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These guys did it years ago.
Works for boats too.

These guys did it years ago.
Works for boats too.

Look into DIY Drones. Ardupilot is sufficient for a lot of what you are asking for. There's a guy who has successfully flown a model plane across the Atlantic twice. He didn't have constant communications, but it had an HF transmitter and GPS, and it kept hams informed of where it was.

Some of the things you ask for aren't really necessary. Shelf life, for example. Constant communications. Hack proofing. It's really just necessary for a bad guy to put it together and send it toward the nearest city with a few sticks of dynamite. Effective terror weapon. Can distribute poison too. And if one fails, the authorities won't necessarily notice.

This is ok?

2 people "operated" the swarm, one commanding, the other monitoring. Planes got their swarm "slot" assignments at launch and tried to maintain position relative to a lead aircraft once they had reached their slot altitude. It's an interesting read. A quick estimate suggests they put around $1k in hardware into each plane. They describe guiding planes manually via spotter pilots using a secondary 900MHz spread spectrum radio link when anything went wrong.

All planes were programmed with the same landing point, with the assumption that GPS and barometer inaccuracy would provide sufficient spread on landing. But with nearly 50 planes on the runway, on-deck collisions were unavoidable. Some of the video captured by GoPro cameras mounted to the nose of each plane show skidding into other planes, or coming down directly on top of other planes on the ground. Lesson learned for next time: add a bit more variation to the landing coordinates.

First posted about on the 3rd... http://diydrones.com/profiles/...

http://diydrones.com/profiles/...

"Stabilization means extra mass. If it's small, it can't do that."

It's like people have forgotten that miniaturization of things is a driving force for many industries now days.

Clearly LIDAR needs to be considered. If a guy can accurately detect overhead wires using a "friggin' lazer" then I'm sure a "drone" can easily be detected...

How long can a lithium ion powered drone stay in the air?

97 minutes, 6 seconds for this one.

Well if it is on a smart phone having a data connection would allow the retrieval of the necessary data so it may be that who ever wrote the article isn't really aware of what is needed. Yes the antennas in phones suck, as do the GPS chipsets. Also whoever wrote the article doesn't' seem to know much about antennas as I use some very small but pretty good ones with nice uBlox LEA-6t module in my home built setup for RTK and they work great.

I wonder, after carefully reading the article, if they are discussing getting 2cm resolution instead of 2cm accuracy since getting a better resolution would seem to be doable with a better antenna and nothing else. Also I don't believe any of the GPS modules in cellphones are capable of outputting L2 carrier phase data or raw pseudo range data which would be needed for RTK so at best they could do DGPS which is a lot less software intensive. Usually the giant dinner plate thing isn't the antenna but a shield that is meant to prevent most of the multipath problems. a piece of grounded sheet metal works just as well. On newer modules it is also handled in software but the shielding still makes things easier as it filters most of the reflected signals coming from below.

Since the last time I posted about this stuff people wanted to know where to get one here is the discussion I found that got me pointed in the right direction.

The GPS modules are U-blox LEA-6t and you can find the info necessary for getting one here. The company that makes the module is synergy systems and the antennas I got from them is this one. From what I remember the first module was $35 and the second one was $70, I forget what the antennas were but there was a 10% discount they give to the home tinkerer market on the regular priced module and antennas. Instructions on getting the modules can be found in the diydrones link as you couldn't just order it online at the moment. The company was very helpful in getting me what I needed and answering my continuous stream of questions.

A 5-foot wingspan on a quad allows for huge props. That can lead to very long flight times with a well-engineered drone.

My 3DRobotics Y6 can do 90km/h, even if only for 8 minutes on one battery. That's a range of 6km, including return flight. Range would be higher at a lower speed, as it's more efficient, although I haven't had the balls to send the drone that far away from me in flight to test it. I'd guess I could do 10km out and 10km back on a $75 battery if I had the nerve to lose sight of my baby for that long.

See http://diydrones.com/profiles/... . These guys hope for a 1-hour flight time out of a quad with 27"-29" props on a 12kg (26lb.) drone. That's a range of 25km out and 25km back at a speed of 50km/h, which is not that fast. They've done some math that leads me to believe they are at least in the ballpark. And these guys are hobbyists.

Not such a stretch to think a company like Google could cover some good distance with a quadcopter of 9kg (19lbs.). 16km (10mi), as you say, is definitely achievable with current technology, and battery technology is due for a drastic improvement, with all the resources being put into it by different universities and companies.

