Our H1 drone was finally ready to be tested with new detachable landing gear, 3-axis gimbal and the Gopro camera (powered by an extra 3S-lipo battery). The objective of the test was to test the flight modes (mainly altitude control and position control) via 3DR telemetry connection to an Android phone and the Tower app. It was quite noticeable that the quad needs alot more power to overcome in-ground effects at take-off. This is mainly due to the mass balance with the camera at the nose of the airframe. The altitude control mode worked quite well even at low elevation of 3-4 metres. Unfortunately, at low-battery voltage an automated landing doesn't occur and this resulted in hard-landing (more like a hard crash!). This piece of software will have to be investigated. The manual operation of the Gopro is a bit cumbersome. The alternative of using the WIFI link to operate the camera was investigated but was not deemed a good idea given the potential inteference...

So i've been looking over the last few months how I can get to fly more of my quadcopter drone for both research and leisure. The major drawback of the 1.6kg drone is its form factor at the time. Being a H-frame quad with cross rotor length of over 80cm, I had to purchase 110L storage bin to keep it safe and damage-free. After much research I ended up a natural solution that would involved just a steel saw and good eye for detail. The other (obvious) requirement for this folding mechanism is that it should make the deployment time as fast as possible with a few if not no special equipment. This led the the solution of cutout the area around the second bolt of each arm to allow pivoting action on the first bolt. The cutout should also be such that bolt hole remains to be used as a stopper to maintain symmetry along the quad x and y axis. The high contact friction will be used to ensure the arms remain in the required position throughout a particular flight. After much sawing and...

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...

"The best of innovations happens when certainty is no longer certain" ~ myself My undertaking of my Ph.D (part-time I might add) was on the premise that I would acquire enough research funding for not only tuition but especially hardware. I didn't think for one minute that I would struggle to get money from my sponsor DENEL, but after what has been coming on the news regarding the company being cash-less , its quite clear that I would have to re-think my strategy on how what I'm going to execute this research with maximum exposure. And by exposure I mean the fact that a Ph.D should propel one to a possible career in academia or research institutes, IF done correctly. That's a BIG IF given that aerospace engineering Ph.D in Africa is not well sought after or even recognized by the rest of the aerospace community, let alone in the field of intelligent flight control .  This is where innovation kicks in. In a big way!!! When you realize it's eit...

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 been awhile since I've actually touched my project. More responsibilities at work and now enrolled in a business school makes finding time for 'real' work quite difficult. And by the way, I've been learning Android development for school (business school) so I might come up with an application for this project in the near future. But nevertheless, I've had many chances to ponder on how I can speed up the development of this autopilot. It's been quite clear that flying a 2m glider is restricted to large fields which you have to drive to only when the weather is right. For prototype development, a slow turnaround for testing is your number one enemy. Trying to fly at work is also counter-productive because then time is taken off something work is not paying for. So the decision made to change the platform upon which the autopilot is been tested. We went from 2m glider, 60cm glider and now we're going quadcopter. You may think what!!!!! You can...

Yeah that's right. Everywhere you go, including some intern projects at my company, quadcopter drones is the current trend. The marketing success is simple. It's a lot cheaper and less complex and than a comparable RC helicopter. They're virtually no mechanical moving parts (expect the platform itself). And it's perfectly suited for camera attachment. So hot combination has spawned the quacopter drone revolution. I've always been against following a trend just for the sake of it. But considering that I need perfect weather test fly my flight controller only makes sense to start modifying my code to accommodate for a quadcopter. The controls are pretty straightforward and the design is incredibly simple. Another design dev coming up!