How about a drone with sensors

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Does any one know of a way to adapt or even a drone out there that has sensors like on each wing and top so maybe you could put a range setting on it so it won't go any closer then say maybe up to five feet from any object? Just thinking if not this would be a nice feature to keep it from flying into a tree branch or walls!!
 
For that sort of thing you'd want to run with a kit build type quad etc. I'd love to get a lil photo sensor on the end of each arm to be able to get an rpm of each motor! Even if I only feed the data into the OSD I'd be happy, for what you want you'd need it to be taken into the flight control data etc
 
I hear what you're saying and I don't think there is anything out there at the moment that will do that. However, I'm willing to bet that within a few years, that will be available at a "doable" market price.


phantomflyer said:
Does any one know of a way to adapt or even a drone out there that has sensors like on each wing and top so maybe you could put a range setting on it so it won't go any closer then say maybe up to five feet from any object? Just thinking if not this would be a nice feature to keep it from flying into a tree branch or walls!!
 
I think anything that would 'sense' obstacles would require some heavy equipment.

The "Blade" 350QX has a feature called "safe zone" in GPS mode that serves to protect the operator. You walk back 15 meters from the copter before taking off, this "sets" the positions. Once in the air the Copter cannot be flown inside this 30 meter circle while in GPS mode. I would think it would be fairly simple to program this just opposite. IOW's the user could set a circle that the copter could not be flown "out of" That way a novice user (or any user for that matter) could define an area that the copter cannot leave. I think that would be kinda cool actually.

On the Blade this "safe circle" works flawlessly. I let my 8 year old grandson fly in the GPS mode and let him "have at it" without worrying about him inadvertently flying it into us during training. The 350QX by the way is a great little machine in spite of the early problem of blades coming apart. They addressed the problem immediately upon evidence of a shortcoming and sent two sets of upgraded props to all owners. I have two of them and not a bit of problem with either.
 
I think it's just a matter of time before this feature is standard, like gyro-stabilization et al.

I'd imagine it'll have to incorporate dynamic range adjustment to take into account of craft's speed.. And it probably still won't protect us from trees. Except for the trunk.

Btw sidewinder, the feature that you're describing is called a 'gps fence'. Useful to keep the drone out of specific areas, but not applicable to protect itself from physical hazards mentioned in this thread.
 
Sidewinder said:
I think anything that would 'sense' obstacles would require some heavy equipment.

Not really. They have mini-quads with ultrasonic sensors to maintain altitude. It's really a matter of someone having the motivation to adapt the technology and program a controller to accept multiple sensors.

This is why i agree with some others that its closer than we think. :)
 
dkr77573 said:
Sidewinder said:
I think anything that would 'sense' obstacles would require some heavy equipment.

Not really. They have mini-quads with ultrasonic sensors to maintain altitude. It's really a matter of someone having the motivation to adapt the technology and program a controller to accept multiple sensors.

This is why i agree with some others that its closer than we think. :)

My thoughts exactly. The park sensors in my car's bumper only weigh a few ozs. You could rig those to sound an alarm with ease...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk to annoy as many people as possible. :)
 
Sidewinder Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:32 am
I think anything that would 'sense' obstacles would require some heavy equipment


Pretty sure there are some kind of sensor lens out there that would be small enough to fit on all four corners of quad but maybe only strong enough to detect maybe a two to five foot range and they may be able to ad the function into the Naza! I'm not saying this is something that is possible I don't know much about electronics let alone quads, I guess I'm just throwing the Idea out there in case there is an electronic wiz out there that could find away to try it out!

"Sidewinder" IOW's the user could set a circle that the copter could not be flown "out of" That way a novice user (or any user for that matter) could define an area that the copter cannot leave. I think that would be kinda cool actually.

I think you have that function on the range setting! Not sure how low it could be set for.
 
If you could maintain a uniform distance from an object, that would be awesome not just for crash avoidance but also for photography/videography.
 
Sidewinder said:
.... I would think it would be fairly simple to program this just opposite. IOW's the user could set a circle that the copter could not be flown "out of" That way a novice user (or any user for that matter) could define an area that the copter cannot leave. I think that would be kinda cool actually.

:?: Am I missing something here? - Isn't that exactly what the limits feature does in firmware v4.02.

Set the limit to say 20m and the height to 30m and bam... job done. You will not be able to fly further than 20m away from your home point or higher than 30m altitude (from home point).

Or do you mean something else?????
 
The Editor said:
Sidewinder said:
.... I would think it would be fairly simple to program this just opposite. IOW's the user could set a circle that the copter could not be flown "out of" That way a novice user (or any user for that matter) could define an area that the copter cannot leave. I think that would be kinda cool actually.

:?: Am I missing something here? - Isn't that exactly what the limits feature does in firmware v4.02.

Set the limit to say 20m and the height to 30m and bam... job done. You will not be able to fly further than 20m away from your home point or higher than 30m altitude (from home point).

Or do you mean something else?????

It's super inaccurate though. If you let go of the sticks it'll still drift ~3 feet up or down. With a distance sensor you could lock it in place to the inch.

I've used these in a different application before https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9495, and they're very light and easy to use. The only real issue is NAZA has no support for any kind of distance sensor.
 
I was thinking of something along these lines - but something that prevents the Phantom from going BELOW a certain altitude unless a certain criteria is met (eg; a switch or stick sequence to allow the Phantom to ignore it and land).

My thought for this is for those times when flying over water. This might help prevent user error and having your Phantom go for a swim.
 
AndyJarosz said:
The Editor said:
Sidewinder said:
.... I would think it would be fairly simple to program this just opposite. IOW's the user could set a circle that the copter could not be flown "out of" That way a novice user (or any user for that matter) could define an area that the copter cannot leave. I think that would be kinda cool actually.

:?: Am I missing something here? - Isn't that exactly what the limits feature does in firmware v4.02.

Set the limit to say 20m and the height to 30m and bam... job done. You will not be able to fly further than 20m away from your home point or higher than 30m altitude (from home point).

Or do you mean something else?????

It's super inaccurate though. If you let go of the sticks it'll still drift ~3 feet up or down. With a distance sensor you could lock it in place to the inch.

I've used these in a different application before https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9495, and they're very light and easy to use. The only real issue is NAZA has no support for any kind of distance sensor.

Ohhhhh... car reversing sensors :lol:

Presumably you mean something like this ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4TRHEdYzIA

This has been around for years in the Arducopter!
 

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