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Sections for requesting team to fill out:

Admin preparation
Test Cards / Test Plan
Mandatory Attendees

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Sections for flight test coordinator to fill out:

Flightline team
Location
Status
Drone

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Sections for flightline team to fill out:

EFS to fill out Card #1, #2, #3 (Opflow, Tracking Antenna, Obstacle Avoidance)

📋 Admin Preparation

Your status should read “submitted” when you submit the FTR to our Flight Test Coordinator.

Once the coordinator approves, and a date/location/drone has been assigned, the status will change to “waiting for sub team review”. Once all sub-teams have reviewed and signed off, the status will change to “approved”

Requested By

Anthony Luo

Sub-Team Review

(To be checked once reviewed by sub-team representative)

Mechanical
Electrical
EFS
Autonomy
Operations

Date of Request

Jan 16, 2024

Goal Summary

Pegasus Opflow calibration
Pegasus MAGFit check
Tracking antenna algorithm check
Houston Obstacle avoidance functionality check

Status?

Status

colour	Yellow
title	Waiting for Sub-Team Review

Desired Airframe

Houston / Pegasus

Location + Time

WrestRC 1300-1800

☀️ Wx

https://www.windy.com/station/ad-cykf?42.541,-80.379,8 Waterloo Weather Station

🥅 Testplan - to be filled out by requesting team

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Create ONE table per test-item. Eg: “Landing pad images over asphalt”, “landing pad images over grass”, “landing pad images over grass, high” should all be unique tables.

Use each expand to capture one series of tests, eg “Landing pad detection” or “Auto-tuning”.

Expand

title	Card 1: Pegasus OpFlow + Lidar Calibration

Test #1: Opflow calibration

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Knockoff criteria

Inflow calibration setup
1. Set RC6_OPTION = 158 (Optflow Calibration)
2. Setup the EKF3 to use GPS (the default)
  1. EK3_SRC1_POSXY = 3 (GPS)
  2. EK3_SRC1_POSZ = 1 (Baro)
  3. EK3_SRC1_VELXY = 3 (GPS)
  4. EK3_SRC1_VELZ = 3 (GPS)
  5. EK3_SRC1_YAW = 1 (Compass)
  6. EK3_SRC_OPTIONS = 0 (Disable FuseAlIVelocities)

Obtain images of <x>
Verify colour calibration
< anything else you’re evaluating >

< list of reasons why you would want to stop the test >

Setup GPS/Non-GPS transitions (to switch between GPS and Optical Flow inflight)

SET UP AND PERFORM BENCH TEST BEFORE LEAVING BAY?

Ensure EKF3 is being used
1. EK3_ENABLE = 1
  EK2_ENABLE = 0
  AHRS_EKF_TYPE = 3
Ensure default setup
1. EK3_SRC1_POSXY = 3 (Primary horizontal position from GPS)
2. EK3_SRC1_VELXY = 3 (Primary horizontal velocity from GPS)
3. EK3_SRC1_POSZ = 1 (Primary vertical position from barometer)
4. EK3_SRC1_VELZ = 3 (Primary vertical velocity from GPS)
5. EK3_SRC1_YAW = 1 (Primary yaw/heading from compass)
6. SECONDARY SENSOR SOURCE????
7. EK3_SRC2_ POSXY = 6 (Secondary horizontal position from External Nav)
8. EK3_SRC2_VELXY = 6 (Secondary horizontal velocity from External Nav)
9. EK3_SRC2_POSZ = 1 (Secondary vertical position from barometer)
10. EK3_SRC2_VELZ = 6 (Secondary vertical velocity from External Nav)
11. EK3_SRC2_YAW = 6 (Secondary yaw/heading from External Nav)
12. Ensure the fusing of all velocities are disabled by unchecking the EK3_SRC_OPTIONS parameter's "FuseAlIVelocities" bit:
BENCH TEST (use the auxiliary switch to manually switch between sources)
1. Connect with a ground station
2. After switching modes, confirm status via Data Screen messages tab → should be a message
3. Wait 10 seconds to confirm that EKF stays healthy
  1. EKF label on the HUD should remain white in Mission Planner
4. Check the vehicle's horizontal position, altitude and heading using the ground station. (what to look for?)