In fact - a thread from two years ago on the subject...

http://diydrones.com/forum/top...

thus of course be mostly a closed-source system.

Counterpoint: D.I.Y. Drones

... or personal property? http://diydrones.com/

I own a drone (an RC helicopter w/ camera). I fly it in public parks and on my mom's farm. I don't fly it over other people's private property without their permission. If I did, I would have little right to complain if they shot it down.

... or personal property? http://diydrones.com/

-l

Get to a Maker Faire. Several years ago I spent awhile talking with Bre Pettis about his new machine from MakerBot without realizing who he was. Take the kids! Solder your own badge! Learn how to make your own air powered rockets! My kids aren't even into robots think it is a blast. A word of waring... they make you sign a serious waiver for a reason. They expect you to pay attention to your surroundings and not blindly walk into that quadcopter demo. Make sure your kids are not texting as they walk. Look for some of the small booths/tables with guys that brought in their home brewed stuff. They were you not that long ago and would love to talk about hot to get started. The fancy booths are people looking to sell stuff. If your not looking to buy your own laser cutter.... they will let you look and they will be polite but they are looking to sell stuff.
http://makerfaire.com/

If you decide you want to start now and want to learn how things work....

Get this kit for $49:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/193

Follow the tutorials starting here:
http://learn.adafruit.com/lesson-0-getting-started

Soon you will be a master of blinky lights. Think of it as "Hello world" for robotics.

If you think, "HOLY CRAP. I AM MAKING IT REALLY DO THINGS" Then continue. If you went, "HOLY CRAP, I JUST WASTED $50 AND A FEW HOURS OF MY LIFE TO MAKE A STUPID LIGHT BLINK" you might consider some of the more expensive options or re-consider your desire to do this. If you want to continue...

If you have an old printer laying around then rip some motors out of it. In fact anything that has a motor or is older electronics will soon be looked at with, "Hey, that has a nice transformer in it. Those are some nice through hole resisters. Would you look at those hardened steel rods! I wonder why they did it this way?"

Things to consider furthering the addiction:
motor shield with some basic motors
digital multimeter
Soldering iron, do not get one of those nasty Radio Shack $20 pieces of junk. You wouldn't try to build a small deck with a handsaw. This is one of the more expensive pieces you will buy, but it is one of those tools that you will use and will appreciate not having a junk one. This does not mean you need to get a super solder re-work station. Get one with a base station and dial control. Temp controlled would be great.
Go to a nearby electronics place that sells this stuff and buy some general wire, breadboard etc. They will appreciate the business and might be there someday when you really need that one part and don't want to wait for shipping. I was amazed to find one near me. They were rather knowledgeable compared to some certain chains (they had a soldering iron on the counter just in case)
An old computer with the following ports: MIDI(computers used to have a port with real IO, oh my), serial, USB, parallel. You might want to eventually talk to ports and individual pins without the OS in the way. Windows stopped allowing this with XP. A P4 is fast but gets warm and very power hungry. A PIII not so hot or power hungry but not as fast. An old laptop works great for this since it has a small footprint.

Start to follow a few web sites:
http://hackaday.com/
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?main_page=blog
http://blog.makezine.com/
http://dangerousprototypes.com/
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
http://diydrones.com/
https://www.sparkfun.com/

Stop imagining, the future is today!

R/C model planes are much harder to legislate against.

So it's drone, dammit!

And there will be many more incidents like this one because drones are getting popular. Ref: http://diydrones.com/

It is trivial to add this capability to any RC aircraft. Just stick an ArduPilot in and you are done.

Amateurs are already building fully autonomous drones complete with highly accurate GPS devices and all sorts of sensors. I suggest checking out what the people over at DIYDrones are doing. By the way if you are interested in getting into designing electronic gadgets of your own there is a lot of useful info there, especially if you are looking for info on electronic modules and how to program or wire them.

Every post you make is stupid. usually an ad hom or strawman argument.

You can't seem to think, and hate everyone. You have no clue about how the government works, you never back up anything you say with actual data,.
You are just some little insignificant spec of a human being that can't think beyond rote emotion responses.
As evidence I present: http://slashdot.org/~The+Shootist

I pity you almost as much as I pity the people around you.

