2 years ago and this video is absolutely what I was needing! I’ve been getting super involved in robots in vanilla SE and this just made drones 100% useful
@thatonefella8638 In truth, the new AI blocks that came out since this video make drone control even easier. But the good news is, I have a fairly detailed video explaining those blocks and how they work in the linked video! :D Thanks for watching, and enjoy!! Let me know how your Drone Robotics are coming along! ruclips.net/video/NV6QbHmwfhU/видео.html
How you align orientation for remote control: Set up an "approach" waypoint straigt above your final target, and set it to be visited just before your target. Coming from there you can set your remote block orientation to downwards and it will come from a predifined orientation towards your target. If you need so, you can set up one ore two other wayponts in some zig zag pattern to correct the othr axes as well. Always setting the remote control to the appropiate "forward" direction.
Most of what I think your saying I showed in the video (set a waypoint directly above the connection, set it straight down, etc.) , and I may be talking about a different thing when I say orientation, but I will try to transfer control to another remote control block set to 'downward' and see it that somehow orients it to an established grid - i didn't try that. Using a second waypoint to correct it doesn't really do the trick either, because it moves the entire ship however it is currently oriented - it doesn't just tilt a part of it in some direction while holding another part of the ship at a fixed point. I've even tried two remote control blocks - like one at the top and one at the bottom to try to get it to align in a given orientation, but no lock with that either. The Engineering and Testing will continue. :)
@@Oearth Oh I think if it doesn't orient itself to face the next waypoint in the chosen "forward" direction, then that waypoint is too close. try one further away.
Auto pilot is one of Space Engineers greatest and yet least understood features. It doesn't see much use mainly because of the way it behaves in space. When the auto pilot executes a direction change (roll, pitch, yaw) it always does it using at least two axis's (yaw + roll, usually). This is fine if you are just navigating from point to point in space, but if you need your vessel to line up with a connector and/or merge block, you will need to remain calm and carefully think through what your vessel does at each waypoint along the way in order to preserve your sanity. At waypoints where an undesirable orientation results, you might want to instruct the auto pilot to first move towards the next intended waypoint, stopping at a point where the vessel has completed it's turn (place waypoint there), then change it's forward direction to down (or up) and have it move to a waypoint a few meters below (or above) it's current position. This will probably "level" the ship out, but if it doesn't just have it return to the original waypoint by changing the forward direction to up (or down if you went up first). That should do it. Remember, the auto pilot manages to move the vessel towards the next waypoint BEFORE it actually points at the waypoint. When executing the "correction maneuvers", as I call them, you need to space the waypoints far enough below or above to give the vessel time to complete the alignment before proceeding. This will vary with both the size and weight of the vessel and will require a bit of trial and error (mostly error) to get it right. It CAN be done, and when it works it's a sheer joy to behold. Happy Engineering!
@@davidparsons1541 too bad the autopilot doesn't honor waypoint sequences in space. it will just randomly choose one to go to usually by which ever is closest. and even then, sometimes its completely random. so with that, its USELESS. main reason nobody uses it, is because it keeps crashing our ships, meaning ITS TRASH. sorry 4 months later..
Can’t wait to see what is added in the next update as the Devs stated it will be focused on new AI for enemy and ally grids. A new AI block that looks similar to the current Remote Control block has been shown
When it comes to actions that we can do with buttons and timer blocks etc, we really should be able to turn the speed/ piston length/ rotor speed or whatever to a certain level with an action rather than move it in increments as you explained. Being able to command the remote control to change speed to a predetermined level rather than change it in increments seems like it would be much more basic and simple, I can’t understand why they didn’t do that to begin with. Being able to tell a piston to retract/ extend to a certain length would be another great example as well as being able to change its maximum/ minimum extension settings to something specific rather than incrementally
Completely agree with the actions. Having to apply a single increment across each of the 10 Ctrl bars on 2 timer blocks to get from a max to minimum speed seems like a lot more work than just setting a single value - and less accurate for the speed you want. Maybe we’ll get some improvement in that area in the upcoming update you mentioned! Appreciate the comments!!
