Turning the full-time engineer into a part-time scientist

So I published a post a few days ago on attempting to write a complete conference paper in 20 hours. I must say, I didn't entirely start from scratch. I had jotted down some ideas, the content and the strategy on what to write was pretty clear in my mind. But yet, we all know that even at this point, conceiving a solid journal paper (6-page mind you) is still a considerable effort. So it came down to tools. I must say I've grown more fonder of the ShareLatex over the past few months. If it wasn't for this online Latex compiling and viewing tool and the use of Mendeley, I wouldn't be writing this post to say that pretty much completed my first journal paper since my M.sc in 2010. It's such a liberating feeling to know that I've got an opportunity to present my thoughts and ideas again.

The past two days, I decided to work from home and even though I have other distractions (a two year old monkey a.k.a my son Sam), sitting in that garden and jotting down my thoughts and formulating a plan felt so natural as if I was meant to do this more often. Like Peter Senge says "It's not was vision is, its what vision does". I'm definitely convicted in producing at least one paper each semester (One for work and one for PhD). This means how I write reports and design documents have got to be such that It allows for that. The creative tension in me is unbearable. I can't wait how this year is going to pan out...

Comments

Setting up the Tarot T4-3D gimbal on the Pixhawk 2.4.8 with Specktrum dx6 Gen2 toggle switch

So i took the challenge of setting up the Tarot gimbal not just for inherent stable video footage but also the flexibility of controlling it from the radio control. However, I encountered quite a few challenges which made me aware that I'm not the one only in this battle . It's quite clear that the setup of the Tarot gimbal using its own software is completely different from how it's been described in the Ardupilot/Arducopter webpage and in mission Planner. In Mission Planner and it's associated site makes one believe that it should be done through software, only to realize that in actual fact the setup is more complex than that. After two evenings of trying various combinations, I realized the getting the pixhawk Aux channels to communicate with the T4 gimbal requires the following steps: - The Pixhawk Pin9 (Aux1) needed to be activated to pass through user-chosen channel from the transmitter. For the Dx6 Gen2 it was the channel 6, which can assigned the ...

GPS Navigation Ground Test #2 - Heading Error Computation Algorithm

This one is going to be quite short. Yesterday was the turn of the heading error algorithm to be tested. This heading error is calculated based on the heading the between two waypoints and heading measurement from the GPS module. This error will then be fed into a the roll controller as an input for roll command to reduce it to zero. But for the roll controller to work accordingly, the input must be right and within certain bounds. Same as the previous ground test, waypoints were loaded unto the autopilot and serial debug data was monitored using my Asus TF101 Tablet. It's worth saying that I managed to get serial data output straight from the LINUX command line . So the command line integration with VIM is complete. So it takes approximately under 10sec to upload and start debugging data of the autopilot. Sweet! Anyway, it was found that the GPS accuracy should be considered at 10-12m. Anything less than that and you'll be running for trouble. That is not a real conc...

Development of a new learning algorithm

Over the course of the past 2-3 weeks I decided to take the plunge of learning a new training algorithm which had quite alot of attention in the academic community but was also well constructed for easier implementation. The work by Peng et al on developing the Continuous Forward Algorithm (CFA) was my subject of attention. The overall premise behind implementing this algorithm was to investigate less memory-intensive machine learning algorithm that will not sacrifice accuracy or robustness. The ability to have a real-time learning system for low-cost electronics (such as the Teensy 3.6 ) has huge implications for the commercialization and affordable access of intelligent drones specifically for developing and even under-developed economies. The far-reaching impact of having technology leveraging efforts of farmers, herders, game rangers, biologists is the next wave of industrialization. This is the essence of this blog. The journey is very exciting and eventual results even mo...

Search This Blog