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Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1
Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1

Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1: Build drones with Ardupilot

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Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1

Chapter 2. Your First Drone - An Autonomous RC Car

This chapter is much less about Pixhawk, and much more about how to design and alter a vehicle to implement Pixhawk. We're going to cover:

  • Kitbashing
  • Planning around limitations
  • Planning the placement of components
  • Fabricating new parts
  • Basic components
  • The basics of Mission Planner

Our rover


Meet the Traxxas Rustler VXL Brushless (following picture), an off-road speed demon at more than 70 mph with a 3S battery. If you're familiar with this car, you'll recognize that it is certainly not (completely) stock. Bigger, wider tires have been fitted with deeper treads for better traction and more resistance to rolling. Additionally, these tires are very soft (adding to the suspension of the vehicle) to reduce vibration on the chassis.

Finally, a wheelie bar has been added to keep it from flipping during acceleration and bumps.

You may also notice that we added a bumper to the front to protect the suspension against forward collisions. Let's get started.

Kitbashing


Kitbashing is a term coined in the cinematic miniature (the art of making miniatures for visual effects) world. It generally means buying pre-formed models (such as model airplanes made of plastic to be displayed on a shelf), taking parts from that kit, and combining it with others (or your own custom parts) to create something new. For instance, you can see parts of the original Star Wars Millenium Falcon that include guns and exhausts from various military model kits.

Some purists may think of this as cheating. They are amateurs. Professionals do it all the time. After all, where time is money, why reinvent something that already exists?

Throughout this book, we're going to use the same philosophy. We're going to take dumb objects and make them smart with the Pixhawk controller and components. On some projects, we'll even go full-kitbashing by combining two or more objects into one smart object.

Rustler VXL


Well, the philosophy and practices we're going to be using can be used on any ground vehicle with small adaptations. We're using the VXL because it's one of the cars we had lying around our shop. Plus, it's pretty darned cool, right?

But the components and practices we're using can be translated to any RC car—even the ones you may pick up at your local Wal-Mart. Going out and spending more than $400 on an RC car is certainly not required for this chapter.

Planning and limitations


"A man's got to understand his limits," said Clint Eastwood in one of the famous Dirty Harry movies. The same philosophy is true when designing any drone. It's always good to have more capability than is truly required. However, you certainly may consider bringing it down a notch or two in practice. You'll see what we mean in a moment.

Identifying the components

The three types of components we're going to be interfacing with on the car are the Electronic Speed Controller (ESC), receiver, and servo(s).

Most RC cars only have one servo (to steer the wheels), but sometimes multiple servos exist (for example, four-wheel steering). We'll worry about the servo later. After all, we don't need to actually get at the servo. We just need its plug (which will be attached to the receiver). Servo wires are very easily identified. They are always three wires and are either colored in a white-red-black or yellow-red-black color scheme.

The ESC is also easily identified as it is where...

Hooking up your Pixhawk


Now that we have somewhere to put our Pixhawk, we can go over how to attach it and program it for a basic rover. The Pixhawk comes with several strips of ¼"—thick foam tape. This stuff is great. It absorbs vibrations and shocks to the Pixhawk that could potentially throw off sensor readings. Before using it though, make sure you clean off your part. Mould-release spray is very oily stuff, and is meant to keep things from sticking together. Simple liquid dishwashing soap does the trick perfectly. I like Dawn, as it cuts grease especially well and is easy to rinse off.

We can just hot glue our mount into the frame of the rover, and then foam tape the Pixhawk in. Notice that the USB port is still above the side guard to allow access for programming, as shown in the following image:

Our Pixhawk is level, secure, protected, and pink. The first component we're going to hook up will be the GPS.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Although we can hook up two GPS antennas for more...

Programming the Pixhawk for our (basic) rover


There are two pieces of (free) software that you'll want. The first is your primary Pixhawk software (Mission Planner). The other is QgroundControl. Both are available from multiple sources, and a simple Google search will get you both.

Although we have the radio telemetry unit installed, on our very first startup of Pixhawk we're going to need to directly connect it to a computer via USB. Remember that plug on the side of the Pixhawk cube? That's our computer USB plug. It's best to use a laptop (so you can use it in the field).

The wizard

After connecting the Pixhawk to our computer, start up the Mission Planner software. You'll be confronted with this requestor:

Obviously, you'll want to select Rover. This wizard will do the initial setup of your Pixhawk and calibrate it for use.

Next you simply select how the computer connects to the Pixhawk (as shown in the following screenshot):

At this point, you must provide which port the Pixhawk is attached...

Testing and driving


Before we take it out to the field, we'll want to test the connections. Close the Mission Planner software, remove the USB cable, and attach the USB telemetry dongle to your computer. With the wheels off the ground, power on your transmitter and rover by plugging the battery in, but do not arm the rover.