@@WiseOakDakota GTX 1080ti are like $240 ish with crypto crash. Not a bad time to buy a used GPU. (Buy the rest new) can have a beastly CPU for like $1000 ish
I think that a custom turret controller can be made to automatically line things up if you have a gyroscope on a router or a thruster connected to it and then make it point to small ships or large ships
Not sure but i think i have a solution for the Rotation Problem, first you need to place the remote controll in front of the Connector so that it is the rotaitional axis. Second you tell the gyroscope to rotate, since youre above a connector it schould snap in place once the rotation is correct. Sorry for the bad english
That worked for me, too. Had a connector between two small merge blocks. The magnet field of the connector attracts the landing drone, then a special gyro on override rotates everything until the merge blocks snap. Gyro then stops.
Thank you so much for this , I have now set up a shuttle bus to my space station. It can be loaded up with a few crates of materials and takes me to my station. Though I do have to repair the connectors every once in a while because it likes to slam the space station a little
Try setting the strength of the connector on your shuttle very low, like 0.01% - 0.05%. I've found that this gives enough pull on my wheeled vehicles to latch on, but not so much that i send offerings to clang. Maybe worth a try😉
Maybe to set correct orientation to use 3rd and 4th remote controls on subgrid and set new groups of GPS. Then you can activate both remote controls (1+3 or 2+4) and it would push grid to vertical orientation (just idea)
For alignment issues, I use PAM (Path Auto Miner) so add a Program block with PAM script, then set a timer block to trigger the Program Block, Select Run, then Align. It will only align on a gravity planet.
Drone orientation in space is always difficult but y our solving the wrong problem. You're trying to solve an orientation control problem to solve the real problem of loading and offloading ores. Use with attribution as this technology served our server faction the OPA for years MASG/▼Pure▼Evil\Thamodeth. you have 1 orientation vector you can control forward. place your remote control block directly behind your drill. connector. Make an approach waypoint so your forward is faced into the collector array on the receiving ship. on the depositing ship disable remote control and enable throw out on a connector with an empty ore item filter placed into it. On the receiving ship take your array of collectors and activate a spherical gravity generator directly behind it. to activate the throw-out function you can use the remote control or a maxed-out proximity sensor on the depositing ship. The collecting ship will need a sensor so as to not waste power with a collection field. This technology is really good for cycle miners, where you create an A B grid of parallel planes that straddle an asteroid. set the max speed to 4m/s and follow this pattern A1>B1>A approach> Dropoff > A2>B2> A approach > Dropoff >Repead incrementing AB +1 each cycle till complete.
I had a dumb idea for a super simple drone, but I don't know how to script for shit. I wanted to make a craft with only forward thrusters, and a simple program... Drive towards any hostile shooting, up until a min-range, then spin around via gyro and burn in the opposite direction till it hits a max engagement distance. rinse repeat till no bad guys are left. A shitty little attack drone that would more than likely ram the opponent ass end first, but I figured such a simple and compact design would have it's benefits, first and foremost being dirt simple to build and program... relatively speaking.
@@Oearth I can slap sensors all over it... But I don't know how to tell it what to do. I've made it remote control by putting a camera on it... but to keep it compact, I had to put the camera on a hinge, on a rotar with max offset to get the camera to peak over the top of the craft's nose... This is going to sound even funnier... but the craft is LITERALLY a small block railgun, with two ion thrusters and 2 Gatling cannons bolted to the side of it... Its has only the BARE MIN number of blocks. all of which is in line with the side mounted thrusters, making the craft only 3 blocks wide, and about 2 blocks tall. It goes like this: gun - container - small reactor - thruster. RAIL GUN - control systems... gun - container - small reactor - thruster It's pretty much a rocket with guns mounted where the warhead should be. That tiny center area between the thruster stacks is where I have to cram all my control systems: sensors, antenna, camera, gyro, remote block... etc. If I could figure out how to program it remotely, then I could easily fit everything I need in that 2x3 space between the thruster stacks. cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994719699420057670/unknown.png cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994720058855137421/unknown.png cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994720094875811840/unknown.png IDK if these links work... but this is what I'm working with. I made a scaled up Large Block version for the fun of it.
Wow! Very aesthetically pleasing as well!! :D Until they increase the sensor range beyond 50 meters (very short range), it'll be tough, but I'm super curious to see how far you'll be able to push it without scripts - I may well be overlooking something. Also having a system that conveys a coordinate or direction of a detected 'entity' would be really helpful too - I'm talking all without scripts of course. Those two things I think would open up a lot of attack drone mechanics, and possible other things as well.
