Specification & Modules

Controls Module ??

• Handles the control of the aircraft

Sensorfusion Module

• Most of the work as the same as done by Tony, but we need to run local sensorfusion for fastest IMU updates.

(ground-side) Simulation

• hopefully have some simulation done in matlab or smth?

Targets & Questions

• Target 1: Stable flight in all directions

• Target 2: Fancy flight in all directions

• How are we localizing - how does PM know to tell us which way to go!?

  • do we operate under one local heading as 0 and PM handles the rest of the spinny localization?

  • local or global reference frame? → not high priority (but I think local is easier?)

    • matters for directional flight (left/right/up/down), but we dont really care about the ORIENTATION of the robot

      • see VRC 5225A global positioning system premilinary doc from 5225a, 5225a code release

• Other Considerations:

  • How to handle pre-flight sensor calibration (is it triggered by user for tele-op or occurs automatically before flying?)

  • How to handle catastrophic failure - if the entire controller system fails to work, would we shut off all motors and let it fall? Or is there a defualt motor PWM value that can allow the drone to fall softly without damaging itself?

Timeline

• development start by reading week.

• Wednesday reading week → discuss how to approach this in terms of implementation

• Manual controls with RAW PWM values can be done by E.O. reading week.

• Implementing fancier methods later

Project Tasks

•  Implement MANUAL PWM based controls for quadcopter.
•  Sensorfusion for IMU data.
•  Determine Controls architecture for remote control control
•  Stability Simulation
•  Stability Code????
•  to be expanded

Meetings

October 7, 2021

• Send E-mail to Stephen Smith Friday Oct 8th 2021 → end of day. (or early saturday).

  • come up with some ideas to send to him about controls

  • hopefully get guidance wrt our specific requirements → help us choose methods?!

• Sending info to the drone as a spline (especially for autonomous flight)

  • → see FRC 254 controls giving splines and not raw values (link to 254 presentation)

    • link to slideshow

  • can fall back to raw pwm % difference if necessary

• Focus on two aspects

  • teleop and autonomous. → both get pretty ok with vectors.

  • for autonomous → pm should give us a vector.

  • for tele-op, depending on how we handle it, calculate internally or in PM - also consider that PM is on Autopilot while Teleop and RC input will be on safety (prob best to keep teleop localized completely on safety)

• PM → tell you where to go | AM → figure out how to get there without crashing

• Definitely can get manual control done by end of reading week with raw pwm values.

  • fancier flight will have to come later.

October 5, 2021:

• Start development by the end of reading week.

• Meet next Thursday 7:30.

  • Come with ideas. Be prepared to prepare documents.

  • Questions and critical areas to ask the experts.

• Reach out on friday.

• Take weekend to look over data

• Try to meet next tuesday.

• Aim for reading week start

• Try to make applicable for hexa/quadcopter (depending on what’s chosen). Worry about layout agnostic controls later