Hover in Loiter mode (>10m)

< etc >

Begin opflow calibration
1. Pull the auxiliary switch high to start the calibration
2. Rock the vehicle back and forth in both roll and pitch

Check the GCS "Messages" tab for output confirming the calibration is complete

FLOW_FXSCALAR and FLOW_FYSCALAR values between -200 to +200 is good

Code Block

FlowCal: Started
FlowCal: x:0% y:0%
FlowCal: x:66% y:6%
FlowCal: x:100% y:74%
FlowCal: samples collected
FlowCal: scalarx:0.976 fit: 0.10   <-- lower "fit" values are better
FlowCal: scalary:0.858 fit: 0.04
FlowCal: FLOW_FXSCALER=30.00000, FLOW_FYSCALER=171.0000

Use Opflow (Land if GPS/Non-GPS transitions not set up)

If GPS/Non-GPS transitions not set up:

Land the vehicle and setup the EKF3 to use OpticalFlow
1. EK3_SRC1_POSXY = 0 (None)
2. EK3_SRC1_VELXY = 5 (Optical Flow)
3. EK3_SRC1_POSZ = 1 (Baro)
4. EK3_SRC1_VELZ = 0 (None)
5. EK3_SRC1_YAW = 1 (Compass)
6. EK3_SRC_OPTIONS = 0 (Disable FuseAlIVelocities)
Fly the vehicle again to check performance
1. What are we looking for and what mode?

If GPS/Non-GPS transitions are set up:

SET UP BELOW PARAMETERS PRIOR TO INITIAL TAKEOFF?
1. RC6_OPTION = 158 (Optflow Calibration)
2. RC7_OPTION = 90 (EKF Pos Source) low is GPS, middle is OpticalFlow, high is unused
3. EK3_SRC1_POSXY = 3 (GPS)
4. EK3_SRC1_POSZ = 1 (Baro)
5. EK3_SRC1_VELXY = 3 (GPS)
6. EK3_SRC1_VELZ = 3 (GPS)
7. EK3_SRC1_YAW = 1 (Compass)
8. EK3_SRC2_POSXY = 0 (None)
9. EK3_SRC2_VELXY = 5 (Optical Flow)
10. EK3_SRC2_POSZ = 1 (Baro)
11. EK3_SRC2_VELZ = 0 (None)
12. EK3_SRC2_YAW = 1 (Compass)
13. EK3_SRC_OPTIONS = 0 (Disable FuseAlIVelocities)
Engage the calibration using RC input 6 (a 2-position switch) and switch between GPS and Optical.

Check lidar calibration?

Review test data?

Expand

title	Card 2: Tracking Antenna Validation

Test #1: straight passes. PEGASUS or HOUSTON
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Hover altitude 5m in loiter.	Verify antenna is able to point towards the drone	< list of reasons why you would want to stop the test >
Translation motion: Move in periodic squares moving away from the tracking antenna.	Ensure that the tracking antenna remains pointed at the drone	tracking antenna loses track on the drone Hover in place and wait.
Translation movement towards extremes of tracking antenna	Ensure the tracking antenna continues to function when recovering from extremes	Tracking antenna seizes Restart tracking antenna, analyze data, and try again.

Expand

title	Card 3: Houston obstacle avoidance

Test #1: Stab mode Lidar Verification
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Takeoff and hover in STAB 1.5-2m AGL. Verify controls.	Verify pitch/roll/yaw directions are correct. Verify that Gemini functionality is retained. Verify that flight modes & flight time is correct.	Pitch/Roll/Yaw incorrect land, flip in mission planner, re-start test Drone de-stabilizes. Land, evaluate tune, re-start test
Translational movement @ slow speed towards vertical wall	Ensure that the proximity sensor is able to detect a wall.	contact with the wall back-off and land. Evaluate prop health. Re-start if possible. Loss of heading reference back-off , re-establish, continue.
Maintain desired distance from the wall while spinning heading vector 360	Ensure that proximity continues to track at all angles
Approaches from front/side/rear ascending & descending.	Basic characterization of obstacle avoidance properties.

