How to begin with semi-autonomous flight or multiple MR control?

[dma251]

I am beginning to think that the next step for some of us will be the desire to control more then one mr at a time for coordinated formation flight.

Ive seen the videos (including the very interesting group of micros featured on the front page of this forum) but I am still intrigued by how they are being controlled.

Anyone have any insight into how an enthusiast could begin tinkering with this type of flight control?
i am mainly interested in small-space/indoor flight where gps is not helpful.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

I think it was the University of Arizona? They did lots of research. Check a recent TED talk which uses optical positioning indoors. I believe it's just coordinated through some nifty computer program.

 

[Electro 2]

If it *is* the TED thing you're speaking of, it's IR multiple object tracking. Each aircraft is fitted with a small matte white sphere which has a high reflection coefficient in the IR spectrum. Multiple IR cameras and IR illuminators are positioned around the flight area. An array of external computers analyze the camera images and track each of the aircraft in flight. With some fancy vector geometery it's possible to command the aircraft to fly in any desired formation, or mission profile. Motion capture systems of this nature have been available for some years in the commercial arena. These are often used to capture live human motion paths for computer animation of cartoon characters drawn with software. I saw several when I was at the SIGGraph national convention in 1994, and I can only imagine that things have gotten far more sophisticated since then.

 

[ChrisViperM]

At the moment I would be more than happy just to be able to conrtrol one copter without being scared of a crash, fly-away or any other failure. Every couple of weeks there is new, "improved" firmware for FC's showing up which fixes one issue....and arises 3 more new issues.

I would be glad to have a true redunancy, collision detection and be able to set a fixed distance to the ground which is not based on GPS......that would make me a smiling, happy man. Just thinking of controlling more than one craft (with the public avalible systems) lets my hair stand up straight......I wouldn't even know what for



Chris