Ad Explorata

Ad Explorata

(Toward the Unknown )

Final Project - Java Modules for Unmanned Aircraft

Background

Four years ago, I introduced a pilot to a commercial developer in Sierra Vista, Arizona.  The Pilot taught unmanned flight at Fort Huachuca. This discussion gave me an insight to what the future would look like.  Unmanned vehicles would cloud the sky in surveying the land but also bringing people and things to places all over the world.    The question is not whether the technology exists but if the FAA will allow the progress of technology to continue.

The thought excited me and after all this time never left me.  The thought inspired me so much that after I left Los Angeles I penned this article.   Aviation professionals criticized me.  They said it could not be done.  That did not sit well for me.  We have had autopilots in aircraft since 1947.  Further Nikola Tesla had demonstrated in 1898 the first use of radio-controlled boats at Madison Square Gardens in New York City.  (The Navy was not interested.)

I figured that all that was needed was creation of software module that could communicate with autopilots already built inside the airplanes.  But there were obvious hurdles in the way.  I did not have access to the code of the autopilots.  There are large costs involved with aviation and aviation testing.  I did not have the avionics or aviation background.   So that is why I am back in school – to gain this knowledge and prove it can be done.

Mission Statement

1) I intend to adapt a functional autopilot system installed on a flight worthy multi-engine aircraft for cargo only flight (no passengers).

2) The interface will be so simple that an 11 year old boy, my godson and nephew, Jordan Michael Moore will pilot the aircraft using a playstation joystick.  

Subsequent iterations will be so simple that the same pilot can fly a flight worthy multi-engine aircraft for cargo only flight (no passengers) on a smart phone.

3) The ground based control station will have 4 means of communication with the aircraft.  During testing, a pilot will be on board and with the flick of a switch immediately relinquish and conversely seize control of the aircraft by the pilot’s command.

4) The autopilot will have an advanced radar system to overcome, avoid and mitigate sight and see hazards.

5) All systems will use open source code and use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology.

Concept of the Operation

1. Analysis of current open source autopilot systems to include:
a. Paparazzi
b. JSBSIM
c. AVI-DYNE
d. DAT-COM
2. Interview Interested Persons
a. Does anyone in the Tucson Area have Paparazzi loaded on their current UAV system or aircraft?
b. If such a person exists, will they allow me to conduct my research, design, test and refine my product?  To what degree will they cooperate?

3. Write Requirements End State Document
a. All documentation must be readable to two different audiences:
i. the non-technical users that would use the software on a daily basis
ii. the engineers that may be required to make changes to the code base afterward.

4. Conduct a Feasibility & Risk Analysis
a. Identify obstacles
i. Learning Paparazzi
ii. Learning any additional Auto-piloting flight systems such as:
1. the Rockwell Collins solution
2. JSBSIM
3. Avi-Dyne
4. DAT-COM
  iii. Does the Software Developer have the ability and competence to:

1. Interface Java modules with C++ source code and code other than Java?

2. To produce Java modules that will interface with sensors and embedded systems?
iv. The Avionics of a C-141 Aircraft

v. The Availability of a C-141 aircraft

vi. Knowledge of Radar specifically Data Management and Interpretation
vii.  Knowledge of Satellite, Non-Line of Sight, FM, HF Communications and the use of wireless internet or Cloud based communications specifically Data

viii. Management and Interpretation

xi. Network Security and vulnerability to Electronic Attack



xii. Familiarization with Flight Operations
1. Technical aspects of Flight
2. Physics of Flight
3. Cost of Test Flights
a. Aircraft Rental/Loan
b. Pilot Wages
c. Fuel
d. Insurance
e. Failure Rates
4. Hardware purchases
5. Radar Purchase/Rental/Loan
6. Sensors Purchase/Rental/Loan
7. Communication Purchase/Rental/Loan
8. Joystick Rental or Loan
9. Incidental Purchases to include the hiring of additional personnel and consultancy
10. Test Equipment Purchase/Rental/Loan
a. Signal Generator
b. Oscilloscope
c. Spectrum Analyzer
11. Probability of Failure over 75%
12. Set a reasonable time table

Key Personnel
 
1.Is there someone living local to Tucson using Paparazzi now?

