2024-06-03 Autonomy Comp Debrief

UofT

• Notes

  • Hex

  • RF tower

  • Open

    

  • Auto stack

    • ROS is 20Hz on Jetson Nano, Mission Planner is 0.5Hz

    • QGroundControl

    • Auto landing uses Geolocation

    • Non Euclidean is a problem, will be 1.5 times the altitude off

  • ↑ Stacks might be outdated as they switch their software stacks three weeks before comp.

    • As far as I know, they are using mission planner for auto mission.

    • YOLOV8

    • range finder lidar

• Task 1

  • Horizontal to Alpha then ascended

  • Crashed during 3rd lap

  • Minimal damage - destroyed landing gear and cabin, arms and frame are fine

  • Almost vertical oscillation

  • pretty bad tuning

  • Open

    

• Task 2

  • Crashed and broke cabin, tuned and tried again

  • Crazy oscillations

  • Failsafe and landed during approach (almost hit power line)

Queen’s

• Notes

  • VTOL

  • Auto stack (Sounds like the most legit one among all teams)

    • ZED X mini angled down (doesn’t work with Pi)

    • Jetson Orin Nano airside, not streaming images

    • ROS for navigation

    • YOLO deployment on Isaac ROS

• Task 1

  • Flew in quad mode, removed wings

  • Couldn’t get to Alpha, took off and landed

  • Looked stable

• Task 2

  • Flew in quad mode, removed wings

  • Spiraled downwards during approach

  • Stabilized 2m above ground then crashed nose first

UBC

• Notes

  • 11kg VTOL

  • Auto stack

    • Custom web based GCS

      • Python 2 Mission Planner Scripts (MPS) running in Docker container

      • Go backend connects to MPS with web sockets

      • Go backend has REST API endpoints

      • React/Svelte frontend connects to backend

      • Theoretically modularized, each module is dockerized, string it up with docker compose, didn’t actually do it

    • Telemetry is RFD 900s

    • Not running auto landing (I got lied to?)

• Task 1

  • Stalling, couldn’t transition, quad mode was struggling, horizontal prop was on, but wasn’t moving forward

  • Did not get to Alpha

  • Tried 2 auto missions, switched back to manual

  • Used mission planner for path planning

  • They had multiple points around alpha and beta for the turning.

• Task 2

  • No wings or tail

  • Cardboard tubes for safety

  • Good approach

  • Hovered at end waiting for window

  • Messed up auto landing waypoints and pilot took over manually to land on A

Carleton

• Notes

  • VTOL (only one that transitioned)

  • 60m/s top speed

  • Auto stack (removed sensors for weight, did not run auto landing)

    • Jetson tx2

    • ZED depth camera

    • Gimbal camera runs object detection

    • Raspberry pi connects to pixhawk forwards MAVLink

    • Wifi

• Task 1

  • Ascended to 100m, transitioned to horizontal and flew to alpha in 45s

  • Transitioned back to quad at Alpha

  • Turned and flew to Bravo at 60km/h

  • Tried bank the turn at Bravo and crashed

  • Quad mode looked really stable

• Task 2

  • No wings or tail, cain was not repaired

  • Had a stick in the front to help the pilot with ranging

  • Good approach

  • Hovered at end waiting for window

  • Landed on C but tipped over

  • Calculated PID by hand

ETS

• Notes

  • Quad

  • Auto stack

    • Tried to research a GNN, didn’t get it working, theoretically more flexible - path doesn’t have to be waypoints

    • Stereo camera (wasn’t mounted, didn’t get to use)

• Task 1

  • Compass calibration did not work

  • Went above 400ft and judge asked them to land

• Task 2

  • Compass calibration did not work

  • Did not take off

Alberta

• Notes

  • Quad with tilted cabin

  • Auto stack

    • YOLOv5 on Pi4 was really slow

    • Streaming images over Wi-Fi, OpenHD

    • Linux with system D using python program to send MAVLink

• Task 1

  • Took off, got to Alpha, came back and landed - auto mission

  • Kinda wobbly

• Task 2

  • Auto landed on LZ B

Guelph

• Notes

  • Fixed wing plane

  • Radio

  • VTX

  • No airside, no mission planner, completely manual

• Task 1

  • Took off and landed, did not get to Alpha

• Task 2

  • Took off and landed a few times

Sherbrooke

• Notes

  • VTOL

  • Massive Wifi antenna - using RFD 900s for comp

  • Auto stack

    • Dronekit, trying to switch to PyMAVLink

    • Airside checks for loiter mode to detect pathing mission ended

    • Landing pad detection with HSV colour detection, not AI model

    • Orange Pi is theoretically more powerful than Raspberry Pi

    • QGroundControl instead of Mission Planner for redundant MAVLink

    • Switching from ArduPilot to ??? because failsafe is weird for VTOL

• Task 1

  • Crashed on Friday, removed tail and wings to fly in quad

  • Did not get to Alpha

  • Went outside geofence at Bravo and killed the drone

  • Crashed during turn, broke carbon fibre tube

• Task 2

  • No wings, flying in quad

  • Ascended to waypoint

  • Going to land somewhere

McGill

• Notes

  • Tailsitter with bending aerofoil

  • Sic radio telemetry link

  • VTX video transmitter

  • Jetty controller duplex connection

  • Auto stack

    • Distance matrix with 1 camera using midas python library - uses an ML model

    • Jetson nano with Python

    • Gazebo simulator

• Did not fly tasks

UBCO

• Notes

  • Helicopter

  • Auto stack

    • Pi5

    • Used to use LTE to stream images to groundside

      • Slow, switching to airside compute

    • LiDAR

      • Spinning LiDAR doesn’t work as well in the sunlight

      • Has one directional rangefinders instead

    • YOLOV8 with centering algorithm

    • QGroundControl

• Did not fly tasks

Manitoba

• Notes

  • Hex

• Did not show up