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June 25, 2023 Flight Test

June 25, 2023 Flight Test

Owned by Hardy Yu, created
Last updated: 2023-06-28 by Anthony Luo
7 min read

Make sure to update the Title following the format β€œJan 01, 2020 Flight Test”

Β Flight Preparation

Requested by:

@Anthony Luo

Required Sub-teams

Mech
Electrical
EFS
CV
Operation
Sys-Int

Requested Date

Jan 25, 2023

Location and Time

Location: WREST RC, Time: June 25, 2023, 4:00 - 9:00pm

Summary & Goals

Position Accurarcy Testing with new setup & preliminary auto mission testing

Approved?

Yes / Pending / No

Β Required Persons During Test

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Β @Anthony Luo

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Flight Test Lead

  • Creating documentation

  • Booking the test flight

  • Creating a thread in #flight-staging

Β @Anthony Luo @Megan Spee

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Β Pilot in Command

  • Aircraft preparation

  • Filling out documentation

@Andy Meng

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Safety

  • Making sure everyone is safe

  • Bringing Med kit

Β Other Attendees

Name

Role

Name

Role

@Nathan Green

Β 

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Drivers & Seat Arrangement

Driver

Vehicle Type

Passenger

Driver

Vehicle Type

Passenger

@Anthony Luo

Dodge RAV

Β @Megan Spee

@Andy Meng

Personal Vehicle

Β @Nathan Green

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Β 

Β 

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Β Success criteria

Tests

Success Criteria

Requirements

Outcome

Tests

Success Criteria

Requirements

Outcome

Takeoff sanity check

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Single GPS RTL

Setting a landing pad as the RTL position. Check to see how close the drone land to the landing pad therefore estimate the accuracy of the positioning.

Having sensors setup and configured beforehand, so by the time when testing, we can turn on/off, plug on/off to switch between the testing items.

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Records:

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Single GPS + Opflow RTL

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Dual GPS RTL

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Dual GPS _ Opflow RTL

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Autotune!

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Testing Timeline

Date/Time

Action

Date/Time

Action

6.24 Saturday

Aircraft Assembly

  • Β 

6.24 Saturday

Pre-flight Preparation

6.25 2:00 am

Required persons for preflight preparation show up at bay

Flight test lead breifly assign task for preparation work

6.25 3:15 am

Flight brief from flight test lead

6.25 3:30 am

Loading onto the Car

Take your water bottle with you. Go washroom before we leave!

6.25 3:35

Drive to the test ground

6.25 4:00 - 7:00 pm

Flight Testing

6.25 7:30 pm

Debrief

Aircraft Incident Procedures

Incident

Procedure

Incident

Procedure

Crash

Outline the procedure for who will go to handle the aircraft in the event of a crash, what should be done, were emergency equipment is, etc.

Flyaway

Outline the procedure for flyaways. List relevant contact information for local authorities and plans of action to recover control of the aircraft

Configuration Error

Outline steps to take in the event of a configuration issue with the aircraft

Injury

Β 

Property Damage

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Week-Before To-Do List

Drone Registration

Drone Registration Number:

Flight test location booked
Pilot scheduled
Test Plan (What we are testing)
Subteam action items (for flight readiness)
Transportation logistics finalized
Booking SDC vehicles
Assigning drivers
Renting any needed equipment (trailer? generator? etc.)

Day-Before To-Do List

SDC Vehicle key collected (needs to be done on Saturday)
Batteries Planned for (DON'T LEAVE CHARGING OVERNIGHT)
Drone batteries & spares
Transmitter batteries
Battery tester/indicator
Landing pad
On-site kit together
First Aid Kit
Ground station / Laptop
Antenna / Receivers
Transmitter
Extra Water
Power cords / Extension cables
Wrenches
Allen keys
Knives
Tape
Rope/string
Zip/Velcro ties
Radios
Safety goggles
Fire extinguisher
Spare foam
hot glue gun w/ hot glue stick
harnesses
Airfame assembled
ESCs/flight controller wired
Radio equipment tested
Channel mappings
Flight modes
Motors tested
Wiring secured (Harnessing)
End-to-end test (neglecting props)
Check the center of gravity
All components not on the airframe that are required should be in the flight box (e.g. props & prop nuts)
Airframe payload
Spare parts
Props
Airframe components (landing struts, arms, etc)
wings nuts
prop nuts
any detached components such as angle mount
props for other aircrafts such as Houston
Hardware to assemble these components
Electronics
ESCs
Motors
Flight controllers
Receiver
Flight Code Flashed
Ground station Software updated

