How To Autonomous an UAV via gps ?

Hi Darken Hero,

The concept is simple, the devil is in the details.

Ideally, you have a UAV that an establish where it is, using GPS or other navigation aids and then orient itself to move to the next waypoint.

As long as the UAV has an unimpeded path, it is a simple matter of maintaining a movement vector to the next point, recognize that you are at that point and then changing your orientation to begin moving to the next point.

The math is simple, the control logic is simple, but maintaining the vehicle safely against things in the environment that could cause it problems is where the problems occur.

Remotely piloted vehicles rely on onboard instruments and forward looking video to provide the operator with information about the current situation around the vehicle so that the operator has plenty of time to avoid problems.

For fully autonomous vehicles, you need to create that onboard situation awareness with sufficient options to avoid catastrophic events.  Good luck with that one.

In a closed course, it is fairly easy to establish safe movement corridors between the way points to safely move the vehicle.

So depending upon what type of vehicle you want to use and the geography in which you want to use it in.

DAB

Thanks DAB for you reply ^_^

so i got my raspberry pi , i should get a GPS .. how to set up a fixed route practically  ? 

another question , can i do all the way process with raspberry pi only with GPS or i need an Ardupilot for control and navigation ?

Sorry am a real noob

Based on the questions you're asking, I can estimate your "level of expertise" with regard to "raspberry pi" as well as "RC model flying". My analysis says: This project is too ambitious for you.

Your project sounds like a challenging project for a group of 5-10 university level electrical and mechanical engineering students..

Hope you are not offending Roger,

a though arose in my mind reading the request of boombo and thinking to all the difficulties he was "searching" by himself. Without forgetting the very good posts on the UAV issues explained and partially solved by screamingtiger during the SciFi Your PI challenge and beyond. I though to one of my preferred citations, that is also my motto: Ció che é pensato esiste (what is though exists) by J.L.Borges ...

If I was always doing only what was just at my level of expertise (I am not an engineer, but - maybe - a literate instead a philosopher, poet and story-teller, chemistry) I was always asking myself how to power my first AIM65, bought in 1979

Cheers. Enrico

I highly suggest that you go look at all of the posts related to the use of GPS with a Pi to do geolocation.

There are lots of information in those posts that show you how to set up the RPi with the GPS so that you can use it to find geolocations.

Once you get that far, come back and I will suggest some next steps.

As Roger said, you are embarking on a very challenging project, so I hope you are not expecting immediate miracles.

There are commercial quadcopters that can do what you want, but I suspect your budget is limited and you are willing to sacrifice your time to extend your budget.

DAB

What DAB suggests is correct. Not only but beside a lot of pre-built UAV there is an Arduino based project that I think you can consider as a good inspiration source. It is open source so you can access to the software and it is not difficult to port it on other platforms like BBB or Raspberry PI. Take a look to this link: http://www.arducopter.co.uk

Enrico

Hello Darken Hero,

I think DAB has explained it all pretty cool in a nutshell.

However, I would like to add a few readymade solutions which you can work out easily [i hope].

From my little experience and on the suggestion of one of my friends -

     # you better go for multirotor UAVs [like quadcopter] for autonomous operation

     # Raspberry pi can be used, but you don't need such a powerful board for that. Also in that case, you have to connect other sensors like gyro and 3axis accelerometer separately. You have to write down your own codes to control the UAV using the sensors and GPS. That takes lots of research I believe.

     # However, I would prefer a ready board which already has a builtin control algorithm and optional GPS connectivity. Like - KK Multikopter, ardupilot etc

          For more info, you can visit the links below -

     http://www.kkmulticopter.kr/?modea=navi_manual

     ArduPilot - DIY Drones

I also suggest to exchange some ideas and impressions with amgalbu that if I am not wrong is using Ardupilot for his project. You can find the updated posts on this project at the following link: http://www.element14.com/community/community/design-challenges/sci-fi-your-pi/blog/authors/amgalbu?ICID=DCH-SciFiPi-challengers

Enrico

guys I really appreciate your replays  and very glad for that ^_^

i am reading about ardupilot right now , it made all what i want in a simple software , like WOW !
but i got a question , the internet connection in here is that btw , so can i set ardupilot gps way points offline ? or i need always to be connected ?
also can i use the ardupilot only instead of raspberry pi or any micro-controller as it does all the process ?

As far as I know, ardupilot can do a whole lot by itself.

It might be useful to have a higher level of "control" above that, and for such tasks a raspberry pi is a reasonable choice. The 'pi cna then present a web page: "I'm here, where on the map do you want me to go?" if it's got an internet connection. Or to fall back to the preprogrammed waypoints if there is no command or no internet connection.

A friend is doing a research project where the on board not-exactly-raspberrypi is doing vision tasks. So that is an example of what you can do with the "extra" processing power that the 'pi has, and the ardupilot hasn't.