HereFlow Optical Flow Sensor Testing

olliw42 · April 20, 2019, 4:58am

We don’t have a sensor-driver level accessor which allows specifying the FOV of the sensor. If we had that then …

olliw42/uavcan4hobbyists/blob/master/dsdl-stuff/dsdl/olliw/uc4h/28350.Distance.uavcan

#
# Distance
#
# Pitch and yaw angles in radians should be multiplied by
#
# ANGLE_MULTIPLIER = 15 / PI
#
# in order to convert them to a coarse representation, because:
#  - Fits the maximum range of a signed 4 bit or 5 bit integer, respectively
#  - Exactly represents the following angles:
#    0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165, 180, and negatives
#
# Orientation MUST be specified, and there MUST be only one sensor per orientation. 
# This thus serves as a kind of major sensor_id.

float32 ANGLE_MULTIPLIER = 4.7746482927568605

int4 fixed_axis_pitch         # -PI/2 ... +PI/2 or -6 ... 6
int5 fixed_axis_yaw           # -PI ... +PI or -12 ... 12

This file has been truncated. show original

github.com

olliw42/uavcan4hobbyists/blob/master/dsdl-stuff/dsdl/olliw/uc4h/DistanceSensorProperties.uavcan

float16 range_min                    # Meters. Can be NAN if unknown.
float16 range_max                    # Meters. Can be NAN if unknown.
float16 vertical_field_of_view       # Radians. Can be NAN if unknown.
float16 horizontal_field_of_view     # Radians. Can be NAN if unknown.

Corrado_Steri · April 20, 2019, 6:38am

If the aircraft has a better rangefinder already installed is the system authomatically going to use the better one?
Or is there way to disable the onboard rangefinder?
Corrado

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 10:57am

Fantastic weight! I would order 3 if it have UART/I2C interfaces…

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 12:18pm

What about the interfaces… it works only in CAN or in UART too? I’m asking because I don’t know if Kakute F7 have CAN interface.

proficnc · April 20, 2019, 12:42pm

CAN is the future. .

ppoirier · April 20, 2019, 1:00pm

@olliw42

Just completed a build with the same components,

and made a test with high bank angles and the rangefinder distance seems quite stable in the logs.

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 1:36pm

Is this CX-OF? Can you send me your configs? I’m getting “Bad optflow health” continuously…

ppoirier · April 20, 2019, 1:37pm

You need the most recent release in order to get the OF working on a Kakute or other ‘‘non Pixhawk’’ types.

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 1:38pm

I believe that… but I need it working now. Btw, does proficnc have any plan to build a flight controller weighing around 10g, like Kakute F7? And, so, I can understand that CAN is the only interface, right?

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 1:41pm

I tried with 3.7 and 3.6.7. It worked for a while but I can’t make it work again… take a look at my post:

This is killing me…

proficnc · April 20, 2019, 3:01pm

Just CAN…
Maybe one day… but hard to justify

olliw42 · April 20, 2019, 3:08pm

well, I guess you would have to have a e.g. TFMini in addition to see/judge the effect
like that I could say that you actually see it given that the blue curves makes significant wiggles exactly always when you bank …

olliw42 · April 20, 2019, 3:11pm

LOL
you guys are really funny, now all of a sudden it is the future … this community can’t really claim to not have missed out the future for many years then, right

proficnc · April 20, 2019, 3:46pm

I’ve been working on Can devices for Ardupilot from 2013… it’s awesome that we finally have stuff out there. It’s the work of everyone from 2013 and onwards that has enabled the hardware that exists now.

proficnc · April 20, 2019, 3:47pm

Better late than never

ppoirier · April 20, 2019, 7:44pm

There it is : Rangefinder 1 is VL53L1X and 2 is TFMINI

I just kept the RFND signal for clarity, this sequence is during the most extreme manoeuvres at 2 altitudes (1,5 & 1 Metre)

maroquio · April 20, 2019, 7:53pm

To justify you can use the regional laws that forbid any UAV with more than 250g to fly without being registered and have flights informed to the airspace control agency at least 24h before the flight. Soon, pilots will have to be registered and have official training too. I’m working on this subject for the last four years for military purposes. USA, China, Russia, Brazil, England, France etc. already have laws that control the use of drones, and universities are staring restrict experiments with drones due to these laws. There is a group of researchers trying to build reliable and robust under 250g UAVs (using commercial off-the-shelf components) to reduce the security issues with real drone experiments (single or swarms) in remote sensing operations and related tasks. Well… I think ProfiCNC should think about building a 10g flight controller like Kakute F7. Would be great, because you make high quality products. To conclude, as you are thinking about future, as you said about CAN, I think you should consider the growing demand on micro-UAVs too. About HereFlow, I will wait to buy when it have a serial or i2c interface or when exists a micro flight controller that supports it. I hope to see ProfiCNC micro flight controllers soon!

proficnc · April 20, 2019, 10:48pm

Thanks @ppoirier! Got to love real data!

@maroquio, that conversation may be best in the ProfiCNC forum, as it’s rather off topic for here… but I understand what you are saying, and don’t disagree. However, that end of the market is saturated.

olliw42 · April 21, 2019, 8:25am

good job, sir! great to see that

olliw42 · April 21, 2019, 8:40am

I’ve been working on Can devices for Ardupilot from 2013… it’s awesome that we finally have stuff out there. It’s the work of everyone from 2013 and onwards that has enabled the hardware that exists now.

I know that, and others did too, but this exactly proves the point … 5 years of the work of everyone … and that’s where ArduPilot is now … that’s what makes me find it funny … I’m mean I know

Better late than never

it all and more just could have easily happened at least 1.5 years sooner, but sure, fully agreed, better late than never

https://www.rclineforum.de/forum/wcf/images/smilies/prost.gif