Test #1: Autotuning peggy

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

arm disarm a couple times on the ground.

take off, check directions are correct when commanding the drone.

Check that all channels command the drone as intended - pitch roll yaw, arm/disarm, flight modes

anything commands incorrectly

arm disarm shaky

transmission not working for any reason

• LQ < 95 (when idle)

• TPWR > 25 (when idle)

Set parameter in Ardupilot for the intended axis of tuning. (increment these one at a time as each axis is complete). Save the parameters and do not delete them by accident.

Tune the drone in 1 axis.

Repeat this again for the second axis.

drone mechanically fails midair, electrically fails midair, loses connection to the ground station, clips an object, gets too close to a person/car.

Some situations remedied by flying drone back towards the center of its autotune. Some require landing and restarting autotune. Some require rebuilding the drone

Tuning steps:

1. Takeoff in loiter, controls check

2. Move drone to clear area with at least 10-15m radius

3. Engage autotune mode

4. Wait for “Autotune Success” or “Autotune Complete” message on GCS

5. Bring drone back to visually comfortable range

6. Switch to loiter, controls check.

7. switch back to autotune (applies new tune)

   1. if tune UNDESIRABLE, land in loiter, disarm. Tune will be rejected

   2. if tune desirable, land and disarm in Autotune mode. Tune will be saved.

Get a satisfactory tune

Switch batteries after axis 2 is tuned successfully. IF there is enough battery left (100% certain) continue flying on the same ones.

Replacing the batteries

-

Set same parameter to tune the final remaining axis. Save the parameters if successful.

Tune the drone’s final axis

same as above

Test #1: Airspeed 6-18 m/s intervals

Procedure

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

Check battery %. If we did not swap batteries for the tuning, swap now.

Confirm we have enough battery power

No batteries of satisfactory charge

Plot a path using ardupilot. ~ 100-200 m long.

Set the auto speed on peggy to be 8 m/s

Fly auto mission along path.

Repeat on the same plotted path, after circling back. (Enter from the SAME DIRECTION). do this at 12 m/s

Batteries dead

Drone otherwise mechanically/electrically unstable

Drone not physically capable of flying that fast

Repeat at 14 m/s

Repeat at 16 m/s

Repeat at 18 m/s

see above

Setting drag coeff for propellers

Procedure (ungraciously ripped straight from https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/airspeed-estimation.html )

Goals / Objectives

Failure criteria

1. take off in a low wind conditions in a wide open space

2. Optionally set LOG_DISARMED = 1 and LOG_REPLAY = 1 to allow post flight tuning with Replay

3. Arm and takeoff in Loiter

4. Switch to AltHold and let the vehicle drift downwind

5. Yaw the vehicle so the nose faces into the wind and apply full forward pitch until the vehicle has finished accelerating upwind

6. Release the pitch stick and allow the vehicle to decelerate and then drift back to the starting line

7. Reposition the vehicle to a comfortable position

8. Yaw the vehicle 90 deg (e.g. clockwise) to the wind and apply full left roll stick until the quad has finished accelerating. Release the stick and allow the vehicle to again decelerate and drift back downwind to the starting line

9. Reposition the vehicle to a comfortable position

10. Repeat step 8 but with the vehicle facing backwards into the wind (pilot should pull back on the pitch stick to accelerate into the wind)

11. Repeat step 8 but with the vehicle’s right side facing into the wind (pilot should apply full right roll to accelerate into the wind)

12. Download the onboard logs for analysis (SEE LINKS)

push into the wind on every lateral axis