You should learn to think critical and evaluate your opinions based on data. Also, see a trained professional about your anger issue.

anyways, this is why this specif post show how stupid you can be:
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/gps-module-for-high-altitude

What would you think if I said:
Balloon can be unmanned. Tea party, I'll bet, racists as well.

oh, and if you can crawl out of your cognitive bias long enough to think about.. anything, start learning these:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/resources/logicalfallacies.aspx

note, at no time did I tell you to change your mind about anything, just have some intellectual honest and think about it.

Here is another example of it running the waypoints without the controller. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx-Qz7eXAyk Maybe you should take 5 min and look at the DIY Drones http://diydrones.com/ and see how many people are making Drones that actually fly themselves, not just simple RC controlled planes, these things fly themselves, take off and land themselves based on preprogrammed waypoints. Call it a drone, autopilot flying machines or whatever. These also log full telemetry about the flight too that can be played back on google earth, there not your fathers RC planes anymore. Hope that helps your understanding of an RC plane and todays modern drone for the consumer.

Hi everyone, I am the dad in the video, I want to clear a couple things. !) It’s just an RC plane (Jonathan) Yes, in the beginning it 100% WAS but its not now, well more of a UAV than simple RC because of the FPV. Then about mid way we added the Arducoptor controller. Uploaded waypoints and it flew 100% on its own using a Mediatech GPS through 3 waypoints and back home so yes it’s a true drone now. It also can land on its own but right now it’s such a hard landing it broke the legs that’s why you see the blue tape in the back of one of the legs. It does take off on its own, but you must throw the throttle up a little to start it for safety. Once the stick is thrown even a little it takes up on its own, I asked my son to go a little over half way in case that something went wrong and I had to take manual control. A little over half way would guarantee that it’s still ascending and not crashing to earth. It is fully autonomous. 2) Its not 100% LEGOs. Well no, it not at all, and if you read the description on the YouTube you see I stated 100% LEGO Frame, that’s all. Mainly wanted to build a cheap strong frame with my kids. And I did and it was fun. 3) I used a CAD....um no, its LDD, LEGO Digital Designer, I guess its a kiddie CAD made by LEGO but its not AutoCad and actually the kids use it more than me. My son’s involvement was 100% build and about 100% helping with design of frame. Also oldest helped configure waypoints and flight plan. This is the autopilot system I used http://store.diydrones.com/APM_2_5_Assembled_p/br-apmpwrkt.htm [diydrones.com] You can get LDD here http://ldd.lego.com/ [lego.com] Hope this helps the confusion.

Hi everyone, I am the dad in the video, I want to clear a couple things. !) It’s just an RC plane (Jonathan) Yes, in the beginning it 100% WAS but its not now, well more of a UAV than simple RC because of the FPV. Then about mid way we added the Arducoptor controller. Uploaded waypoints and it flew 100% on its own using a Mediatech GPS through 3 waypoints and back home so yes it’s a true drone now. It also can land on its own but right now it’s such a hard landing it broke the legs that’s why you see the blue tape in the back of one of the legs. It does take off on its own, but you must throw the throttle up a little to start it for safety. Once the stick is thrown even a little it takes up on its own, I asked my son to go a little over half way in case that something went wrong and I had to take manual control. A little over half way would guarantee that it’s still ascending and not crashing to earth. It is fully autonomous. 2) Its not 100% LEGOs. Well no, it not at all, and if you read the description on the YouTube you see I stated 100% LEGO Frame, that’s all. Mainly wanted to build a cheap strong frame with my kids. And I did and it was fun. 3) I used a CAD....um no, its LDD, LEGO Digital Designer, I guess its a kiddie CAD made by LEGO but its not AutoCad and actually the kids use it more than me. My son’s involvement was 100% build and about 100% helping with design of frame. Also oldest helped configure waypoints and flight plan. This is the autopilot system I used http://store.diydrones.com/APM_2_5_Assembled_p/br-apmpwrkt.htm You can get LDD here http://ldd.lego.com/ Hope this helps the confusion.

DISCLAIMER: IANAL, so this is not legal advice.

Having said that, I am rather interested in DIY drones, and therefore, I have been following technical and legal aspects of amateur drones/UAVs/UAS' for a couple of years. I don't see any *technical* reason why what you want to do isn't possible. However, if you live in the USA, I don't believe what you want to do is legal. As I understand, the FAA requires amateur operated drones to be under line-of-site control at all times. Here are some links to help you figure out the legal restrictions for what you want to do:

DIY Drones Regulatory FAQ

  FAA Advisory Circular 91-57

  Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

HTH!

