[HN Gopher] ArduBee - A micro drone for open source development
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ArduBee - A micro drone for open source development
Author : dieantwoord
Score : 123 points
Date : 2020-04-14 19:05 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (discuss.ardupilot.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (discuss.ardupilot.org)
| asciimike wrote:
| Super cool!
|
| Back in 2014 as a senior project in college we built a quadcopter
| for the BeagleBone: https://github.com/Rose-Hulman-
| ROBO4xx/1314-BeagleBone-Quadc...
|
| We considered building the entire thing as a PCB, but it was
| pretty expensive to build one that size, plus we had concerns
| about its ability to take abuse (we broke a lot of quadcopters,
| even with our hastily jury rigged test stand.
|
| Our main constraint was price: I think we set a total of $100
| (including the BeagbeBone) for all the components, which included
| the IMU, a cheap VGA camera, motors, battery, etc. Super proud of
| the laser cut frame as well, though I bet if we had better access
| to 3D printers back then we could have printed a frame fairly
| easily.
| gdsdfe wrote:
| so is this like the only programmable drone out there? or is this
| the only one that is open source ? how much something like would
| cost? anyone have an idea ?
| chrisdalke wrote:
| The ArduPilot software platform is used very commonly across
| the drone industry and this is definitely not the only
| programmable drone available! The ArduPilot site has a list of
| some ready-to-use drones that have ArduPilot installed:
| https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-rtf.html.
|
| A lot of the time ArduPilot is installed with a flight computer
| (separate from the flight controller) which sends control
| signals inline with the RC receiver and can be retrofit onto an
| existing drone.
|
| You can also pick up pretty inexpensive kits to retrofit any
| DIY quadcopter or RC aircraft with autopilot capability. Two
| examples are the older APM2.8 hardware (no longer supported,
| dirt cheap) and the Pixhawk PX4 (actively supported, more
| expensive but still <$200.)
| gdsdfe wrote:
| Ah so if I understand this correctly : on the software side
| I'm most probably gonna land on ArduPilot, and for the
| hardware that's were the bulk of decisions will be?
| chrisdalke wrote:
| Like bri3d said in his comment, there are a few options --
| ArduPilot is heavily focused on mission planning
| (Waypoints, GPS guidance, etc). There is other flight
| controller firmware like Betaflight which is more focused
| on the stabilization and PID control of a quad.
|
| There's definitely a lot of different decisions you can
| make on the hardware side: Choosing what sensors you
| include, flight computer & flight controller, ESCs and
| motors, frame, and so on.
|
| On the other hand, you could also choose to build a drone
| from a kit or ready-to-fly model, and experiment more with
| higher-level software. ArduPilot can be connected to ROS,
| which is the standard software platform for robotics. Much
| of the swarming behavior, visual tracking, and other
| experiments are done on a platform like ROS, which then
| sends waypoints or other instructions to the flight
| computer.
|
| Some areas to research if you're into this:
|
| ArduPilot (Firmware handling waypoint missions, guidance,
| etc. on an onboard flight controller):
| https://ardupilot.org/copter/index.html
|
| MavLink (Standard serial protocol used to communicate with
| drones, used to communicate between an ArduPilot controller
| and a ground station): https://mavlink.io/en/
|
| ROS (Software platform designed for robotics, commonly
| ArduPilot drones feed into a ROS system for swarm
| experiments etc.): https://www.ros.org/
| bri3d wrote:
| No and not even close. Look up Betaflight (racing oriented) and
| iNav (navigation oriented). Ardupilot is more
| integration/mission oriented, but it's far from the only game
| in town.
|
| A small <250g drone is in the $70-$100 price range, although
| you will also need a $70+ radio transmitter or some heavy
| hacking to control it. Most of the (hundreds) of supported
| control boards are not open hardware in the schematics sense,
| but some are.
|
| The all-in-one PCB integration strategy is cute, but I really
| don't think it's a great approach from a crash-recovery point
| of view.
| gdsdfe wrote:
| I don't know much about the drone space to be quite honest
| but I always wondered what it would cost to mess around with
| swarm algorithms, on actual drones, without breaking the
| bank. Any pointers?
| RealityVoid wrote:
| IMO, a lot. Moving things are hard, and drones especially,
| are _very_ damn hard. One mistake and the drone goes poof!
| It gets frustrating after a while.
|
| Just some pointers if you want to do this:
|
| - you need some companion computer on your drone.
|
| - GPS alone is not precise enough, you'll get wierd drifts
| from it all the time, you want something like RTK GPS to be
| able to keep stuff together.
|
| - If you want your positioning to relie on vision, get a
| global shutter camera, a rolling shutter will make your
| life harder than it needs to be.
