This project was started in November 2008. The goal was to learn something about programming, electronics and control loops. Because I always need a cool project to learn new things, it was clear that something that can fly had to be built.
The project started as a "tricopter-only" project, but as I wanted to build smaller vehicles with more payload capacity, I decided to make some quadrotor, hexacopter and Y6 hexacopter firmwares too. My main interest is to build very small MAVs that fly as good as larger ones (or even better) and that can be controlled by wireless video link. I also experimented with autonomous flight in GPS-denied areas (video), and with GPS assisted autonomous hover (video). It would be cool to add more features to this project but I am pretty busy with my PhD research. But maybe one day I could combine my scientific interests with my hobby projects...
-- William

Contact: Shrediquette @ g m x . d e --- All content published under CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Germany

Monday, 20 December 2010

It's cold outside...



... so the best thing to do is to escape to Cameroon! And that is what I'll do :-D .

Whats next...?
Hopefully I don't crash my copter in Cameroon on the first day (like I did last year...). I will try to make some nice aerial shots and to create a movie.
Currently, I am working on a very small Y6 Hexacopter that will have 4-5 IR sensors installed. These sensors will be used to stabilize the position of the copter in relation to walls that are close to it. If that works out, this copter will be my small contribution to the IMAV2011 competition next summer.
Posted by William Th. at 20.12.10 2 comments Links to this post
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Friday, 3 December 2010

Shrediquette goes multicopter!


Several requests "urged" me to release new versions of my firmware. I made a quadrocopter (quadrotor), a hexacopter (hexrotor) and a Y6 version of the Shrediquette firmware, called MM4 respectively MM6. Quadrocopter & hexacopter versions were tested and they seem to work pretty good (see e.g. here). My MM6 flies really good (I am using the same motors/ props/ ESCs as in the DLXm), I built it to make some nice movies when I am in Cameroon on christmas.

 
Next, I am planning to build a Y6 hexacopter that is even smaller than my DLXm tricopter. The firmware for a Y6 Copter is already included in the zip archive, although I couldn't test it yet. For this tiny copter, I have to design a new PCB with a very small footprint (27 x 37mm). This PCB will be some sort of "minimal circuit", that means it doesn't include components for a servo nor LEDs nor connectors. It is just as small as I could make it:


The new firmware versions are included in the existing zip archive (Source code (.hex and .bas)).
Posted by William Th. at 3.12.10 5 comments Links to this post
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