into ArduPilot?

  • missed the boat
  • would chew a bunch of flash and CPU resources
  • already used the resources up with the PX4 build
  • and existing mission item stuff
  • new opportunity with ChibiOS because it is lean
  • saves 200k of flash so far
  • 20k of RAM
  • lots of free CPU!
  • scripting should be available on all ports
  • stored on MicroSD but maybe in FRAM/flash
  • missions?
  • flight modes?
  • parameter manipulation
  • use sensors
  • dataflash logging
  • uarts
  • camera
  • Sonar
  • rc inputs
  • give scripting its own thread
  • low priority
  • own heap (constrained in memory it can use)
  • bitmask of which HAL subsystems it has access to
  • kill thread if it goes wrong
  • new failsafe type
  • failsafe capabilities in the scripting language
  • which language?
  • use SITL to rapidly prototype language
  • mjs?
  • uPython?
  • Lua?
  • has advantage it works with Lua transmitters
  • Forth would be small but accessibility is key!
  • use GSoC?
  • don’t want to wait that long
  • Mavftp to transfer scripts?
  • use ChibiOS mass-media support to just access filesystem?
  • removing old code
  • e.g. parachute script
  • may be able to remove old code
  • add spiral landing?
  • make ADSB a script?
  • “tmode”
  • probably not the rate loops…
  • Add swarming stuff

UTC2348 - Randy and EKF3 by default?

  • Paul suggested running both 2 and 3 running at same time might be a good idea
  • with 2 as a background thing
  • no failover between EKF2 and EKF3 ATM
  • load issues
  • Also RAM issues
  • Might be able to tweak terrain to use less memory on copter
  • Might be some UAVCAN memory use fixes too

UTC0000 - Randy and Rover

  • Release went out
  • Beta testers reported problems using brushed motor support on e.g. navio2
  • Currently stm32 only
  • Object avoidance going in soon
  • Need to stop at circular fence
  • Pivot turning fixes
  • Lots of pings from users
  • Catamaran
  • Non-manned tractor

UTC0000 - Randy and Rover

  • 3.5.5 for beta testing out soon
  • Need confirmation compass fix works!
  • Can’t find someone who has one
  • Some changes from Matt going in
  • Paul has some cool stuff coming!
  • 25-state EKF!
  • Learn scaling when using monocular SLAM
  • Build up 3D map of environment
  • And know how big that environment is!
  • Nvidia guys working on Rover
  • SLAM based stuff
  • Using EKF inside ROS
  • VISION_POSITION messages
  • Leonard’s requests
  • Wind estimation into Copter
  • Barometer interference compensation
  • Pressure bubble when coming to a stop
  • Causes a dip when decelerating
  • Want to do more swarming stuff
  • SkyViper AP stuff
  • Need to be able to specify address for each vehicle
  • Needs to cope with non-sysid-1-vehicle
  • No ground station for swarming!
  • Need better SITL support
  • Could do this in several ways e.g. cmavnode etc etc
  • PR for Chase mode
  • Breadcrumb PR…
  • Do we want to merge these?

UTC0013 - New Partner requests have come in

  • Randy will look into them soon

UTC0013 - MdB and Battery parameters

  • Some discussion on code duplication…
  • https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/7177
  • Setting voltage threshold on each battery isn’t onerous since you’ve got a special case in having multiple batteries anyway
  • Don’t add code we don’t need
  • Minor point
  • Copying will preserve current behaviour…

UTC0014 - two books on ArduPilot on Amazon…

  • One with AP on the cover
  • If they’re any good we can add a link on the Wiki

UTC0016 - enums for flight modes

UTC0028 - Amilcar has helped fix mavlink discrepancies

  • Thanks!

UTC0031 - CAN support on Linux boards

UTC0032 - Randy and rangefinder issue

  • https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/issues/7531
  • Choose which serial port user wants
  • So serial manager doesn’t specify ordering
  • Default to auto to preserve existing setup
  • Resolves some ordering issues
  • But pushes configurations issues onto user
  • Where do you put parameters?
  • On the serial port or on the feature (e.g. rangefinder)
  • Add primary/secondary instead?

UTC0048 - Luis and partner renewal

  • 16 partners to contact
  • New email alias created to help with this
  • Partner declined but we took a donation!?
  • Should we contact this particular partner?
  • Need a new team vote before this is done
  • Need to find the original vote
  • If the vote goes negative again then… accept as donation?!
  • Will be adjusted to link past discussion and point out previous vote
  • So we don’t need to have same discussion again
  • Randy has a 62-week-old TODO to contact them…
  • Rerun after one year, no sooner

UTC0059 - GSoC with Jaime

  • Forms need to be submitted
  • 23rd of January cutoff
  • Whether, why and description of organisation
  • List of ideas
  • Go or no go?
  • Go!
  • Olivier will help Jaime out with it

UTC0101 - Shenzhen with Jani

  • http://bit.ly/jdszjun18inv
  • UAV expo
  • Droneworld congress
  • Invitation letter
  • Venue and last year’s information and agendas
  • Massive possibilities!
  • Willing to fund speakers

UTC0123 - high rates

  • Nightghost reported he can run really, really fast
  • Tridge tries 1kHz with ChibiOS
  • 1kHz rates seem to be possible
  • 0 scheduling misses
  • 2KHz loop rates seem to work too
  • Flight characteristic changes?