Test #2: Loit mode Obstacle Avoidance
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Takeoff and hover in Loit mode 1.5-2m AGL. Verify controls.	Verify pitch/roll/yaw directions are correct. Verify that Gemini functionality is retained. Verify that flight modes & flight time is correct.	Pitch/Roll/Yaw incorrect land, flip in mission planner, re-start test Drone de-stabilizes. Land, evaluate tune, re-start test
Translational movement @ slow speed towards vertical wall	Ensure that the proximity sensor is able to detect a wall. Ensure that the drone does not move closer nearer to the wall.	contact with the wall back-off and land. Evaluate prop health. Re-start if possible. Loss of heading reference back-off , re-establish, continue. Obstacle avoidance malfunction Back-off, re-attempt. If same behaviour, land and evaluate settings. Continue test if possible Loss of drone handling? land if possible , dis-arm, re-attempt & slower speed.
Maintain desired distance from the wall while spinning heading vector 360	Ensure that obstacle avoidance continues to track and function at all expected angles.
Approaches from front/side/rear ascending & descending.	Ensure that obstacle avoidance continues to track & function at all expected angles.

Test #3: Auto Mission obstacle avoidance
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Setup an auto mission which passes through an “obstacle”	Have a flight path.	Path doesn’t generate GG
Set mission to AUTO, takeoff and fly!	Ensure obstacle avoidance continues to function!	drone does not avoid obstacle Re-take control in stab. Back-away and attempt to re-start. Drone de-stabilizes Re-take control in stab. Back-away and attempt to re-start.
Upon reaching end waypoint, RTL	Ensure obstacle avoidance functions in RTL

Test #4: Gemini Range Houston
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Takeoff and land close range	Have a flight path Check short range behaviour	Strange error Gemini not work
Takeoff and fly further until (1) no longer feels safe, (2) something funny happens	Have a flight path Check long range behavior	''

Necessary Preparation

Explain what capacity you need, what needs to be mounted, etc.

Mechanical

Pegasus cleared to fly (mechanically)

sensor mount ready
Motors + frame rigid

Houston cleared to fly (mechanically)

sensor mount attached
arms + plates rigid

Electrical

Pegasus cleared to fly (electrically)

harnessing secure

Houston cleared to fly

Harnessing secure
ELRS RX’s secure.

Embedded Flight Software

Pegasus Ardupilot Configuration ready

Opflow → Offsets correct, usage correct ? (EKF3?)
Lidar → Offsets correct, usage correct? Height limits set?

Houston Ardupilot Configuration ready

Failsafes configured (Radio, GCS, Battery, ETC?)
360 Lidar → Configured, ground tested. Distances set properly?

Test area SME available

Test procedure is clear → Houston & Pegasus
Possible deviations from test understood and considered → Houston & Pegasus

Software ground tested

Ground tests complete on all airframes (on battery over telemetry)

Tracking Antenna

Tested ? SME ready?

ELRS / Radio management correct.

ELRS rx’s on houston & pegasus. → Clear unique models.
ELRS Airport on houston → Verify functioning.
RFD900x on Pegasus → Verify functioning
ELRS Trainer → Verify functioning

Autonomy

LTE telemetry ready

🫂 Attendees

This is a section for all attendees from your subteam which will be present for this flight test. (because they are testing their products, or otherwise)

Expand

title	Vehicle Bookings

Name	Sub-team	Driving
Anthony Luo	Director	Y - 5pass SUV
Megan Spee	Director	5-person liftback
Nathan Green	Mechanical	3-277 Dodge Grand Caravan
Ryan Chan	Mechanical
Sam Zhang	EFS
Tim Gu	EFS
Georgia Vachon Westerlund	Ops
Yuchen Lin	EFS

Note
This section and remaining to be filled out by FTC and Flightline Team

Flightline Team

Name	Role	Reason
Megan Spee	Pilot	PIC Houston
Yuchen Lin	GSO	GSO Houston
Anthony Luo	Pilot	PIC Pegasus
Nathan Green	GSO	GSO Pegasus -primary
Sam Zhang	GSO	GSO Pegasus -secondary

Pre-Flight Preparation

Checklists

Incident Procedures

⏲️ Flight Test Timeline

Date/Time	Action	Notes
0700	Start charging batteries 4x 6s 5000mah (pegasus) 3x 3s 4000mah (houston)
0800	Begin checklists
0900	Briefing @ WARG Bay
0930	Begin loading vehicles
1000	Arrival at Flight Test Location
1030	Flight Test Card #1 + 2: Opflow calib.
1030	Flight Test Card #3: Houston obstacle avoidance
1200	Packup
1230	Lunch
1300	Debrief
	<>

💻 DEBRIEF

Logs:

https://uofwaterloo-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/uwarg_uwaterloo_ca/Erxhk4C9AyFKg7gImOuG8osBZL979RM3SIL3OCnDskOkNA?e=uNZ5ph

