Integration of ArduPilot and VIO tracking camera (Part 1): Getting started with the Intel Realsense T265 on Rasberry Pi 3B

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Such an awesome project from you guys. I just started a new project and currently ordering parts. Got a few questions. What is the smallest board usable without image throughput?

Would a pi zero work? Otherwise a USB stick board like Intel Compute Stick CS125, that even has USB 3.

Really good to see the support and detailed awnsers given here. I am ok with Python and Linux but completely new to drones and ardupilot. If the pi zero doesn’t work I’ll try the cs125 route.

I have a very small form factor and would love to use the pi zero caus of the power consumptiom.

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There are some problems regarding the Pi Zero that you may encounter as documented here: T265 adding an auxiliary Serial & Power port for embedded systems. · Issue #4408 · IntelRealSense/librealsense · GitHub, T265 - Illegal Instruction - Raspberry Pi Zero · Issue #3490 · IntelRealSense/librealsense · GitHub

I believe the Compute Stick is supported, so long as you don’t plan to use 2 cameras at the same time.

The Banana Pi BPI-M2 Zero seems to work ok from @ppoirier’s experience , so that’s another option for you.

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Very cool, building my parts list and going with the Banana first.

My use case is indoor, basically I want to fly a drone a route manual and ‘record’ the path, an afterwards let the drone follow the exact path in a (slow) given speed. I would think that with the T295 a lot of waypoints could be created. Is there groundcontrol software that would make it easy to manage this? I don’t need a full explanation but just a pointer so I don’t have to try out all of them. Any other bottlenecks you already see?

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Mission Planner can cover most of your basic requirements https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-planning-a-mission-with-waypoints-and-events.html

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Are there plans to enhance the great work from last year using the T265 and possibly the RPi4? One thing I am not clear about - is ROS required? I just got a T265 and have built the libraries on RPi4 but, ROS is proving to be a little more challenging…

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The support for RPi4 is already detailed in this post. You can even use the provided APSync image to setup fairly quickly.

No, not at all. For your reference, here are the related wikis:

Hope this helps.

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Fantastic! Thank you for the great work!

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Please Help!!!
Whenever I try to take off my drone it is going straightway up very fast and finally out of control. Can not even land. I lost one drone like that outdoor. Finally, I am now testing with ropes diagonally connected to my drone but still offboard takeoff is so fast. Due to fast movement, I get “SLAM Error Speed” at the ROS node and no luck for weeks. Please guide me.

Hardware & Software details: Raspberry Pi 4 (8Gb), Intel Realsense t265 (USB 3.0), Pixhawk 2.4.8 (Firmware FMUV3), Ubuntu Mate 20.04.2 LTS. Thanks in advance.

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First of all, start a new thread. You need to test the copter manually before trying to control it via ROS.

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Hi @thomatwn123,

  • as @amilcarlucas mentioned, it’s better to create a new thread if the problem is not directly related to this thread.
  • however, in this case it is not necessary: the error “SLAM Error Speed” means that the Realsense T265’s tracking function has failed and the data that it is providing is no longer valid. Hence, the main issue is that the T265 could not provide satisfactory performance in your use case.
  • this typically happens in situations such as quick motion from static position, or if the device temporarily looks at a blank wall, or that the device moved more rapidly than expected for typical handheld motion.

I would suggest looking for support by Intel to find a solution over at https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense.

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@amilcarlucas and @LuckyBird thank you so much for your prompt response. I found that I was doing a silly mistake in the threshold curve. I am using QAV250 frame along with 2300kv motors + 5 inch props. After I adjust the max threshold to 70% from Flysky F6 TX and took off in AltHold and in Loiter mode the problem resolved.

The main reason I was experiencing it, due to sudden motion, which incurred Slam speed error and the co-ordinate values got some garbage values. So, due to no co-ordinate info and the copter become crazy.

If further issues occur I will open a new thread.

Thank you so much @LuckyBird for your such nice and lucid tutorial.

Susanta Sharma
PhD. scholar, NYCU (formally known as NCTU), Taiwan

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This link is dead @LuckyBird

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@shubham-shahh which link are you referring to?

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the link mentioned in this answer

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the link works

https://docs.qgroundcontrol.com/master/en/getting_started/download_and_install.html

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Hi @ppoirier I am not referring to that link
I am referring to this link, https://docs.qgroundcontrol.com/en/app_menu/mavlink_analyzer.html
the mavlink analyser

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Much simpler when it is explicit :wink:
Google being our friend, it is easy to find
https://docs.qgroundcontrol.com/master/en/analyze_view/mavlink_inspector.html

BTW you can do the same with mission planner , just do Ctrl-F and select mavlink inspector

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Hi, Yes, I know about mission planner but since I am using a linux system I have to use QgroundControl

thanks

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actually QgroundControl’s Mavlink Inspector works better as we can make more detailled graphical analysis

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yes true. and thanks for the help

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