Pre-Departure Checklist

Take the WREST RC entrance card
Grab Pre-departure Items
Battery charger and associated cables(30tx to 60tx)
Check battery status
Charge if required, otherwise place into flight box
Systems test
Check flight controller orientation
Check motor spin & rotation direction
Check transmitter mappings
Verify communication links (VTX/RX, Controller, Groundstation)
Verify the mission planner is logging data
Only attach props directly before flight (keep off at all other times)
Get snacks
Mission Briefing
Read the flight plan to the team (that was made a week ago)
Purpose of flight
Plan of action
Success criteria
Delegate and brief on flight line roles
Safety Briefing
Key flight characteristics to observe
Key system characteristics to observe
Measurements to be made

Pre-flight Safety Checklist

Air Frame
Check all antennas, ensuring they are secure and in good condition
Check the battery emplacement and secure attachment and ensure there are no cracks
Check that all lights are operating normally
Check that all sensors are secured and clear of any obstructions
Check that the GPS is receiving satellites and providing a navigation solution
For fixed wing aircraft, Check:
Wings, ensuring they are securely attached to fuselage
Wing leading edge surfaces
Top and bottom of wing surfaces
Wing tip surfaces
Read of wing and all flight control surfaces for freedom of movement, security and any skin damage
For rotary aircraft:
Inspect top and bottom of air frame arms for cracks, loose parts, or signs of damage
Check fluid levels and ensure no leaks if applicable
Control Surfaces
Ensure Elevator moves correctly
Ensure Ailerons move correctly
Ensure Rudder moves correctly
Landing Gear
Check landing gear is secure
Inspect skids or wheels, especially attachment points
Power plant
Cowling or motor casing
Security of engine mounts
Presence of any cracks
All wiring and connectors, ensure no cracks, loose connectors, or chaffing
Propellers / Rotors
Ensure propeller is secured
Check for nicks, chips or cracks
Ensure prop direction is correct
Batteries
Inspect to ensure there is no signs of swelling, external leaking or other defects
Battery wiring and connectors from the battery are connected securely
Batteries (and spares) are adequately charged
Wires are not pinched
Control Station / Receivers / Transmitter
The battery and spare batteries if required are adequately charged
Control Station device and cables are properly connected and functioning
All flight interfaces are functioning normally
Safety
Good visibility and safe wind speed
Surrounding is free of obstacles
Crew far from drone
General Site Survey
Are there other people on the property
Ground Recording / drone footage on
Autopilot
Control surfaces respond to autopilot in the correct manner
Transitions between flight modes have expected effect
Return-to-home systems, if present, have been configured

Post-Flight Checklist

Item

Owner

Item

Owner

Use Flight-Post Mortem to Debrief

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT

Discard of damaged batteries

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Discharge used batteries for better longevity

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Flight Test Debrief

  • Left E7 around 15:50

  • Arrived @ wrestrc around 16:20

  • props on & stabilized up down around 16:40

  • ran simple auto mission from one end of the field to the other.

  • ran autotune on yaw

    • pilot error switched OUT of autotune before landing. will look at recovering values.

  • ran multiple longer auto missions

    • need to enable takeoff in auto

    • need to add takeoff & land points (can use @ current location)

    • upped WPNAV_SPEED to 20000

    • tried using splines (may be slower overall for a quadcopter).

    • noted that GPS landing over multiple repeated missions is within +/-10cm. No RTK β†’ just GPS blend.

  • Β 

Flight Test Post Mortem

  • Auto-tune works (very well)

  • spline generation works.

  • Auto-takeoff/landing missions work with incredibly accuracy (takeoff/land from same landing pad repeatably)

  • can use max WP_Nav Speed reliably (ardupilot will self limit itself).

  • Auto-tune procedure

  • Weather

  • ,

Auto-tuning results

Auto-tune was run only on yaw, but yielded incredibly good results at eliminating overshoot and oscillation. Auto-tune was invoked in position hold mode with light (10-15km/h max) winds in variable direction, and was able to maintain position within 10m radius of position where autotune was invoked.

Yaw desired vs actual at end of autotune β†’ note how closely desired tracks actual, and the minimization of oscillations.
Visual increase of tracking accuracy over autotune steps during flight

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Final autotune result messages (RP, RD, SP)

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Way-point navigation.

Waypoint missions were used to verify the functionality of GPS blending, where we would run an auto-mission and evaluate landing accuracy. Over 5 auto-missions, Vanny was able to reliably land on the same landing pad with at most +/-5 cm of variance.

Auto-missions were also tested with splined waypoints, and by changing WPNAV_SPEED from the default (10000) to (20000) [m/s], although it’s unclear whether or not that max speed was ever reached as ardupilot may have limited the system in order to maintain attitude authority.

Splined waypoint generation
Max speed (m/s) of splined waypoint mission

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RCA for Red Items

Create a RCA and keep it as a child page.

Action Items

Other Resources

Booking WRESTRC Field

WRESTRC

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