Media:

https://uofwaterloo-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/uwarg_uwaterloo_ca/EnY_jjQ-qNxBvzZG8dXqsmcBWxHpaoz841fN5Z3HShZSRA?e=zyI504

Actual Timeline Recap

Time	Activity	Notes
0700	Battery Charging Began
0905	Briefing began
0945	Battery Charging finished
1000	Left the bay	3 vehicles
1015	Arrived WrestRC	Field was covered in slush/pooled water. Only one dry track
1032-1034	Pegasus OpFlow Calibration (1-1)	Log file 50.BIN
1042-1043	Pegasus Loiter - GPS Handling (1-X)	Log file 51.BIN
1047-1047	Pegasus Loiter - OpFlow Handling (1-X)	Log file 51.BIN
1051	Houston proximity test (3-1)	Log file 70.BIN Batt #1
1059	Pegasus Autotune (X-X)	Log file 53.BIN
1110-1112	Houston Auto Mission (3-3) Attempt #1.	Log file 71.BIN Unsuccessful - spun in circles trying to avoid the obstacle Batt #2
11:15:15-11:15:45	Houston Auto Mission (3-3) Attempt #2	Log file 71.BIN Unsuccessful - disarmed prematurely. Batt #2
11:45	multi-drone photo
11:50:33 - 11:54:50	Houston Auto Mission (3-3) Attempt #3	Log file 73.BIN Unsuccessful - Altitude too high
11:57:20 - 1159:51	Houston Auto Mission (3-3) Attempt #4	Log file 73.BIN Unsuccessful - Got stuck in turn-around due to embankment being detected as an obstacle.
12:04:15 - 12:14:27	Houston Auto Mission (3-3) Attempt #5	Log file 74.BIN Successful - passed obstacle after 4 attempts. Had a very hard unscheduled, uncontrolled, rapid descent.

Tip

OPFlow was calibrated, EKF Transitions were tested (Card #1 Complete ✅ )
- Pegasus not damaged.
Houston Obstacle Avoidance verified both in Loiter and in Auto missions (Card #3 Complete ✅ )
- Landing gear & houston was kept in-tact despite multiple hard landings / failsafes
- Lidar not broken and continues to function
RFD900x was swapped from Pegasus to Houston very quickly.
- ELRS did not have the necessary air-data rate.
Pink controller worked
- Models were copied day of
Media gathered
Pilot practice is good
We left on time, didn’t forget anything

Note

Obstacle avoidance took multiple attempts to pass obsttacle (Card #3)
Pegasus vibrating large amounts pre-takeoff on arm.
Pegasus controls were not great
- Huge amounts of Yaw overhsoot → disappeared after autotune.
- GPS Loiter not very accurate - huge amounts of slip when stick-centered before drone attempts to stop motion.
- Baro/Altitude solution not very accurate - noticed huge altitude drops when in transaltional motion. Automatic recovery when stopped.
Houston GPS Loiter not very accurate
- Multiple meters of drift, no optical flow.
Arm switch on pink controller bit close to the mode switch (in Megan Spee opinion)
- Models were copied from Blue controller to pink Controller before flight test & without pilot checks.
didn’t note down total flight times or battery voltages post-flight
- Total flight times recorded on controller, but not noted.
- Takeoff times not recorded.
- Battery voltages not recorded.
Auxiliary video/FPV drones around works for media but was distracting/ interfered with the tests
- being within yelling range helped: could tell people to back off
TBS Crossfire consistently transmitting at 500-1000mW.
- Likely due to RFD900 + TBS Crossfire being on the same frequency and very near each other.

Warning

Tracking antenna was not tested (Card #2)
- Was not ready before the flight test
Gemini was not tested
- Was barely ready before the flight test, ran out of battery on Houston.
Houston experienced a rapid un-controlled descent from ~ 40m
- Likely a battery FS
- Houston batteries ran down to 7.6v under load - 10.4 V after recovery
Pegasus EKF failures when doing GPS/Non-GPS transitions using RC7 as 90.
LTE connection was dropped at some point (multi-drone photo).
- could not fly after this.

Analysis

All log files are available in onedrive, see section above. On Average, ELRS Performance was awesome, while TBS Crossfire was typically transmitting at close to max power, likely due to interference from the RFD900 on the same frequency.

