Admin Preparation

Requested By	@Yuchen Lin @Evan Janakievski @Maxwell Lou @Manasva Katyal
Goal Summary	test autonomy system, the detect target for IR beacons perform first flight of foam plane for fixed wing pilot training
Status?	DRAFT / SUBMITTED / WAITING FOR SUB-TEAM REVIEW / APPROVED
Desired Airframe	Houston & Foam Plane
Date(s)	Feb 2nd, 2025

Test plan

Flight Card 1

Detect target IR test

Pilot: @Manasva Katyal

GSO: @Jerry Tian

What is being tested?

Detect target IR validation test and accuracy test

Hardware to be installed, items to bring, batteries, etc (change status to success when installed or plan for installing at flight test is done)

Houston Drone
4x 3s batteries
IR camera (picamera) with IR bandpass filter
2x IR Beacon
Measuring tape

CLUSTER ESTIMATION TEST PROCEDURE (HOUSTON)
Procedure	Goals / Objectives	Knockoff criteria
Setup	Get the script to run (either manually or auto start on bootup)	Script is not running
Place and measure distance from drone power-on location to IR beacons	Know true value of the IR beacon location and home location. Use phone GPS to determine IR beacon locations as a backup.
Hover above the IR beacons and fly a few passes at 5, 10, 15m altitude. (we are not doing 20m or above, the accuracy seems too low from previous flight tests)

Flight Card 2

Necessary Preparation

Necessary items:

Houston Drone
Foam Plane
6x 3s batteries
IR camera (picamera) with IR bandpass filter
2x IR Beacon
Measuring tape

Flight characteristics needed:

Flight speed
GPS

Comms / Support needed:

Autonomous/repeatable missions

Mandatory Attendees

Name	Phone #	Sub-team	Role

Name	Phone #	Sub-team	Role
Yuchen Lin	6474256385	Flight Test	coordination
Manasva Katyal	2896985018	Flight Test	foam plane card coordination & piloting

Flightline Team

Name	Phone #	Role	Reason

Name	Phone #	Role	Reason
@Yuchen Lin
@Manasva Katyal

Pre-Flight Checklists

Software configuration correct
UAV ground testing
ground acceptance review system under test

Mission plan clear
flightline roles assigned
Communication hierarchy established
Incident procedures & roles in-place & briefed to all flightline team members
Timeline for day-of clear
Battery charging plan, equipment management plan clear.
Transportation clear

Batteries in safety bag
Equipment
- Zip tie
- duck tape
- label maker
- Type c cable
- ELRS Gemini
- charged WARG laptop
- controller box
  - two controller
  - battery tester

Debrief
clean / store equipment if necessary

Flight Test Timeline

Date/Time	Action	Notes

Date/Time	Action	Notes
10:00 am	Briefing
11:00 am	Planned Departure
11:30 am	Arrived & Set Up
11:30 - 1:00	Huston IR Cam Test
1:00 - 1:30	Foam Plane Test

DEBRIEF

Flight test debrief report

We didn’t bring Wrestrc key fob, calling the number on the gate let us in.

Card 1: Huston IR Cam (Pilot: @Manasva Katyal , GSO: @Jerry Tian )

1st flight : stablizing

Took off in Stabilise @ 11:52
Landed in Stabilise @ 11:52
Huston was drifting a fair amount in Stabilize mode, so switched to Loiter for future flights

2nd flight: test in loiter

Took off in loiter @ 11:54
Landed in loiter @ 11:55
Was much more stable, verified maneuverability before running IR cam test

3rd flight: 5m test w IR camera

Took off in loiter @ 11:56
Landed in loiter @ 12:00
Produced images from the IR camera were mostly white due to the snow. IR camera is not detecting just IR? Otherwise the cold snow should be black in the images.
Impossible to detect the IR beacons because whole image is white.
Perhaps look into better bandpass filter.. defer to @Tong Zhang @Maxwell Lou
Also, some images were corrupted (0 bytes)… reason unknown again deferred to Autonomy leads

time gap between flight 3, 4 is due to image analysis on @Evan Zhao 's computer

Tested IR camera functionality by taking pictures of people

4th flight: 10m test w IR camera round 2

Took off in loiter @ 12:32
Landed in RTL @ 12:34
Images again are too white to detect any IR beacons (pretty much same result as flight #3)
Corrupted images again…
Data merge worker died too, strangely
At the end went into battery failsafe and RTL’d
- Current draw was very high due to RPI load + very cold temperatures

Additional Notes:

Near the end was getting quite hard to test due to very cold conditions (affecting battery, etc.)
TX16S kept going into emergency mode… not sure if this was due to cold or something else
15m test was called off due to lack of image usefullness + very heavy snow

Card 2: Foam Plane Pilot Training

Were running into quite a few issues at this point (cold/snow/TX16s emergency mode)
Waited inside car for a fair bit to allow things to heat up
“Takeoff” & Crash @ 1:23
@Jerry Tian ran the plane with @Manasva Katyal as pilot, on launch noticed an immediate right yaw and roll. Correction inputs were put in quite quickly but had no effect.
Plane crashed nose first, and prop as well as a part of main fuselage.
Theory:
- Servos are rated from 0C to 55C, temperature was -15C so were very sluggish in response
- Also, might need more power, so perhaps add additional prop
- Frankly takeoff speed was never enough… might need to look into a basic landing gear
- Enjoy the video below

Main Takeaways:

Autonomy likely needs to look into IR cam/filter and worker dying issue more, or we need to test in a non-snowed environment.
Fixed wing pilot training may require some reworking.

Flight Tests

2025-2-2 Autonomy + Foam Plane Flight test