I’ve been considering building a Arduplane aircraft with the HobbyZone Aeroscout https://www.amazon.com/HobbyZone-Airplane-AeroScout-Transmitter-HBZ38000/dp/B091T3L2L2
recently, and a while back I was actually playing around with it in the Mission Planner/Realflight SITL interface. I found this SITL_Models/RealFlight/Tridge/Planes/Aeroscout at master · ArduPilot/SITL_Models · GitHub from @tridge that I used in the simulation and I know @timtuxworth had a couple of Youtube videos of an Arduplane Aeroscout, so I was curious if the SITL model params could be loaded onto the autopilot in the actual plane to give a better starting point for tuning, etc. as compared to the default Arduplane params. I understand I would still need to make adjustments and do calibrations and such with the physical plane, but would using the SITL params to start with give any advantage? Or would it be a disadvantage?
Hi @dpapworth - thanks for the callout. I also used the SITL models that @tridge created to test fly the AeroScout in RealFlight, but I would definitely not transfer those to the real plane.
The OOTB params in ArduPilot work great with the real AeroScout and after autotune, it flies like a dream.
Thanks for the quick reply! Is there any reason behind not using the SITL params for the real plane that you are aware of? Just trying understand conceptually what the differences would be there besides things like accel calibrations and hardware-specific items. Maybe those are the reason…
I’m not an expert, so my logic is based on - it’s not broken don’t fix it.
But also it seems to me there is no reason to assume that when you build out your model, you would be able to place the flight controller and other components in the physical plane in exactly the configuration used by the simulated RealFlight model, so the actual flying behavior of the plane is not going to exactly match the real plane to the degree required to make the parameters valid. I could be wrong of course, but it would require a lot of testing with a real plane vs the simulated plane which kind of defeats the purpose.
That makes sense to me, @timtuxworth. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Hopefully soon I can pull off one of those automated takeoffs with landing gear that you managed in your video!
It’s definitely doable, but take one step at a time.
Make sure everything is set up right on the bench.
Double and triple check it
Fly a simple flight first, I always start with FBWA
If its flying “Ok” then autotune - it should start flying great.
Try an auto mission without auto takeoff or landing
Try auto takeoff but not landing
Add auto landing
Enjoy the rush!
But do watch out for auto landing on the AeroScout. The front wheel doesn’t handle a heavy landing well and ArduPilot can do heavy landings if there is a lot of wind. It should work a lot better with LIDAR and I have been planning to put a LIDAR in it but haven’t tested that yet. I have got a LIDAR in my Binary which should get tested soon.
