For the last couple of months, our design team has been hard at work at detail development of our drone concept which we hope to make public early 2021. These have been unprecedented times with so many changes within our company: people moving countries, stuck at airports, universities closing and transitioning to online classes and exams; all in the space of one year! Nevertheless, one of the fundamental challenges facing the drone industry in developing countries next year, is how to operate within an environment where shipping of critical parts (amongst other things) has been disrupted due to the covid-19 pandemic. If the most critical items (propellers, batteries, sensors, etc. ) of the system are also associated with the longest lead time, this has a significant impact on the operating cost and service coverage that can be achieved. Unfortunately, there's no easy way of solving this issue except if it was envisioned as part of the development process. But this is seldom the ca...

Far too many drone companies have been involved in a journey that has been characterised by a short honeymoon. From an African standpoint, the journey was always delayed.  Most African drone companies have been involved in training initiatives , environmental initiatives and consumer journalism .  But the bulk of the drone development was performed in Asia , USA and Europe .   So it's no surprise that Venture capitalist invested mainly in Asian and American companies.  But given the recent reports and the foreclosure of big startups last year , the drone landscape has changed.  So a question needs to be asked, what would happen to up-coming drone manufacturing companies based in Africa? Below are three key aspects that we believe drone manufacturers need to take into consideration going to the next 3 to 5 years. Focus on Functionality One of the biggest elements when it comes to drone development is the ability to focus not just on the e...

Over the past two years, the research and development team has been developing a method to identify faulty motors on a drone without interrupting a mission (automated or manual). This is of high interest as it will give the pilot more information to ensure the successful recovery of the system in the event of a fault. The team of engineers has developed a Machine learning (using Artificial Neural Networks) framework that superimposes the dynamics on the controls in order to detect and locate a fault in a rotor without compromising the mission. The graph above shows simulate a rotor fault once the drone reaches 9 m/s and the fault identification system (FIS) detects a fault 1-second later. Once the other rotors are analyzed, the Rotor1 is identified as having a fault and this information is sent back to the pilot. It's important to know that even though a major fault has occurred, the drone a capable of flying for some time until instability grows and the drone becomes unc...

The race towards bringing robotic flying things hasn't slowed down. The effort to reduce the art of electronics and power consumption to a minimal size has often not shown the commercial uptake it deserves. At least from the skills-basis standpoint. It takes a pretty special bunch of individuals to be able to work in a world of the minuscule. The question I guess is more from the intent of the technology. Do you remember the Kodak camera that you could find at any tourist store? At the time, it was brilliant technology with a commercial uptake, but not sustainable for the needs of the future tourist. That technology had to die and die hard. On the other hand, there's aluminium/cast iron pot in the dusty streets of some West African countries, is still made in the same way 30+ years after that technology was conceived. So what makes technology have a staying factor? In the case of microrobots and any new technologies that are on the horizon (like our interest i...

There's a lot of debate around the economic suitability of drones for the delivery of the goods as a direct competitor to traditional trucks and delivery vans. There's an article written by Flexport which highlights two crucial factors that makes drones delivery of general goods not feasible, even in the near future: (1) route density and (2) drop size. Route density is the number of drop-offs you can make on a delivery route and drop-size is the number of parcels per stop on that delivery route. Given the strict airspace regulations on drone size and weight, it has become quite evident, particularly in the African context, that the delivery of general goods will not be an economically viable option even though the obvious need might say otherwise.  However, further analysis and demonstration have shown, from companies like Matternet and others, that the transport of the time-sensitive and high-value parcels (legal-documents, medicine samples, high-value spices...

We've reviewed a document on the impact of the blue-green algae on the irrigation of the agricultural farmlands.  Our investigations follows the trend of the bursts of blue-green algae is the dams using for livestock and plants which has caused many illnesses to the farm workers and their families specifically in small-holding agricultural areas. So we've decided to undergo experimental research into the application of a low-cost drone solution for the analysis, prediction and the eventual eradication of the blue-green algae in dams which has a direct impact in the production yield of the both animals and plants. This research will comprise of the development of the remote sensing system which will generate data that will be used as inputs into a predictive model which will be used to help farmers make alternative plans well-before the blue-green algae has a financial impact the farms' operations and the safety of its workers. The proposal with be prese...

We've reviewed a report by Deloitte discussing issues on how to leverage and protect Africa's innovation for future growth and economic stability. It was highlighted that the traditional focus on exploiting commodities hasn't yielded the redistribution of wealth or improve the standard of living for those working in that sector. Moreover, over 75% of economic activities happen in the informal sector (Nigeria statistics), which is exposed to the volatility that commodity markets are subjected to, which is detrimental to the impoverished communities. One of the major points which directly relates to our mission objective is the following quote from the report: " Yet, as much as innovation is important, there needs to be more focus on the final outcome of innovative solutions. "  In Africa, innovation is part of the daily survival. But it's usually unstructured, very often short-sighted and localized in it's application. Moreover, the growing yout...

We stumbled on the organization that's making head waves around the globe called Drones for Good Award . Although the coveted prize money is not openly advertised, various companies have participated over the past few years such as: PrecisionHawk , LoonCopter , Drones against Tsetse and many more. We were pretty impressed especially with LoonCopter. This is drone which is capable of air, surface and underwater navigation. The aim is mainly for search and rescue and the proof of concept was demonstrated at the award. But what's more fascinating is the culture and ethos this organization promotes. The idea that drones CAN be used for good and SHOULD be used for good. This is something we at Uav4africa believe immensely . The notion that you can use technology, whether in the air or under the sea, to uplift, educate and empower underprivileged communities is beyond a nice gesture, it's calling all of us should respond to. One of our projects is to investigate...