Also: Fact Sheet - Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Ah, but Slashdot was his starting point and you just led him to http://diydrones.com/ which he may not have known existed.

He's not looking for a solution just yet. He wants a starting point.

Then DIY Drones would be a better starting point than Slashdot. http://diydrones.com/

"Convert any RC airplane into a fully-autonomous UAV! Just add the APM 2 autopilot to any RC aircraft and it becomes a fully-programmable flying robot with a powerful ground station and Mission Planner. APM 2 is an open source, Arduino-compatible, pro-quality autopilot. It is the most advanced IMU-based open source autopilot available today, and provides an entire UAV control system with scriptable missions with 3D waypoints, in-flight uploading of commands and powerful ground station software. "

Features include:
Return to Launch with a flick of your RC toggle switch or a mouse click in the graphical Ground Station
Unlimited 3D GPS waypoints
Built-in camera control
Fully-scriptable missions
One-click software load, and easy point-and-click configuration in the powerful Mission Planner. NO programming required!
Replay recorded missions and analyze all the data with a graphing interface
Supports two-way telemetry with Xbee wireless modules.
Point-and-click waypoint entry or real-time mission commands while the UAV is in the air
Fly with a joystick or gamepad via your PC--no need for RC control!
Built-in failsafe will bring your aircraft home in the case of radio loss

DISCLAIMER: IANAL, so this is not legal advice.

Having said that, I am rather interested in DIY drones, and therefore, I have been following technical and legal aspects of amateur drones/UAVs/UAS' for a couple of years. I don't see any *technical* reason why what you want to do isn't possible. However, if you live in the USA, I don't believe what you want to do is legal. As I understand, the FAA requires amateur operated drones to be under line-of-site control at all times. Here are some links to help you figure out the legal restrictions for what you want to do:

DIY Drones Regulatory FAQ
FAA Advisory Circular 91-57
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

HTH!

An interesting part of the DIY Drones stuff.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A44817

Winds might be sort of a problem.

I wonder how easy it would be to make a DIY drone using a powered paraglider.

Well, it does look like it has been asked:

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/uav-paraglider?xg_source=activity

Cool.

An interesting part of the DIY Drones stuff.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A44817

Winds might be sort of a problem.

I wonder how easy it would be to make a DIY drone using a powered paraglider.

Well, it does look like it has been asked:

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/uav-paraglider?xg_source=activity

Cool.

Your not going to get anything pre-built ready to fly cheap (thousands of dollars), but if you build your own with arduino from a site like http://diydrones.com/, it becomes a lot more feasible (just choose an rc vehicle and follow the guide).

Heres another link http://www.diydrones.com/notes/ArduPilot/

Something like this... http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/705844:BlogPost:12672

They're using the DIYDrones ArduPilot, the image in the article shows the ArduPilot Mission Planner software. For a few hundred dollars you can turn an RC aircraft into an autonomous craft, it's a very nifty project.

I'll have to get some of that! I've got an RC plane I don't use much because I don't like paying for repairs when I inevitably crash it.

They're using the DIYDrones ArduPilot, the image in the article shows the ArduPilot Mission Planner software. For a few hundred dollars you can turn an RC aircraft into an autonomous craft, it's a very nifty project.

I'll have to get some of that! I've got an RC plane I don't use much because I don't like paying for repairs when I inevitably crash it.

They're using the DIYDrones ArduPilot, the image in the article shows the ArduPilot Mission Planner software. For a few hundred dollars you can turn an RC aircraft into an autonomous craft, it's a very nifty project.

They're using the DIYDrones ArduPilot, the image in the article shows the ArduPilot Mission Planner software. For a few hundred dollars you can turn an RC aircraft into an autonomous craft, it's a very nifty project.

Go get some clue.

Several of us have been doing this for years now. http://diydrones.com/

I have had a self guided drone that will take off and land on it's own as well as fly to preprogrammed waypoints for over a year now. It runs off of an arduino http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8785

ham radio ATV is the video feed and I send packet data via cellphone to control it. I am hoping to get a Android phone to make it completely cellular based for video and control to avoid the problem with using Ham radio (long range is a problem with HAM and fast scan ATV.

I am glad a Professor has finally caught up to us hobbyests that have been dinking with it for years now.