| chrisdalke wrote:
| I agree -- and beyond a catastrophic crash, I wonder how
| practical the PCB frame is for longevity of the quad,
| vibration dampening, etc.
| foobarian wrote:
| Speaking of transmitters, what is a good entry level
| transmitter/receiver combo to get into for hacking servo-
| based RC projects? So far I like a Spektrum DX6 controller
| best I just wish it was a bit smaller for my kid's hands.
| TooSmugToFail wrote:
| > The all-in-one PCB integration strategy is cute, but I
| really don't think it's a great approach from a crash-
| recovery point of view.
|
| Spot on.
|
| However, it's a nice way to lure you into building a quad:
| just put some motors on, and you're good to go.
|
| Fly once, crash, and then go actually build a proper quad.
| didsomeonesay wrote:
| Crazyflie is a tiny flying PCB, original version from ~2013 (no
| camera) https://www.bitcraze.io/
|
| And yes, it is not very robust, I broke one PCB arm but could
| fix it without affecting the balance too much.
|
| The bigger problem was encountered when it flew out of reach. I
| had an xbox 360 controller connected to a xbox wireless dongle
| on my laptop, running crazyflie SW, connected to crazyfly via
| another dongle. Tested it in a city park (somebody attended to
| the laptop).
|
| I moved a bit away from the laptop setup while trying to learn
| to fly it (manual leveling is hard). I don't know which
| wireless connection failed first. But the result was, it just
| kept running the last instruction, and flying up, up and away.
| Luckily the battery failed when it was up about 50-100 meters,
| and had drifted away about 100m horizontally due to wind.
|
| I was sweating like hell, picturing scenarios of it coming down
| on a car windshield and causing a surprised driver to crash,
| etc. Luckily it came down within the same park. Without new
| damage to drone, or third parties!
|
| Lessons learned: Don't fly an indoor drone outdoors, it's not
| built to resist wind and doesn't have SW safe for it. And
| never, ever fly any drone outdoors without model plane
| liability insurance.
| khancyr wrote:
| I don't remember what was the price range but it was cheat. I
| think we speak about it in the end of their talk in the
| ArduPillot unconference. Check on ArduPilot YouTube channel for
| their talk.
|
| What is impressive it the integration on this drone : that give
| a good flight time with low weight. That is a big advantage
| against current weight based regulation in numerous country.
| And of course ArduPilot integration give hight capabilities !
| gdsdfe wrote:
| Excuse my noob question but : what do you mean by
| integration? And why is it important?
| RealityVoid wrote:
| It probably means you can build firmware form ArduPilot and
| burn it into the drone. It's a big deal because ArduPilot
| is a whole platform and they have a lot of bells and
| whistles, communication with a companion computer, base
| station communication, a whole lot of possible
| configurations.
| chrisdalke wrote:
| Looks cool, it's great to have another good open source ready-to-
| fly option.
|
| I have some concerns about larger PCB quadcopter designs because
| I can imagine that fatigue due to flexing on the PCB over long-
| term use could cause issues with the PCB delaminating or solder
| joints failing. On the ArduBee particularly, you can see a lot of
| surface-mount components mounted on the arms. I'd love to read
| more about any lifetime testing they've done on the PCB.
|
| Of course there's always the risk of just crashing your drone and
| breaking it, but that's no different than other drone designs!
| fxj wrote:
| m5stack, the company which puts esp32 and esp8266 into nice boxes
| has recently teased a m5stack atom drone (atomfly).
|
| https://twitter.com/M5Stack/status/1244209693045567488?s=20
|
| the m5stack atom is a little esp32 in a box.
|
| https://m5stack.com/products/atom-lite-esp32-development-kit...
| khancyr wrote:
| The drone seems nice, I hope we can play with it soon ! I am glad
| they share some development with open source !
| spiritplumber wrote:
| Cool, but what does it do that the HoverflyOpen doesn't already?
| alasdair_ wrote:
| The HoverflyOpen seems to just be a small part of the stack
| needed to build a swarm of drones. This project seems to be the
| full stack.
| itgoon wrote:
| I've known about ArduPilot for a long time, never even heard of
| HoverflyOpen. The only reference I found for HoverflyOpen is
| this: https://www.parallax.com/product/31500
|
| Comparing that to the ArduBee isn't really much of a
| comparison. The only advantage I see is that HoverflyOpen
| currently exists, while ArduBee looks like they are still in
| the preparing-to-Kickstart phase.
|
| If there's more out there for HoverflyOpen, please share it.
| I'll admit I didn't dig around much.
|
| ArduPilot is a well-known and battle-tested platform.
| spiritplumber wrote:
| That's really it: you can grab all the code and schems from
| there. There was a community but it shut down when the FAA
| regs about drones >250grams came out.
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