Pegasus Flight(s)

All Pegasus missions were run using LTE, which later failed to connect when attempting the multi-drone photo. It was impossible to takeoff in EKFPosSource MIDDLE, and we only took off in EKFPosSourceLow (GPS mode). Initial YAW tuning on pegasus was quite bad (lots of overshoot), but auto-tuning was able to correct this.

Pegasus did have issues maintaining altitude during transition - it tended to drop ~1m in altitude in translational movement, and had a tendency to level off + continue sliding once the stick returned to center.

The deadzone for takeoff + landing throttle on Pegasus is also significantly larger (read: harsher landing + takeoff) compared to Vanny or Icarus.

Pegasus typically hovers around ~ 2800 rpm

Autotune

FlowCAL + GPS/non-gps transition

Flow calibration worked as expected

EKF Failures:

10:34:18 : EKFPosSource set to MIDDLE
10:34:33 : EKF3 IMU0 stopped aiding
10:34:33 : EKF3 IMU1 stopped aiding
10:34:33 : EKF3 lane switch 1
10:34:33 : EKF Primary Changed: 1
10:34:33 EKF variance
10:34:33 : EKF Failsafe: changed to land

once landed, all failsafes cleared & position was set back to middle.
Position estimate / IMU2 was still able to provide level landing assistance.

Loiter GPS aided flight

estimated position looks good
No harsh events

Non-gps aided loiter attempt

took-off around 10:47:12 - landed around 10:47:42
Flight path looks good, position estimates were continually given.
EKF IMU stopped aiding messages were given at 10:47:34
EKF Failsafe at 10:47:35.
Had a few seconds of non-gps aided flight? Not sure why the failsafe occured.

Houston Auto Mission(s)

Ran a total of 5 Auto missions attempts, eventually successful in pathing around the object.

4 Batteries were used, and OA distances were adjusted as follows during the FT:

OA_Type: Dijkstra with BendyRuler → BendyRuler
OA_MARGIN_MAX: 5m
OA_BR_LOOKAHEAD: 15m → 10m
AVOID_ACCEL_MAX: 0
AVOID_BEHAVE: 1
AVOID_DIST_MAX: 5m
AVOID_MARGIN: 2m

Attempt #1

Houston was successful in not colliding with an object in the direct flight path.
Houston was unable to successfully path around the object and loitered in circles.
Mission was ended by the PIC.

Attempt #2

Path was updated to move houston further away from the building on waypoints #3 and #4.
Houston successfully avoided a light-post, but was disarmed pre-maturely when PIC wanted to switch to Stab (SB) and accidentally hit Disarm (SA). The drone dropped from an altitude of around 8 meters, no damage.

Orange is 45 degree sector, and green is 90 degre sector.
Notice that the MIN from 45 & 90 is 15 meters (This was the configured OA_BR_LOOKAHEAD).
- This may not be correct - the physical distance from the pole was significantly less (visual estimate 1-2m upper end)

Attempt #3

Houston over-flew the building. Auto mission altitude was set to 5m, and was too high.

Attempt #4

HSTN got stuck since it detected the embankment as an obj.

Attempt #5

Houston took multiple attempts to navigate around the obstacle.
Possible to see proximity sensors pinging off the obstacle and reporting closer values as houston navigates around?

Final battery dropped to around ~ <8v during the RTL sequence, .
The drone did enter RTL and then LAND, at 9.51 and 7.44V respectively……
- Likely due to failsafe impedance/2seconds of being below critical values?
- battery dropped from 10v to < 8v within ~ 2 seconds - too fast to react to.

ExpressLRS

TPwr remained at 10 mW basically the entire flight, maybe 25mW sometimes.
RSSI quite healthy.

Next-Steps

Update & clarify transmitter mappings, common channels, etc. for all drones.
- arm/disarm sequences, mode channels, aux functions, telemetry logging, etc.
Test gemini, tracking-antenna
Remember to note down takeoff & landing times of all drones (at least total FT)
Remember to have videos of drones during FT’s.
Evaluate Pegasus tune.
Evaluate operation under GPS failures.
Come up with plan to optimize obstacle detection

Action items for next flight test

Try to fix this by recalibrating accelerometer at start of next flight test

Versions Compared

Old Version 24

New Version Current

Key

📋 Admin Preparation

☀️ Wx

🥅 Testplan - to be filled out by requesting team

Necessary Preparation

🫂 Attendees

Flightline Team

Pre-Flight Preparation

Checklists

Incident Procedures

⏲️ Flight Test Timeline

💻 DEBRIEF

Actual Timeline Recap

Analysis