So the notion of upgrading my already awesome (if I can say so myself) looking drone to aerial videography using a 3-axis gimbal has been bugging me for a while now. I mean, why not? At least that will get me to fly the drone alot more and use it for other purposes. The fact that I only need a gimbal and a landing gear (given that I already have the awesome Gopro hero 4 silver), should be providential enough to just spend the dollars required to make this happen. But then one get's to think, why I am doing it for? I mean does my research of intelligent flight control ACTUALLY need aerial capability? One could argue that testing your software with a drone representative of an actual commercial drone could only enhance the validation/justification of the research.  But the ultimate question is, how MUCH distraction will this capability introduce to the essence of what the doctoral research is trying to achieve? Will I gain more information given that I've got now no...

My research drone, given the lack of research funds, was a fourth-hand quadcopter drone which I resuscitated and started getting good flight test results. I even wrote a paper on it with the hope of publishing. However, the previous guys didn't have an appreciation for neatness so the drone looked like a wire fest. See below: So in order to make a clean start (without breaking the bank) was to remodel the airframe into something more commercial (with the hope that it could serve as a aerial photography platform - always wanted a DJI). So what I did was convert the space between the two main plates and layout the power electronics which included the ESCs, the distribution joint and the power module. I cleaned up the residues of double-sided tape that appeared everywhere and made provision for the Pixhawk in a more central position. And this is what it looks like now:   Mission accomplished. Now it's time for testing everything still works and for the first tes...

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...

Hi, I've looked around the web to get an understanding the setup of the Ardupilot flight modes with a Spektrum DX6 2nd generation and there was none. So I decided to write this blog. The few things to consider when doing this: Please follow the instruction given on the ardupilot webpage . Have the Pixhawk hardware connected to Mission Planner (I have 1.3.50 - Copter V3.5.3)  Use the display bar in the Radio Calibration page as a guide while changing the rate pulse widths on your transmitter. I've used switch D to change the pulse width ranges on channel 5.

So my pixhawk has finally arrived! Now it's time to get to understand the codebase and integrate my algorithms to the flight control suite. I've also gathered a few parts from a research quadcopter. The plan is to have it takeoff and demonstrate that it works!

It's amazing how a continuous search at possibilities eventually leads to finding a "needle in a haystack". Introducing the Teensy 3.6 development. It a 32-bit Cortex M4 ARM core with (FPU) at a 1/6th of the price of the Pixhawk (The Pixhawk runs the same chip although has double the Flash memory). Granted, it doesn't have any sensors but man, that's find. Did I also mention that it works straight with arduino code. This means that I've upgraded to the most powerful MCU in the market at the same price as an Arduino Due . Wow! I overcame my shock by going to Robotics in Centurion and getting my hands on this dynamite. It can even run X-plane flight simulation controls in real-time communicating through the USB port! Ok enough ranting and raving! The point is now I can test the embedded algorithms on a similar ARM-based microcontroller as the Pixhawk and conclude the testing and validation up to HILS level with the sensors in the loop (while emulating th...

It was time to decide. Playing small robots and chiefs with the likes of Arduino and the soldering iron was a nice learning curve but it had to come to an end. The bigger objective of this research was to integrate intelligent algorithm on a platform that was accepted by most engineers and hobbyists. The learning pain will be great, but the support community will be there to help. The need to do things properly and start from a good foundation given the experimental nature of this research is key. It's clear there will be limitations, but what's obvious is that whatever software I build will be implemented on an architecture that's continously changing and being upgraded due to the fast changing nature of current drone industry. So the sooner I get into this game properly, the better it will be for future algorithms. Given the function of software in the loop, implementing a whole range of algorithm will now become a breeze. The prospect of using cheaper materials to...

So the time had come for me to test the gopro on the Heli and answer a couple of questions. One that was answered quite quickly was how stable was the configuration. It turned out to be quite stable after all. Although attaching the camera at the nose of airframe makes contro in windy weather quite intricate. I had a couple of close shaves. The eventual footage didn't produce much desired results although that was expected as not much thinking what into the vibration isolation of the video camera. The maiden flight was to see if everything will work as expected. One could potential use a vibration removal video editor although that it last resort. Accumulated flight time: 94min

It's been a while (over three weeks to be exact) since I've flown the heli. I must say I was quite nervous at first knowing that it's the first few minutes of flying after a long time that are quite critical. I also acquired a headset for my gopro which also worked quite well. But none of that mattered because many headaches have taught me to not have a big head in things that I'm still learning. So only after the third battery did I start with Nose-in maneuvers and a bit of slow circuits. Now that the holidays are upon us (and I still don't have a carry case), I will have to repeat this flight when I come back. I was tempted to take it with so I can get some nice shots of nature and the sea side. But I realised that I can't afford to loose this airframe as when I come back the instrumentation of the IMU will begin. Accumulated flight time: 84 min

So once I'm done doing #flighttest #data #reduction and #analysis I'm tackling the development of having these two @atmelcorporation #atmega328 talking to each other over I2C bus network. #coding #code #uav4africa via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gY9dG1

#samtheman analyzing his #helicopter #toy with such attention. #drones watch out for this guy. #takingover #uav4africa #proudpapa via Instagram http://ift.tt/2g35NTr

We're in lesson 5/100 before inverted flights. Decided to up ante and do min 10 min of flying for every session. Three packs of battery should give me 12min of flight. #uav4africa #drone #rcheli via Instagram http://ift.tt/2eEwDDJ