Washington Pass

[Mark Hanson]

A couple weeks ago we completed an autonomous flight at one of the most remote and scenic places yet. Washington Pass is located in Washington State's North Cascade Mountains ( SR-20 ) at an elevation of 5000 ft, among some spectacular rugged mountain peaks. We launched from the look-out parking lot at the summit.

We used our electric NewTimer with a digital camera and a PICOPILOT-N .
On this setup, we were't using an ALT controller so I guess it was technically a semi-autonomous flight. The NewTimer is very stable so all that's necessary to hold altitude is to trim the elevator and set the throttle under RC control. When enabled, the PICOPILOT-N provided automatic navigation to two waypoints, each set about 0.3 miles from the launch location. The waypoints were created on Google Earth and imported into the PICOPILOT Waypoint Editor for autopilot programming. ( see attached GE map )

The digital camera was set on movie mode and it produced 18 minutes of DVD quality video. Some of the attached pictures are screen shots captured from the video. You can view the video clip here: http://www.u-nav.com/gallery.html (http://www.u-nav.com/gallery.html)

Equipment used:
NewTimer - cermark.com
motor - AXI 2208/26
battery - Skyshark RC 2S-2100maH
camera - Sony DSC-T33, 2Gb Flash

[webfoot175]

Wow that's some rugged terrain in your pictures, awesome. I see that your plane is some kind of motorized glider. I'm looking at the Hobbly Lobby Funster RTF as my next plane and I was considering PICO PILOT to do some fun picture taking missions with it. But now I'm wondering if its too hot a plane for an autopilot. Can PICO PILOT only handle glider style planes?

[Steven Chao]

looks cold, burr....

Peace,
Steven Chao,
Cermark

[patrickegan]

Cool :)

[Mark Hanson]

...I'm wondering if <the Hobby Lobby Funster> is too hot a plane for an autopilot. Can PICO PILOT only handle glider style planes?

PICOPILOT can be setup to fly planes with ailerons but it was designed for rudder steered planes (no ailerons) . Your Hobby Lobby Funster is probably not the best choice for a UAV (autopilot) airframe. Keep in mind that UAVs are "working birds" and most small UAVs are used as a camera platform.

Camera work (video or stills) requires a stable platform where bank angles are rarely more than 30 deg. and relatively slow speeds (~25 mph). "Time on station" is an important requirement, so the airframe and motor efficiency are important considerations. That's why you will find most small, military UAVs to be a motor-glider type airframe.

Many RCers have the outdated notion that a UAV airframe is a 20 lb twin boom pusher, powered by a big gas engine. The fact is that most small military UAVs today are small, electric airframes with long wings and tail. Arguably, the most successful small military UAV to date has been the RAVEN. With over 1000 deployed in IRAQ and AFGANISTAN today, the RAVEN is a small, 4 lb electric plane (no ailerons) with a 60 minute endurance and a max. speed of 60 mph. The latest, small UAV from AeroVironment is the WASP-III which is also a motor-glider airframe with a gross weight of 1 lb. !

FYI: PICOPILOT was originally designed for a low cost RAVEN class UAV.

[icebear]

Webfoot,

I would consider a trainer or motor-glider instead for a quicker/better result with the Picopilot.

I have tried several airframes with good results and a stable aileron high wing trainer or a polyhedral rudder-only trainer/glider will be quicker and easier to setup.

Here are a few examples to give you an idea - all of them tried and tested with Picopilot -NA. And a video of the Viking flying autonomously...

/Bjorn

http://www.vimeo.com/969663

[webfoot175]

Thanks Icebear, that video is great. That's just the kind of thing I was thinking of doing. I didn't think about the plane as a camera platform before. Definitely my plane search is going in a different direction now.

Does pico-pilot take-off and land automatically or can you turn it off and control the plane from the RC transmitter ?

Thanks again :-)

[Mark Hanson]

Does pico-pilot take-off and land automatically or can you turn it off and control the plane from the RC transmitter ?


PICOPILOT can be enabled from the RC transmitter using an auxiliary channel (GEAR ). In the MANUAL mode, the plane flys exactly like it would under normal RC control. PICOPILOT does not support automatic take-off and landing.

Note: All UAV autopilots must have the capability of letting the (human) pilot take control to fly in the US.

FAA- Operational Guidance 08-01
8.2.9 Autonomous Operations Only UAVs that have the capability of pilot intervention shall be allowed in the NAS (national airspace)

[icebear]

Thanks webfoot, the Picoppilot is activated by your tx and you have to land/take-off manually. The -NA version will navigate and hold altitude. There is lots of information on their website.

/Icebear