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ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

discuss.ardupilot.org

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Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#61

Post by luminousbees »

RealityVoid wrote: post #55
luminousbees wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree bitcraze its a great nano drone, but the first version has 3 minutes flight time and it can not be used outdoor, furthermore, Ardupilot is far more advanced and offers a lot more potential and with a huge community of experts, developers and user

UWB is really impressive and I see you have a optical flow positioning add-on board as well. Would like to play around with the current state-of-the-art, curious is fetting things to position indoors got easyer in the last 4 years, since last time I played with it. Something I was thinking recently is using a lighthouse positioning system from Valve for indoor positioning. They have permissive licensing terms and the…

Yes! Lighthouse positioning system from Valve for indoor positioning it's so interesting, swarm compatible, easier to setup, cheaper and higher precision!

UWB is our present solution, its already easily in the 10cm accuracy in LOS scenario, it also enables complex indoor space with different connected rooms you want to cover, and you could cover easily 30m between each beacons.

We are discussing the option to integrate the optical flow directly into the ArduBee base. If you have suggestions, your contribution is highly appreciated.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#62

Post by bri3d »

myself248 wrote: post #25
bri3d wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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.

I've never built a drone yet but I've tried to do a lot of reading, and I don't understand why everything assumes that you have an R/C transmitter in your hand, and then at some point "throw the switch" and make it autonomous. Isn't the entire point of these things that they fly themselves? That's why we call them drones and not R/C helis, right? Why can't I just click "go" on my GUI, and never purchase a TX? Or can…

To be blunt: because they're not good enough. Even ArduPilot which is probably the best mission-flying software in the open source space, or DJI who are still ahead in the commercial space, will often need manual intervention to complete a mission.

You absolutely _can_ build an ArduPilot drone that takes commands and tries to fly a mission end-to-end without intervention, but without a real-time TX link of some form, you are in hot water when it fails.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#63

Post by luminousbees »

vanderZwan wrote: post #60

This looks really cool, but tbh when I saw the name micro drone I expected something crazyflie-sized[0] more than this. Which is not a complaint, by the way! The crazyflie is so small that it becomes quite the limitation in a few ways. Really curious how the slightly larger size of the ArduBee compares in practice - probably has a bit more stability and power. [0] https://www.bitcraze.io/products/crazyflie-2-1/ [1] h…

Thank you! Bitcraze is so small and lightweight, but the first version had 3 minutes of flight time. It have brush motors and it's not suited for outdoor. We'll update you about the real flight time asap the new motors arrive. Furthermore, ArduBee will be proposed as a plain board without motors and propellers, to enable every sort of selection and combinations of brushless motors and 3" props, offering full customization for many different approach, you can use top motors or under the base, for max endurance, max payload, max navigation performance or wind disturbance rejection.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#64

Post by luminousbees »

roland35 wrote: post #35

I am really excited about the ultrawideband implementation! The technology has been around for a few years now but the interface is quite complex and is hard to get up and running. The actual ultrawideband devices (decawave) are available on digikey for $10-20 each so if a good open source implementation exists, that would be very exciting for hobby robotic makers.

I agree UWB system has good quality positioning, it's not affected by lights or smoke and it's quite cheap. The localization is processed on each Flight Control and it's integrated inside the Arudpilot firmware and passed to the Ardupilot EKF.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#65

Post by luminousbees »

khancyr wrote: post #2

The drone seems nice, I hope we can play with it soon ! I am glad they share some development with open source !

Thank you so much khancyr! You are a well-known member in the ardupilot community your support is highly appreciated and if you have ideas or suggestions we would love to have your opinion before closing the new ArduBee prototypes in development

With great excitement we follow the feeback here on HN and we are happy to answer all your questions!

Besides posting here you're all also very much invited to submit your feedback via this google form and contribute with your ideas to the final version of ArduBee before starting the kickstarter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSv-mjhigMYmZsG03N...

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#66

Post by wolfgke »

didsomeonesay wrote: post #22
gdsdfe wrote: post #6

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 ?

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…

> And never, ever fly any drone outdoors without model plane liability insurance.

Or be able to run fast ... ;-)

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#67

Post by luminousbees »

toss1 wrote: post #52
contingencies wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next step up for rigidity is usually low-cost carbon fiber.

True, carbon fiber composites nearly always have greater stiffness and ultimate strength vs fiberglass However, carbon fiber is also electrically conductive, vs fiberglass which is insulating, so that might be just a bit of a problem for a circuit board base... (perhaps solvable, but not the usual near-drop-in upgrade)

Yes carbon fiber its an amazing material for lightness and robustness, but we cannot see a way to innovate there with the usual separate parts and its needed cables. ArduBee its without a single wire, ready to fly, apart the motors wires. This in particular for micro drone is really a weakness in terms of flight time and aerodynamics.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#68

Post by luminousbees »

StavrosK wrote: post #36
roland35 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fr4 material is basically fiberglass, and at 1.6mm thick it doesn't take much to bend it if it isn't supported. I think the weight of the motors could be an issue.

When resting, possibly. In flight, the weight of the battery would probably be the bigger concern, though I think you can get 2mm PCBs.

Thanks! this could be a great idea,the 2mm PCB could be an interesting option! We are devoted to 1.6mm PCB since the 5" version that weighs 220g and we haven't had any broken or issue on the PCB piece. The battery is well attached, fixed in 6 well distributed points on the PCB and aligned perfectly in the center of the 4 motors.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#69

Post by StavrosK »

luminousbees wrote: post #68
StavrosK wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When resting, possibly. In flight, the weight of the battery would probably be the bigger concern, though I think you can get 2mm PCBs.

Thanks! this could be a great idea,the 2mm PCB could be an interesting option! We are devoted to 1.6mm PCB since the 5" version that weighs 220g and we haven't had any broken or issue on the PCB piece. The battery is well attached, fixed in 6 well distributed points on the PCB and aligned perfectly in the center of the 4 motors.

That's great then, if it works for you that's all that matters. I'm glad you guys are doing this.

Re: ArduBee – A micro drone for open source development

#70

Post by luminousbees »

chrisdalke wrote: post #15
bri3d wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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.

I agree -- and beyond a catastrophic crash, I wonder how practical the PCB frame is for longevity of the quad, vibration dampening, etc.

Without catastrophic crashes, it's a flying PCB with the finest micro drone's build integrated in its frame.

About vibration dampening, if you look at the maiden flight here https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/ardubee-a-ready-to-fly-micro...

Don't you think the untuned ArduBee was flying already nicely?

The graph of the postfilter acc and gyro is not so bad, the new Dynamic Notch Filter technics in Ardupilot is working so good. Furthermore, the best in his class IMU is put in the center of the frame, where the single 18650 battery, the most of the mass, is fixed in place.

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