I have worked with the APM 1.0 and oilpan, and i think that now is time to change the board but meanwhile for the first board there is a lot of documentation on the Pixhawk i cannot uderstand if the improovment justify the buy of this board or not .
I want to realize an UAV with 8 mobile surface for wings (Slat, Flaps Internal, aileron/spoiler, and external flaps/flaperon) and then use elevon so the function i have to use is “Spoileron” “Flapperon” Elevon and Flap.
so the surface control system act like a “FMC” a flight managment computer of a “fighter” airplane.
(i dont have in mind to do a fighter drone but for the type of flight that i want to obtain is very useful if i the board can coordinate this type of configuration )
Is possible setup the maximum altitude and the FMC propose a VNAV for the profile of the flgiht (top climb/ top descent etc etc ) and optimal velocity in relation of takeoff weight and fuel at Take off ? like the FMC of a boeing or airbus ?
Can the pixhawk support this feature now or in the future ?
then i have read that the board can do terrain following flight using pre loaded maps but is not an optimal way to accomplish this task i have seen that you have propose to use a lidar (apmcopter) to manage the distance from the terrain .
did you think that is possibile to have the same function in APM PLANE .
another one question …
can i add and external IRS so if the GPS signal is lost the aircraft can continuee to navigate in autonumous mode without problem
Remember that this is a few hundred dollar autopilot with the software written by volunteers, what you’re proposing can’t be done in some thousand dollar autopilots, but maybe some ten thousand dollar autopilots can do what you want?
What advantage will slats, internal flaps, aileron/spoiler and external flaps/flaperon have over a conventional aileron/flap system? The only additions these will bring is expense, weight, complexity, component count, time consumed and more failure points, none of which will make the UAV fly better or improve efficiency and thus will be self-defeating.
LIDAR or laser range finding is a work-in-progress for Arduplane. It will take some time before it’s mainstream. Terrain following works quite well using SRTM data, the interface needs some polish but that will come in time too.
Without GPS the navigation system’s errors will increase over time and the results will eventually disappoint. Again, in a few hundred dollar autopilot, these things are difficult, if you have lots of money, skill and time you can add anything.
Sure, you can buy micropilot, works well, costs even more. It does not really do anything more than ArduPlane can do, sure, you can set min/max per servo, per aileron servo, per flap etc, but that’s not really needed if mechanical build is of decent quality.
You say bigger planes ? - yes, flying 65Kg plane “anywhere” a mission is required, (most often with limited landing areas, roads) -oes call for powerful flaps, spoilers, brakes.
Ardupilot don’t have spoilers - but once you want one, there’s no immediate reason for it to have to be integrated with Autopiot - I use a 3way switch , "Down, Auto-deploy (on landing gear pressure), and up"
Same goes for Flaps and Flap mixing - unless you need autoland (and have space for that) - it can just as well be programmed in transmitter, and even executed perfectly synced by reciever, even with reversing and enpoints per-servo (for example Graupner HoTT GR16 or GR24) (Autopilot needs only PPM, so you have 7/11 other outputs left)
That said, there’s no reason to think such features won’t spawn in Arduplane. Regaring the amount of PWM out, there could easily be additional servo connectors on an I2C adapter - flaps, slats, brakes, spoilers, etc do not need high update rate, just paired outputs that move synchronously - which is no problem.
I am interested in realzation of an airplane that is multi-role and with the capability to fly with evrey condition of weather with a flight time tha can span from 8 to 12 hr.
Turning now to the questions on pixhawk :
1 ) the card is on the market already for a year , that you know are planned for in the short to update the card ?
is possibile to connect three pixhawk in high avaibility so that each keep an eye on the data of the other two and passed a certain margin of error the card that is broken is excluded and then attempted a restart and re-sincronization mechanismi mechanism.
is possibile for the pixhawk using different form of comunications other 3dr Radios with CGS like GSM, 2G 3G, LTE, or satellite phone so i can stay connected with all this sistem simultanely so if a system or more fail i can control the drone with the other ?
f you should estimate the degree of robustness and security of pixhawk hardware how would you define it? I saw that many other professional autopilots use different attacks and with more solid with shielded cables and sometimes BNC connectors or rs232 what kind of percentual failure can have pixhawk ?
etc etc …
regards the use of lidar
4) I have seen that there is support for lidar and i am asking if this would be used
for a terrain fligt for followiomng example flying at 10 cm from the treetops of a hill,
Is in this case useful use lidar and Px4Flow both can obtain best result and the capabilitys of avoid obstacles .
Did you think that this functionality is possible to be implemented on arduplane or will be implemnted in the next generation of the hardware .
did you know if someone produce miniradar for UAV with air to air capabilitys and air to ground (so i can avoid obstacles like plane that dont have squak code)
the vibration of an engine motors like this: 3w-modellmotoren.com/katalog … b4-ts.html
can influence the sensor of pixhwak even if mounted on a damper inertial vibration?
I know that this is a lot of questions but before to spend bit of money i prefer to inform very well on the capabilitys of Pixhawk and his future development .
I belive in the open source environment and i am pointing on pixhwak because is completly open and in a continue develop.
Is possibile to see a video or an how-to that display all the skills of the board connected to the various sensors and the various configurations that use the most of all the capabilities of the card.
I 'm looking for a programmable autopilot you medium to high level with which to build drones fixed-wing mass around 96 KG at MTOW that can lead to different types of avionics so as to be suitable for multi-role missions in flight conditions in almost every type of wheather .
the autopilot is only a part of the avionics i have intencion to mount on ILS system, and all the other system for instumetal navigation .
Regards the Flight managment computer i can do that with and external computer to linked to the pixhawk but in this case i have to use 3 board for security reason …
and now some question about your answer :
“Sure, you can buy micropilot, works well, costs even more. It does not really do anything more than ArduPlane can do, sure, you can set min/max per servo, per aileron servo, per flap etc, but that’s not really needed if mechanical build is of decent quality”.
in my plane i dont use servo but 2 idraulic system (one of back up ) to move the superficies like aileron or elevator so i am interested if you want to implement this technology of micropilot on next version of ardupilot/arduplane ?
i am interested in mixing channel because in this manner the flight envelop can change and is more better if you have an aircraft that under certains condition can use the Flap, external Flap and aileron(that ca be use as flapperon) and the slat that exit in automatic under a det velocity and AOA,
you can have a manouvrable aircraft in every condition of flignt envelop.
nobody of you use FSX and have the VRS F18 or F14 Aerosft installed ?
if you think that the F14 have 5 processor with much less clock of the board of pix4 i think is possibile to implement i didn’t know if is in program or if i have to do my self .
but for know what i want to uderstand is the potential of pixhawk at this maximum performance .
If your two hydraulic systems are servo actuated, you can use it as it is.
If you need different minx/min setting and different outputs per AilL, flapL1,flapL2, flapR2,flapR1,AilR that can be easily programmed , or if you have no knowlegde of, or access to a C programmer in your company, you can easily find a freelancer to do that.
Should you need more servo outputs than Pixhawk have, it’s not too hard to do that over I2C or even serial port - because surfaces like flaps only require slow update rate.