2. Is there someone living local to Tucson using COTS radar?

3. Is there someone living local to Tucson using COTS SATCOM systems?

4. Conduct interviews with Aviation professionals living local to Tucson.
5. Conduct interviews with professional UAV Pilot pilots and those involved in UAV flight instruction

6. Conduct interviews with professional UAV maintainers and pilots
7. Make contact with The University of Arizona Micro Air Vehicle Club

Service and Support

1. Budget
2.     Schedule

Count Down	Proj Day	DTG					Remarks
70	1	Friday	Sep	21	2012	Research
69	2	Saturday	Sep	22	2012	HW 2
68	3	Sunday	Sep	23	2012	HW 2
67	4	Monday	Sep	24	2012	Research	Errands	Calculus
66	5	Tuesday	Sep	25	2012		Assembly Language
65	6	Wednesday	Sep	26	2012		Job Search Days
64	7	Thursday	Sep	27	2012		Java Class
63	8	Friday	Sep	28	2012
62	9	Saturday	Sep	29	2012
61	10	Sunday	Sep	30	2012
60	11	Monday	Oct	1	2012		Errands
59	12	Tuesday	Oct	2	2012		Assembly Language
58	13	Wednesday	Oct	3	2012		Job Search Days
57	14	Thursday	Oct	4	2012		Java Class
56	15	Friday	Oct	5	2012
55	16	Saturday	Oct	6	2012
54	17	Sunday	Oct	7	2012
53	18	Monday	Oct	8	2012		Errands
52	19	Tuesday	Oct	9	2012		Assembly Language
51	20	Wednesday	Oct	10	2012		Job Search Days
50	21	Thursday	Oct	11	2012		Java Class
49	22	Friday	Oct	12	2012
48	23	Saturday	Oct	13	2012
47	24	Sunday	Oct	14	2012
46	25	Monday	Oct	15	2012	LAST DAY TO TURN IN REQUIREMENTS	Errands
45	26	Tuesday	Oct	16	2012		Assembly Language
44	27	Wednesday	Oct	17	2012		Job Search Days
43	28	Thursday	Oct	18	2012		Java Class
42	29	Friday	Oct	19	2012
41	30	Saturday	Oct	20	2012
40	31	Sunday	Oct	21	2012
39	32	Monday	Oct	22	2012		Errands
38	33	Tuesday	Oct	23	2012		Assembly Language
37	34	Wednesday	Oct	24	2012		Job Search Days
36	35	Thursday	Oct	25	2012		Java Class
35	36	Friday	Oct	26	2012
34	37	Saturday	Oct	27	2012
33	38	Sunday	Oct	28	2012
32	39	Monday	Oct	29	2012		Errands
31	40	Tuesday	Oct	30	2012		Assembly Language
30	41	Wednesday	Oct	31	2012		Job Search Days
29	42	Thursday	Nov	1	2012		Java Class
28	43	Friday	Nov	2	2012
27	44	Saturday	Nov	3	2012
26	45	Sunday	Nov	4	2012
25	46	Monday	Nov	5	2012		Errands
24	47	Tuesday	Nov	6	2012		Assembly Language
23	48	Wednesday	Nov	7	2012		Job Search Days
22	49	Thursday	Nov	8	2012		Java Class
21	50	Friday	Nov	9	2012
20	51	Saturday	Nov	10	2012
19	52	Sunday	Nov	11	2012
18	53	Monday	Nov	12	2012		Errands
17	54	Tuesday	Nov	13	2012		Assembly Language
16	55	Wednesday	Nov	14	2012		Job Search Days
15	56	Thursday	Nov	15	2012		Java Class
14	57	Friday	Nov	16	2012
13	58	Saturday	Nov	17	2012
12	59	Sunday	Nov	18	2012
11	60	Monday	Nov	19	2012		Errands
10	61	Tuesday	Nov	20	2012		Assembly Language
9	62	Wednesday	Nov	21	2012		Job Search Days
8	63	Thursday	Nov	22	2012	Thanksgiving Holiday	Java Class
7	64	Friday	Nov	23	2012	Thanksgiving Holiday
6	65	Saturday	Nov	24	2012
5	66	Sunday	Nov	25	2012
4	67	Monday	Nov	26	2012		Errands
3	68	Tuesday	Nov	27	2012		Assembly Language
2	69	Wednesday	Nov	28	2012		Job Search Days
1	70	Thursday	Nov	29	2012	EARLIEST DAY TO TURN IN PROJECT	Java Class
		Friday	Nov	30	2012
		Monday	Dec	31	2012		Errands
		Saturday	Dec	1	2012
		Sunday	Dec	2	2012
		Thursday	Dec	3	2012		Java Class
		Tuesday	Dec	4	2012		Assembly Language
		Wednesday	Dec	5	2012	LAST DAY TO TURN IN PROJECT	Job Search Days