They put out the new Automaton update with all the AI Grid blocks, which makes plotting flight plans and so many other things much easier that just using the Remote Control block by itself. Makes this video a little less valuable, but there's still some relevant fundamental I think. :)
One question HOW DO YOU MAKE A DRONE LOOK AT SOMETHING OR FOLLOW SOMETHING GOT DAMIT sorry for being so mad BUT THAT MADE HOURES I TRY TO FIND SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SHIT
@ misteurpro I can answer part of that now, and the game it self has a better answer coming soon. If you want a drone to look at something or face a part of itself in given direction, then you set the typical GPS coordinate, and set directional movement of the drone to approach the coordinate with the side of the drone you want facing it. In case you haven't already seen in, I show this a little more in part 2 of my drone series. ruclips.net/video/S1kkCSQqfAo/видео.html There are a couple bugs in that directional movement mechanic, like "down" often tilts the drone in gravity, but it generally works, and forwards/backwards seems more reliable. Keen itself though is putting out an update to the AI system soon, and there is a new block and setting where you can just tell it to follow you...and it does...perhaps not optimally, but it does work for the most part in the beta test it's in now. Hope that helps!
@@Oearth and just it to make a fighting drone who can follow your vehicule and shoot at what ever he see without a big gatling just a small machine gun without script like the attacking drone in the first scenario on moon when you activate the button in the mine if you see what im talking about i see a lot of people doing fighting drone who can turn and stuff but i dont really see much like the one in this scenario but i think this need script too i dont know all i want is to do a scriptless fighting drone with a simple machine gun but again thanks you a lot and sorry for talking the way i talk that was just making 7h with no break i was searching for a way to do that
I know everything about Drones..... Might be a good idea to watch some of "ShArPy1o1 Game's" Drone Tutorials? (My Main Channel). Great video of yours covering the basics ✌️👌
2 years ago and this video is absolutely what I was needing! I’ve been getting super involved in robots in vanilla SE and this just made drones 100% useful
@thatonefella8638 In truth, the new AI blocks that came out since this video make drone control even easier. But the good news is, I have a fairly detailed video explaining those blocks and how they work in the linked video! :D Thanks for watching, and enjoy!! Let me know how your Drone Robotics are coming along!
ruclips.net/video/NV6QbHmwfhU/видео.html
How you align orientation for remote control: Set up an "approach" waypoint straigt above your final target, and set it to be visited just before your target. Coming from there you can set your remote block orientation to downwards and it will come from a predifined orientation towards your target. If you need so, you can set up one ore two other wayponts in some zig zag pattern to correct the othr axes as well. Always setting the remote control to the appropiate "forward" direction.
Most of what I think your saying I showed in the video (set a waypoint directly above the connection, set it straight down, etc.) , and I may be talking about a different thing when I say orientation, but I will try to transfer control to another remote control block set to 'downward' and see it that somehow orients it to an established grid - i didn't try that. Using a second waypoint to correct it doesn't really do the trick either, because it moves the entire ship however it is currently oriented - it doesn't just tilt a part of it in some direction while holding another part of the ship at a fixed point. I've even tried two remote control blocks - like one at the top and one at the bottom to try to get it to align in a given orientation, but no lock with that either. The Engineering and Testing will continue. :)
@@Oearth Oh I think if it doesn't orient itself to face the next waypoint in the chosen "forward" direction, then that waypoint is too close. try one further away.
Definitely will try! In testing more with it just today I thought, "hmmm...maybe the points are too close together." :)
Auto pilot is one of Space Engineers greatest and yet least understood features. It doesn't see much use mainly because of the way it behaves in space. When the auto pilot executes a direction change (roll, pitch, yaw) it always does it using at least two axis's (yaw + roll, usually). This is fine if you are just navigating from point to point in space, but if you need your vessel to line up with a connector and/or merge block, you will need to remain calm and carefully think through what your vessel does at each waypoint along the way in order to preserve your sanity. At waypoints where an undesirable orientation results, you might want to instruct the auto pilot to first move towards the next intended waypoint, stopping at a point where the vessel has completed it's turn (place waypoint there), then change it's forward direction to down (or up) and have it move to a waypoint a few meters below (or above) it's current position. This will probably "level" the ship out, but if it doesn't just have it return to the original waypoint by changing the forward direction to up (or down if you went up first). That should do it.
