In arrivo Arducopter 3.3 con il terminatore del volo nel firmware

Prosegue lo sviluppo del Dev Team APM su Arducopter ( APM:Copter ), il firmare open source per gli autopilota dedicati ai droni multirotori. E' stata appena rilasciata in beta la release candidate 2 di Arducopter 3.3. Come avevamo annunciato, la versione definitiva disporrà dell'autotuning anche sullo yaw e, novità degli ultimi aggiornamenti, la terminazione del volo integrata nel firmware. 

Associando tale funzione ad un canale ausiliario del radiocomando ed azionando il relativo interruttore i motori del drone multirotore si spegneranno immediatamente e l'autopilotà si disarmerà entro 5 secondi. Non molto diverso dall' arrestare in volo tramite la manovra tradizionale con gli stick tuttavia il comando diretto assicura una maggior immediatezza e il comando ha priorità su tutte le altre funzioni attive in quel momento, comprese le funzioni di volo automatico.  

Altre novità risiedono nelle migliorie dell'optical flow - il mantenimento della posizione effettuato tramite telecamere verticali - e ulteriori ottimizzazioni sull' EKF,  il filtro di Kalman esteso che fondendo i dati provenienti da diversi sensori assicura un miglior controllo dell'assetto. Con la versione 3.3 il controllo dell'assetto via EKF sarà attivo di default e sostituirà quello effettuato tramite la DCM che comunque continuerà ad esistere come scelta. Per questi motivi  a partire da Arducopter 3.3 le schede basate sui processori ad 8 bit non saranno più supportate a causa della scarsa potenza del microprocessore.

Di seguito tutte le features della 3.3 RC2

Copter 3.3-rc2/rc3 02-May-2015

Changes from 3.3-rc1
1) AutoTune reliability fixes (improved filtering to reduce noise interference)
2) Optical flow improvements:
    a) Range Finder pre-arm check - lift vehicle between 50cm ~ 2m before arming.  Can be disabled by setting ARMING_CHECK to "Skip Params/Sonar"
    b) Vehicle altitude limited to range finder altitude when optical flow is enabled
3) AltHold & Take-off changes:
    a) feed-forward controller and jerk limiting should result in slightly snappier performance and smoother take-offs
    b) vehicle climbs automatically to PILOT_TKOFF_ALT alt when taking off in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold, Sport (disabled by default, pilot's throttle input overrides takeoff)
    c) PILOT_THR_FILT allows enforcing smoother throttle response in manual flight modes (defaults to 0 = off)
    d) TX with sprung throttle can set PILOT_THR_BHV to "1" so motor feedback when landed starts from mid-stick instead of bottom of stick
    e) GCS can initiate takeoff even in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold and sport by issuing NAV_TAKEOFF mavlink command
4) Stop flight mode - causes vehicle to stop quickly, and does not respond to user input or waypoint movement via MAVLink.  Requires GPS, will be renamed to Brake mode.
5) Aux channel features:
    a) Emergency Stop - stops all motors immediately and disarms in 5 seconds
    b) Motor Interlock - opposite of Emergency Stop, must be on to allow motors to spin motors, must be off to arm
6) Air pressure gain scaling (of roll, pitch, yaw) should mostly remove need to re-tune when flying at very different altitudes
7) landing detector simplified to only check vehicle is not accelerating & motors have hit their lower limit
8) Loiter tuning params to remove "freight train" stops:
       raising WPNAV_LOIT_MAXA makes vehicle start and stop faster
       raising WPNAV_LOIT_MINA makes vehicle stop more quickly when sticks centered
9) Other items:
    a) faster EKF startup
    b) Camera control messages sent via MAVLink to smart cameras.  Allow control of camera zoom for upcoming IntelEdison/Sony QX1 camera control board
    c) Lost Copter Alarm can be triggered by holding throttle down, roll right, pitch back
10) Bug fixes:
    a) Home position set to latest arm position (it was being set to previous disarm location or first GPS lock position)
    b) bug fix to mission Jump to command zero
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Copter 3.3-rc1 11-Apr-2015
Changes from 3.2.1
1) Only support fast CPUs boards (Pixhawk, VRBrain, etc) and drop support for APM1, APM2 (sorry!)
2) AutoTune for yaw
3) Smooth throttle curve which should reduce wobbles during fast climbs and descents
4) ch7/ch8 aux switches expanded to ch9 ~ ch12 (see CH9_OPT ~ CH12_OPT params)
5) PX4Flow support in Loiter mode (still somewhat experimental)
6) Safety features:
    a) EKF on by default replacing DCM/InertialNav which should improve robustness
    b) increased accelerometer range from 8G to 16G to reduce chance of climb due to high vibrations (requires accel calibration)
7) Landing features:
    a) improved landing on slopes
    b) retractable landing gear (see LGR_ parameters)
8) Camera Gimbal features:
    a) SToRM32 gimbal support (using MAVLink)
    b) AlexMos gimbal support (using AlexMos serial interface)
    c) do-mount-control commands supported in missions (allows controlling gimbal angle in missions)
9) Battery related features:
    a) PID scaling for battery voltage (disabled by default, see MOT_THST_BAT_ parameters)
    b) smart battery support
10) Other:
    a) support do-set-home command (allows return-to-me and locked home position once GCS enhancements are completed)
    b) performance improvements for Pixhawk reduce CPU load from 80% to 15%
    c) firmware string name changed from ArduCopter to APM:Copter