Appendix 

Table of Contents

A. Market Analysis of Commercial Flight

a. Air Freight White Paper
i. J. Peterson of the Georgia Institute of Technology
ii. a 46 page study looking at the macroeconomic variables of the Air Freight Industry (circa 2007)
b. Market Trends in the Air Freight Industry
i. Didier Lenormand Head Marketing and Freighter Aircraft for Airbus
ii. Slide Show (38 slides) reflecting the strength of the Air Freight Industry particularly in China (circa 2005)
c. Air Delivery and Freight Services Overview
i. One page Industry Snapshot which identifies the top leaders and analysts (circa May 7, 2012)
d. Global Air Freight Logistics Market Research
i. One page Industry Snapshot which reiterates Air Freight is a $ 72 billion industry experiencing annualized growth of 4% per year employing 262,000 from 12,204 firms
e. Global UAS Market to Grow Annually until 2021
i. Authored by the staff at Defense Update
ii. Details UAS is a $ 92 billion industry with a projected growth of 4% per year for the next 10 years
iii. A discussion of current military and law enforcement applications and joint ventures
iv. Some mention of fuel cell technology and solar powered UAV development
v. Military cuts and high accident rates hinder future development
B. How Auto-Piloting Systems Work
a. Flight Directors – Page one of a multi page tutorial on auto-piloting systems authored by Hal Stoen (circa August 27, 2000)
b. “How Autopilot Works” by William Harris  - a 7 page article written for HowStuffWorks.com
c. “Plane Answers: When do pilots use the autopilot?” by Kent Wien – the author writes from his extensive experience as a pilot for the 737-800 aircraft, aircraft that is comparable to the C-141 recently decommissioned. (circa May 2, 2008)
C. History and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems - a Wikipedia entry
a. “Dull, Dirty or Dangerous” for a manned pilot
b. The contributions of Archibald Montgomery Low & Nikola Tesla during World War I
c. Vietnam - USAF 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing had flown approximately 3,435 UAV missions during the war, at a cost of about 554 UAVs (16%) lost to all causes.  The US turned to UAV after losing 5,000 pilots KIA and 1,000 MIA.
d. Joint Israeli ventures, the Gulf War and the Modern Era
D. Paparazzi – pages from the website
a. Advanced Navigation Routines
b. Airframe Configuration
c. Airframes - Paparazzi
d. Autopilots -Flight Gear
e. Autopilots – Paparazzi
f.
g.
h. STM32 based boards
i. Lisa
j. STM32 based autopilots:
k. Lisa/L
l. STM32/Overo high performance autopilot
m. Lisa/M v1.0
n. STM32 small footprint autopilot
o. Lisa/M v2.0 New!
p. Improved STM32 small footprint autopilot
q. LPC based boards
r. Booz
s. Quadrotor autopilot
t. NavGo
u. Multirotor autopilot
v. NavGo v3 New!
w. Small and lightweight multirotor autopilot
x. Umarim
y. LPC based embedded IMU autopilot designed for small fixed wing:
z. Umarim v1
aa. full sensor set for small fixed wing
bb. Umarim Lite v2 New!
cc. light sensor set version of Umarim
dd. Tiny
ee. GPS integrated lightweight autopilots:
ff. Tiny v0.99
gg. Tiny autopilot
hh. Tiny v1.1
ii. Integrated GPS and 5V/2A supply
jj. Tiny v2.11
kk. Two layers PCB, 0603 components, big GPS groundplane, improved connectivity.
ll. TWOG v1.0
mm. 8 grams Tiny WithOut GPS autopilot, with external GPS option.
nn. YAPA
oo. Yet Another Paparazzi Autopilot:
pp. YAPA v1.0
qq. Same as TWOG, but bigger with XBee, 100mil headers, mounting holes, rs232
rr. YAPA v2.0 New! Reduced component cost
ss. Classix
tt. Dual MCUs, Gumstix connectivity
uu. HB
vv. Autopilots built in Bremen:
ww. HB v1.0
xx. Four layers PCB, no GPS, with IMU
yy. Development
zz. Future Autopilot Versions
aaa. Hardware currently in development
bbb. HB mini New!
ccc. Four layers planar PCB, 12g, no GPS, with IMU
ddd. Tiny v3.0 In development??
eee. Four layer PCB, external GPS, external IMU,
fff. microSD data logger, pressure sensors, JTAG
ggg. Archive
hhh. Previous Versions
iii. Schematics and support for previous versions
jjj. Compiling
kkk. Contact
lll. Contributing - Paparazzi
mmm. Developer Guide
nnn. Downloads
ooo. Eagle Tips
ppp. FAQ - Paparazzi
qqq. Fixed wing Configuration
rrr. Flight Plans
sss. Gallery
ttt. GCS - Paparazzi
uuu. Hardware Wish list
vvv. HITL- Paparazzi
www. Index of/debian
xxx. Links - Paparazzi
yyy. Logs -  Paparazzi
zzz. Modems - Paparazzi
aaaa. Modules - Paparazzi
bbbb. OMAP - Paparazzi
cccc. Other Hardware - Paparazzi
dddd. Overview
eeee. Paparazzi
ffff. Paparazzi - Blog
gggg. Paparazzi Center - Paparazzi
hhhh. Paparazzi UAS / Paparazzi Developer's Guide
iiii. Paparazzi UAV autopilot/ "Paparazzi UAV autopilot team" team
jjjj. Paparazzi/Paparazzi GitHub
kkkk. RotorA tribute to the founder of Paparazii – the deceased Pascal Brisset of Toulouse, France from the Ecole nationale de l’aviation civile
llll. Getting Started
i. Introduction
ii. Install the Ground Station
iii. Run a Simulation
1. Get the hardware
2. The Autopilot
3. The Airframe
4. The Radio Control
iv. Batteries
v. When the autopilot arrives
1. PPZUAV assembled autopilot steps
2. GPS programming using the "tunnel"
vi. Where to go from there
1. Configure the environment for your hardware
2. Tune your airframe
3. Web for beginners are out there
vii. User's Manual
viii. If everything else fails
mmmm. Theory of Operation
i. 1 Control Loops Write up
ii. 2 PID