After starting the Mission Planner software, you may be asked again to find the rover's com port. In your device manager, the telemetry unit should be visible under the Ports tab, this time as a Silicon Labs device.

Upon successfully finding the telemetry dongle, you'll see this screen inside Mission Planner:

After clicking on the Connect button (top right of the interface), you should see your rover at your location. Yep... that's my house.

Let's do some initial tuning and show you how it's done. Before we actually drive the rover, we need to make sure it's not just going to speed away at 70+ mph into oblivion.

At this point, with the telemetry module communicating with the...

Summary


In this chapter, we learned how to fabricate parts and connect up the older peripherals to the brand new Pixhawk 2.1. We got into the configuration wizard, and even touched on the telemetry module.

In the next chapter, we'll get deeper into all of these things with our first purpose-built drone, a duck decoy. This decoy will autonomously troll around a pond and attract ducks for hunters. We'll use everything we learned here and get into waypoints and patrolling with rovers.

So, buckle up... here we go!

 

 

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Key benefits

  • Explore the best practices used by the top industry professionals that will not only help you build drones in time, but also build effective solutions to cater to.
  • Navigate through the complexities of Ardupilot to put together a complete functional UAV and assemble your drone
  • Learn through practical examples that help you build robust UAV flight and ground control components

Description

The Ardupilot platform is an application ecosystem that encompasses various OS projects for drone programming, flight control, and advanced functionalities.The Ardupilot platform supports many Comms and APIs, such as DroneKit, ROS, and MAVLink. It unites OS drone projects to provide a common codebase. With the help of this book, you will have the satisfaction of building a drone from scratch and exploring its many recreational uses (aerial photography, playing, aerial surveillance, and so on). This book helps individuals and communities build powerful UAVs for both personal and commercial purposes. You will learn to unleash the Ardupilot technology for building, monitoring, and controlling your drones.This is a step-by-step guide covering practical examples and instructions for assembling a drone, building ground control unit using microcontrollers, QgroundControl, and MissionPlanner. You can further build robotic applications on your drone utilizing critical software libraries and tools from the ROS framework. With the help of DroneKit and MAVLink (for reliable communication), you can customize applications via cloud and mobile to interact with your UAV.

Who is this book for?

The primary audience for this book is anyone (enthusiasts and hobbyists) who dream of building their own drones. It will also help those who are trying to build UAVs for commercial purposes. Some prior experience with microcontrollers and electronics would be useful.

What you will learn

  • Kitbash "dumb" objects into smart ones
  • Program Pixhawk for your drones
  • Fabricate your own parts out of different materials
  • Integrate Pixhawk into different types of drones
  • Build and understand the significant difference between land, sea, and air drones
  • Adapt old Pixhawk sensors to the new Pixhawk 2.1 plugs
  • Become familiar with procedures for testing your new drones
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Dec 29, 2017
Length: 272 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786469168
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Publication date : Dec 29, 2017
Length: 272 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786469168
Vendor :
Arduino
Category :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Drones 101 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Your First Drone - An Autonomous RC Car Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A Drone for Hunters – Autonomous Duck Decoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A Drone for Golfers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Introduction to UAVs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A Simple Multicopter Drone Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Holy Grail - A Fixed Wing Drone Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Principles of VTOL with Pixhawk Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Programming Ardupilot Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
(6 Ratings)
5 star 33.3%
4 star 0%
3 star 16.7%
2 star 33.3%
1 star 16.7%
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Multirotor Engineer Feb 16, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I was asked to give this book a read, I am a long time Arducopter user and so I am familiar with the Pixhawk and APM family of Flight controllers. I confess going in I thought the book wasn't going to teach me anything new but I was surprised. The book is full of information I had never read before and found it an interesting read. I am keeping this in my files as a new go to resource for all things pixhawk.Tho book is easy to read, well put together and informative.It covered various aspects of Drone tech from war machines to cars and helicopters. IF your in to drones, or know someone who is starting out as a multirotor pilot, I highly recommend the book. IT walks the reader through the flight dynamics of various rotor craft. A book I admit I got a lot out of.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Joseph C. May 20, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Really liked the simple approach with photos and a not too technical explanation of how too DIY.
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Amazon Customer Aug 19, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
I expected more information. Interesting but not very useful
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Andreas Feb 24, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Leider ist vorab kein kurzer Einblick in das Buch möglich. Nach dem Erhalt müusste ich leider feststellen, dass das Buch nur einen sehr einführenden Überblick über den Pixhawk 2.1 bietet, und keinerlei wirklich tiefgreifendes Wissen bietet. Wer sich bereits mit der Technik beschäftig hat, für den ist das Buch sicher nicht die erste Wahl.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
leslie s Mar 21, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Felt like Arthur was writing a book just to write a book. He should learn more about the CUBE aka pixhawk 2.1 I'm a noob. And have way more knowledge of the cube than him.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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