Remember, the auto pilot manages to move the vessel towards the next waypoint BEFORE it actually points at the waypoint. When executing the "correction maneuvers", as I call them, you need to space the waypoints far enough below or above to give the vessel time to complete the alignment before proceeding. This will vary with both the size and weight of the vessel and will require a bit of trial and error (mostly error) to get it right. It CAN be done, and when it works it's a sheer joy to behold.
Happy Engineering!
@@davidparsons1541 too bad the autopilot doesn't honor waypoint sequences in space. it will just randomly choose one to go to usually by which ever is closest. and even then, sometimes its completely random. so with that, its USELESS. main reason nobody uses it, is because it keeps crashing our ships, meaning ITS TRASH. sorry 4 months later..
You're extremely underrated. I cannot wait until you take off sir
Absolutely agree!!
BTW, These are not the drones you're looking for. Yeah, I know, but it's the best I could do.
Appreciate the kind words SweeT!!
Can’t wait to see what is added in the next update as the Devs stated it will be focused on new AI for enemy and ally grids. A new AI block that looks similar to the current Remote Control block has been shown
I’ve just found you and immediately subscribed. Your explanation is very thorough and your voice is very calming
That's awesome Chris - appreciate the support and kind words!
When it comes to actions that we can do with buttons and timer blocks etc, we really should be able to turn the speed/ piston length/ rotor speed or whatever to a certain level with an action rather than move it in increments as you explained. Being able to command the remote control to change speed to a predetermined level rather than change it in increments seems like it would be much more basic and simple, I can’t understand why they didn’t do that to begin with. Being able to tell a piston to retract/ extend to a certain length would be another great example as well as being able to change its maximum/ minimum extension settings to something specific rather than incrementally
Completely agree with the actions. Having to apply a single increment across each of the 10 Ctrl bars on 2 timer blocks to get from a max to minimum speed seems like a lot more work than just setting a single value - and less accurate for the speed you want. Maybe we’ll get some improvement in that area in the upcoming update you mentioned! Appreciate the comments!!
@@Oearth I play on Xbox currently until I complete a PC build so it’s even worse
@@WiseOakDakota GTX 1080ti are like $240 ish with crypto crash. Not a bad time to buy a used GPU. (Buy the rest new) can have a beastly CPU for like $1000 ish
I think that a custom turret controller can be made to automatically line things up if you have a gyroscope on a router or a thruster connected to it and then make it point to small ships or large ships
Could set a gyro to be overridden to be upright and turn that on and off with the remote control.
Not sure but i think i have a solution for the Rotation Problem, first you need to place the remote controll in front of the Connector so that it is the rotaitional axis.
Second you tell the gyroscope to rotate, since youre above a connector it schould snap in place once the rotation is correct.
Sorry for the bad english
That worked for me, too.
Had a connector between two small merge blocks. The magnet field of the connector attracts the landing drone, then a special gyro on override rotates everything until the merge blocks snap. Gyro then stops.
I messaged you in the discord but short answer for automatically rotating: gyroscope actions
Thank you so much for this , I have now set up a shuttle bus to my space station. It can be loaded up with a few crates of materials and takes me to my station.
Though I do have to repair the connectors every once in a while because it likes to slam the space station a little
Try setting the strength of the connector on your shuttle very low, like 0.01% - 0.05%. I've found that this gives enough pull on my wheeled vehicles to latch on, but not so much that i send offerings to clang. Maybe worth a try😉
Can two remote controllers run at the same time? If so that could be a way of spinning the drone.... but it would more likely tear the drone apart XD
I agree that even if a person could run two autopilots at the same time, it's probably an open invitation to a Klang Party! :D
Maybe to set correct orientation to use 3rd and 4th remote controls on subgrid and set new groups of GPS. Then you can activate both remote controls (1+3 or 2+4) and it would push grid to vertical orientation (just idea)
I like how the pirate faction is the one rolling a rover so that it can be sacrificed to Klang.
Must make regular small sacrifices to keep from bringing down the greater wrath!
For alignment issues, I use PAM (Path Auto Miner) so add a Program block with PAM script, then set a timer block to trigger the Program Block, Select Run, then Align. It will only align on a gravity planet.
