Operation: Widowmaker?
April 8, 2009 – 5:36 pmSo that’s the title of my newest pet project. It was by far the coolest sounding name I’ve ever heard for something nerdy, so I though I’d give it a go.
I’ve been working on putting together my own Arduino-based UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). It’s a R/C (Remote Controlled) plane that has an auto-pilot and GPS onboard. The platform I’ve chosen is based off the work done by the ArduPilot program. It’s made on the Multiplex EasyStar airframe so it’s pretty resilient as far as crashing and abuse goes. The home-built UAV movement has done some really amazing things over the past few years and I belive it will offer a nice avenue for some learning and entertainment.
As it goes right now I’ve purchased the airframe itself and the GPS module, but am waiting on the next revision of the microcontroller (ArduPilot) to come out before purchasing the electronics required. As it stands I still need:
1. Brushless motor and ESC for the airframe to get the power to carry the electronics and possibly a camera in the future.
2. R/C Radio and Servo kit.
3. X&Y stabilization sensor array.
4. Z-axis sensor (New in the ArduPilot 2.1 revision).
5. Misc cables (GPS interface extension cable, Servo extension cables, etc.)
3 Responses to “Operation: Widowmaker?”
That sounds like a pretty fun project. We have a couple of UAVs at work for tests, but they don’t get to go out and fly too often, and my efforts to borrow one have thus far been unsuccesful.
By Carl on Apr 16, 2009
Yeah, those AR’s look pretty sweet. I watched a documentary on them not too terribly long ago. I do like that they are fully customizable. They are having me do OT at work so it may be possible to excersize my self control and get both the AR and DE. Where does the self control come in? In the fact that I shall only buy one of each. In unrelated news, we found out that my father had 4x bypass surgery last week and was in ICU yet NO-ONE heard anything about it. His siblings are nun too thrilled about him not bothering to tellCarl and I about it.
By Tim Trott on Jul 31, 2009