2023-09-30 Pathing Script Flight Test

Owned by Hardy Yu, created
Last updated: 2023-10-13 by Anthony Luo
5 min read

Make sure to update the Title following the format “Jan 01, 2020 Flight Test”

 Flight Preparation

Requested by:

@Mihir Gupta

Required Sub-team integration efforts

Mech
Electrical
EFS
CV
Operation
Sys-Int

Date of Request

Jan 25, 2023

Location and Time

@WREST RC 10 - 12 am

Goal Summary

Test the Pathing Script can work at WREST RC

Approved?

Yes / Pending / No

 Mandatory Attendees

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

Name

Phone #

Role

Reason

 @Hardy Yu

 

Flight Test Lead

  • Creating documentation

  • Booking the test flight

  • Creating a thread in #flight-staging

 @Nathan Green

 

 Pilot in Command

  • Aircraft preparation

  • Filling out documentation

@Daniel Puratich

 

Safety

  • Making sure everyone is safe

  • Bringing Med kit

@Mihir Gupta

 

Autonomy Rep

  • Install Pathing Script to the Ground station laptop

  • Diagnose issue with the software at the flight test

 Auxilliary Attendees

Name

Role

Name

Role

@Georgia Vachon Westerlund

 

@Ethan Ahn@Arjun Sodhi @Dylan Finlay

 

Drivers & Seat Arrangement

Driver

Vehicle Type

Passenger

Driver

Vehicle Type

Passenger

@Nathan Green

Rav 4

 

@Georgia Vachon Westerlund

Personal Vehicle

 

 

 

 

Goals/Objectives

Objective

Priority

Owner(s)

Objective

Priority

Owner(s)

The waypoints generated by the pathing script can successfully bring the drone to the desired path in the autonomous f flight mode

 

@Mihir Gupta

 

 

 

Flight Test Timeline

Date/Time

Action

Date/Time

Action

10:00 am

Flight test member come to the bay

10:15 am

Briefing @ WARG Bay

10:30 am

Arrival at Flight Test Location

 

Pilot operates several general manual flights to get familiar with controlling houston

 

Run Pathing script and autonomous flights

1:30 pm

Debrief

Incident Procedures

Incident

Location

Procedure

Incident

Location

Procedure

Crash

WRESTRC

  • Identify last known location & flight path of the aircraft

  • Divide into teams of 3 and decide on communication protocol

< otherwise >

 

Flyaway

 

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

Fire

WRESTRC

  • Designate 911 contact

  • Describe incident (Drone crashed, contains LiPo batteries)

  • Give location of team (Skid pad at the Waterloo Region Emergency Services Training Center)

  • Give best approximation of the location of the drone

< otherwise >

 

Injury

 

  • Apply first aid as required.

Property Damage

 

 

Week-Before To-Do List

Drone Registration

Drone Registration Number:

Flight test location booked
Pilot scheduled
Test Plan (What we are testing)
This should also include the flight path where applicable
Subteam action items (for flight readiness)
Clone pathing repository to WARG laptop
Test pathing repository on simulator
Have QR code ready on phone
Transportation logistics finalized
Booking SDC vehicles
Assigning drivers
Renting any needed equipment (trailer? generator? etc.)

Day-Before To-Do List

Pre-Departure Checklist

Pre-flight Safety Checklist

Post-Flight Checklist

Item

Owner

Item

Owner

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT

 

 

Flight Test Debrief

Flight Test Timeline

The flight test went from about 11:30 - 1:30 @ WRESTRC

  • Test 1: A manual-controlled flight with a pilot

  • Test 2: Attempt to load the pathing MAVLink info onto Mission Planner failed

  • Test 3: Auto-mission of manually set waypoints on Mission Planner

  • Test 4: Another attempt to load the pathing MAVLink onto Mission Planner

Test #1:

Configuration:

The same setup in Houston as the flight test in the previous week.

After the pilot got familiar with the controller profile, he took off the drone in loiter mode.

Obersavtions and result:

Houston still has the arming issue when something gets “RC link not found“ and “GPS1 configuration error“(forgot if this is the exact warning). But the warning disappears after waiting for a while or pressing the button on GPS.

Houston could fly pretty well under the control of pilot

 

Test #2:

Attempt:

Connected MissionPlanner to drone over COM6 and opened MavLink over TCP port 14550. After scannign QR code timeout error occurred from dronekit.

Problem:

Python script was not able to connect to Mission Planner with TCP → COM 6 over MavLink. Originally tested with simulator which communicates over TCP port. This was indicated by a timeout error in the console which occurred after successfully reading the QR code.

Test #3:

The autonomy group decided to run an auto-mission without the involvement of the pathing script.

Nathan(pilot) configured on the Pixhawk such that I can take off under auto mode when disarmed

Three waypoints are drawn on the mission planner. Houston flew really well on in the auto take-off, hitting the waypoints, and auto-landing

 

Test #4:

After testing the drone with a direct USB connection the Python script was successfully able to load the coordinates to mission planner but failed to do so via Remote connection. The script kept crashing with the timeout error, indicating it wasn’t able to establish a connection to the drone.

Analytics (hopefully applicable)

(please fill out)

Flight Test Post Mortem // Final Thoughts // Condensed Summary

  • Drone didn’t crash

  • successfully take off auto

  • no control link issue

  • didn’t forget anything

  • good pictures

  • wrong power module type

RCA for Red Items

Create a RCA and keep it as a child page.

 

Action Items

Other Resources

Booking WRESTRC Field