DIY Drones

Except when your device is already made with Arduino, and then it needs to do something new that is DSP. Then you need DSP with Arduino. Even if it's "stupid" it might be necessary. Most application development must use the HW already present in its installed base, or die trying.

Since DSP (or rather NSP, since "Native Signal Processing" is what non-DSP CPUs were needed to do when there was no DSP but only a CPU in the installed base) isn't impossible on microcontrollers, just somewhat impractical on many of them. Yet the AVR ATMega is common in Arduino, and includes a HW multiplier that can be used for multiply-accumulate that is the core of DSP:

The component that makes a dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) specially suit-
able for signal processing is the Multiply-Accumulate (MAC) unit. This unit is
functionally equivalent to a multiplier directly connected to an Arithmetic Logic Unit
(ALU). The megaAVR microcontrollers are designed to give the AVR family the ability
to effectively perform the same multiply-accumulate operation. This application note
will therefore include examples of implementing the MAC operation.

Meanwhile, new Arduino Due boards include ARM processors with HW multipliers.

Even if the processor/microcontroller has no HW MAC, it can do DSP - just less efficiently. If its application needs DSP, it can do it.

Unless the developer just insists it's stupid. Then the Arduino cannot do it. But not because of the chip.

<rant>...The average /. crowd these days seem to be quite egotistical to assume that they could "do it better". </rant>

Maybe that's because some of the people on /. have done it? I'm not claiming that an Arducopter or AR Drone Parrot is "better*" than a Global Hawk, but the fact is that there are indeed amateurs building drones that are more sophisticated than perhaps most not involved in the hobby suspect.

*"Better" is an ambiguous term, and before entering into a debate about whether one device is "better" than another, it is necessary to define the design requirements. For example, if I need a drone that can take off and land on my driveway, fly at a few hundred feet AGL in a residential neighborhood and operate on less than $1000 per year, then yeah, something I build at home myself is probably "better" than a Global Hawk. However, if I am entering into a military conflict with a well-armed, well-trained enemy with sophisticated ELINT capabilities, then my homebuilt drone is probably not the best choice.

DIY drones I have seen video from there of sub $1000 UAVs that will follow a GPS controlled flight path, stop at waypoints and take video towards the desired direction. What else do you want?

lasers and of course, Air to Surface missiles.

Time to add that to Santa's list.

Air to Surface? Is that to take out the sharks?

Yes, but there are many autopilots that can relieve the operator from the duties of flying so that they can focus on operating the camera. Also, I could be mistaken, but I believe quadcopters/multicopters might be a little easier to fly than a conventional helicopter. At least, in my (admittedly entry-level) research into the subject, multicopters seem to be the platform of choice for most drone hobbyists (excluding fixed-wing designs, at least).

Do you remember the caption at the beginning of that movie? IIRC, it was something like, "The weapons and systems depicted in this movie are real and in use today." At the time, I was like, "Yeah, right" but middle-class hobbyists today have access to surveillance equipment that is every bit as good -- if not better -- than the surveillance equipment on Blue Thunder, and they are just about as quiet as . 'Course, I've yet to see a DIY Drone that carries a gun like Blue Thunder had ;)

DIY drones I have seen video from there of sub $1000 UAVs that will follow a GPS controlled flight path, stop at waypoints and take video towards the desired direction. What else do you want?

lasers and of course, Air to Surface missiles.

Time to add that to Santa's list.

DIY drones I have seen video from there of sub $1000 UAVs that will follow a GPS controlled flight path, stop at waypoints and take video towards the desired direction. What else do you want?

Civilians are already building their own drones. See DIY Drones, etc.

Personally I'd like to see a drone airship that can hold a stable position around 70,000 feet (~21km) to use as a WiFi relay, which would fix the problem of getting a clear line-of-sight for point-to-point long-range wireless but good. I doubt it can be done reliably though. But if it could, and you built a fleet of them linked with Open Mesh, you could build a global drone communications network for fairly cheap. Call it Skynet... oh.

The original Arduino is for 'noobs' as well as knowledgeable geeks, especially new users who are not normally drawn to using electronics and it caters to them unlike some who disrespect them and make entry into hardware hacking something many avoid. Not quite as bad as linux fundamentalist geeks but close. I'm glad for them and every other maker out there.

The Arduino team started with a fairly simple idea and it's working well. There are more powerful versions coming. I'd not realized they have an Arduino Due and other offerings coming.
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arm-arduino-coming

I'm sure the Raspberry PI creators won't have any problems with 'noobs'.