Driving an APM 2.8 Drone with Optical Flow

Hardware UnSupported hardware
1

Main Request

Hey all! I am a newbie here and I am speaking here on behalf of my project group, and we are kind of stranded in a bottleneck.

Due to funding issues for the project (it is self-funded and is for a competition), we had to resort to buying an APM 2.8 FC. We’re running ArduCopter on it, and it uses the MAVLink protocol v1.

Our competition prohibits us from using GPS/ Compass and hence we’ll have to rely on Optical Flow for localisation. It will be great if anyone from here could help us through it, especially detailing out an approach and providing us with an RViz simulation environment (our flight computer is an NVIDIA Jetson Nano). In case my exact requirements are vaguely stated, feel free to question me further, I am ready to provide as much information as I can. Our time limit for the completion of the same is 24 days more.

Regards
Sam

PS: a detailed approach on how to command the drone around using ROS 1 and anything to take care while doing so, especially the flight mode and stuff, is also something that we need to know. Links from within the forum for the above needs are also welcome.

Included Components

  1. APM 2.8 FC
  2. Jetson Nano as flight computer
  3. TFMini-S lidar sensor
  4. Two cameras for optical flow detection.
2

APM 2.8 is over 10 years old.
It can only run ArduCopter 3.2.1 that is also 10 years old. The subset of suported MAVLink 1 messages are also 10 years old.
MAVROS did not exist 10 years ago.

Almost all users on this forum only use newer 32bit based flight controllers an the newest firmware.

The decision to use APM 2.8 is a bad one.

1 Like
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But we’re restrained on the budget side already, besides I don’t really think we have enough time to buy a new one and experiment on it. Thank you for replying, still. Is there any quick fix I could do or a better FC that I could buy right now? I can try right now and put in some more money into the work, as in investing in a newer, better flight controller, given that we make quicker decisions.

Btw I’m from India and also my investment limit for a new FC is nearly Rs 10,000.

PS: for much more clarity : I am a newbie at drones and I’m pretty comfortable if I could get one working FC that supports MAVLink and mavros. No one in our team has ever worked with automated drones or even mavros save for myself who had to spend much 2 hours every day in my previous semester to get accustomed to this. I won’t claim that I know everything and hence I really need some help.

4

You will waist your time experimenting with APM 2.8 and will not be able to get it to work. ArduCopter3.2.1 requires GPS input.

If there was a quick fix, I would have mentioned it.

Yes, ArduCopter supports over 240 different 32bit flight controller boards.
Select a cheap one that is available in India. The cheap boards are probably cheaper than the APM 2.8 that you have.

Then read, read a lot. And use ArduPilot Methodic Configurator software.

Two hours per day for 24 days is not enough

5

The two hours I had mentioned before had already been done with. I can give a grind of 4 hours, and we have a dude in our team who’s dealt with making (possibly assembling) commerical drones and so he knows a bit of the technical side. I am looking forth to dealing with an abstract than anything else.

I’ll try and choose a better FC as I can. Right now, I would like to know the replies to the other few doubts of mine.