1. Roll Rate
2. Roll Attitude
3. Pitch Angle
4. Navigation
5. Climb Rate
nnnn. Tuning – some guidance on tuning Paparazzi with an individual UAV
oooo. Logs
i. Format
ii. Data Plotting
iii. Replay
iv. Output on a serial port
v. Load PprzLog into Matlab Workspace
vi. NMEA output
pppp. Sensors and Inertial Measurement Unit
i. Terminology
ii. Paparazzi IMUs
1. Booz IMU v 1.01
2. YAI v1.0
3. Aspirin IMU
iii. 3rd Party IMU
1. PPZUAV IMU 9DOF
2. Ryan Mechatronics CHIMU AHRS
3. SparkFun Razor 6DOF IMU
4. SparkFun SEN-10121
5. Pololu MinIMU-9
6. Cloudcap Crista IMU
iv. 3rd Party INS
1. ArduIMU+ V2 (Flat)
2. Vector-Nav VN-100
3. MicroStrain 3DM-GX2
4. Xsens MTi and MTi-G (with GPS)
5. MemSense MAG3
v. The Very Short Essential Introduction To Inertial Attitude Estimation
qqqq. Subsystems
i. GPS – GPS drivers
ii. Imu – IMU (inertial measurement unit: only measures the accelerations and rotation rates and magnetic field) drivers, tradition IR sensors can be used for fixed wing but an IMU subsystem is not required
iii. AHR – AHRS (attitude and heading reference system: uses IMU data + extra [airspeed/GPS/baro/...] to do sensor fusion and provide pitch and roll) algorithms
iv. Radio_control – Radio Control Implementations
v. Telemetry – Telemtry implementations
vi. Actuators – Drivers for different ESCs for rotorcraft. Fixed wing ESC and servos are possible on all firm wares/architectures
vii. Stabilization – attitude control system for rotorcraft
rrrr. List of Users – at least 2 users at the University of Arizona and one at Arizona State University
i. Jvs84 - We are a group of students at the University of Arizona working on building an autonomous glider which can actively search for thermals.
ii. List of Settings and hardware used
ssss. SoftwareTools
i. Input2Ivy e.g. to use a joystick
ii. Paparazzi On the Web
iii. Quick Web Interface for Paparazzi
iv. GPSd_position
v. Kinomap
vi. Ipodrom
vii. WeatherStationInterface
viii. Speech
ix. RTPlotter
x. Plotter
xi. Server
xii. Eagle_Tips
xiii. Paparazzi build server
tttt. Software Wish List
i. Introduction
ii. Ground Station Suggestions
iii. Airborne Software Suggestions
1. Stability
2. Navigation
3. Other
iv. Current Code and Build
v. JAUS Support
vi. X-plane HITL Support
uuuu. Student Projects
i. Ipodrom – a GCS on a cellphone before the smart phones
ii. Paparazzi On the Web: A web based GCS
iii. Corsica: A long endurance micro-UAV project
iv. Flight_log_book: Store your flight logs on a web server
v. Mission_planning: plan your missions for a lfeet of MAV
vi. New_Gaia: A brand new environmental simulator
vii. TU Delft – Autonomous Quadrotor: without using AR.Drone SDK
E. JSBISM
F. Avidyne Auto-Pilot
G. C-141
H. Academic Writings of Paparazzi
I. Academic Writings on Unmanned Aerial Flight
J. DATCOM Auto-Pilot
K. Commercial Off The Shelf Satellite Communications
L. Commercial Off The Shelf Radar
M. Articles on Unmanned Commercial Passenger Flight