Drone orientation in space is always difficult but y our solving the wrong problem. You're trying to solve an orientation control problem to solve the real problem of loading and offloading ores. Use with attribution as this technology served our server faction the OPA for years MASG/▼Pure▼Evil\Thamodeth. you have 1 orientation vector you can control forward. place your remote control block directly behind your drill. connector. Make an approach waypoint so your forward is faced into the collector array on the receiving ship. on the depositing ship disable remote control and enable throw out on a connector with an empty ore item filter placed into it. On the receiving ship take your array of collectors and activate a spherical gravity generator directly behind it.
to activate the throw-out function you can use the remote control or a maxed-out proximity sensor on the depositing ship. The collecting ship will need a sensor so as to not waste power with a collection field.
This technology is really good for cycle miners, where you create an A B grid of parallel planes that straddle an asteroid. set the max speed to 4m/s and follow this pattern A1>B1>A approach> Dropoff > A2>B2> A approach > Dropoff >Repead incrementing AB +1 each cycle till complete.
I had a dumb idea for a super simple drone, but I don't know how to script for shit.
I wanted to make a craft with only forward thrusters, and a simple program... Drive towards any hostile shooting, up until a min-range, then spin around via gyro and burn in the opposite direction till it hits a max engagement distance. rinse repeat till no bad guys are left.
A shitty little attack drone that would more than likely ram the opponent ass end first, but I figured such a simple and compact design would have it's benefits, first and foremost being dirt simple to build and program... relatively speaking.
Not a dumb idea at all! Still a couple things needed sensor-wise to make that happen without scripts, but simple is always good!!
@@Oearth I can slap sensors all over it... But I don't know how to tell it what to do.
I've made it remote control by putting a camera on it... but to keep it compact, I had to put the camera on a hinge, on a rotar with max offset to get the camera to peak over the top of the craft's nose...
This is going to sound even funnier... but the craft is LITERALLY a small block railgun, with two ion thrusters and 2 Gatling cannons bolted to the side of it...
Its has only the BARE MIN number of blocks. all of which is in line with the side mounted thrusters, making the craft only 3 blocks wide, and about 2 blocks tall.
It goes like this:
gun - container - small reactor - thruster.
RAIL GUN - control systems...
gun - container - small reactor - thruster
It's pretty much a rocket with guns mounted where the warhead should be.
That tiny center area between the thruster stacks is where I have to cram all my control systems: sensors, antenna, camera, gyro, remote block... etc.
If I could figure out how to program it remotely, then I could easily fit everything I need in that 2x3 space between the thruster stacks.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994719699420057670/unknown.png
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994720058855137421/unknown.png
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635910882744074240/994720094875811840/unknown.png
IDK if these links work... but this is what I'm working with. I made a scaled up Large Block version for the fun of it.
Wow! Very aesthetically pleasing as well!! :D Until they increase the sensor range beyond 50 meters (very short range), it'll be tough, but I'm super curious to see how far you'll be able to push it without scripts - I may well be overlooking something. Also having a system that conveys a coordinate or direction of a detected 'entity' would be really helpful too - I'm talking all without scripts of course. Those two things I think would open up a lot of attack drone mechanics, and possible other things as well.
I use this as automatic defense patrol
scripts scare me lol thank you for your help
They put out the new Automaton update with all the AI Grid blocks, which makes plotting flight plans and so many other things much easier that just using the Remote Control block by itself. Makes this video a little less valuable, but there's still some relevant fundamental I think. :)
One question HOW DO YOU MAKE A DRONE LOOK AT SOMETHING OR FOLLOW SOMETHING GOT DAMIT sorry for being so mad BUT THAT MADE HOURES I TRY TO FIND SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SHIT
@ misteurpro I can answer part of that now, and the game it self has a better answer coming soon. If you want a drone to look at something or face a part of itself in given direction, then you set the typical GPS coordinate, and set directional movement of the drone to approach the coordinate with the side of the drone you want facing it. In case you haven't already seen in, I show this a little more in part 2 of my drone series. ruclips.net/video/S1kkCSQqfAo/видео.html
There are a couple bugs in that directional movement mechanic, like "down" often tilts the drone in gravity, but it generally works, and forwards/backwards seems more reliable.
Keen itself though is putting out an update to the AI system soon, and there is a new block and setting where you can just tell it to follow you...and it does...perhaps not optimally, but it does work for the most part in the beta test it's in now.
Hope that helps!
@@Oearth My god bro thank you so much and i knew about the ia update im just impatient and i really want to make a working drone without script
@@Oearth and just it to make a fighting drone who can follow your vehicule and shoot at what ever he see without a big gatling just a small machine gun without script like the attacking drone in the first scenario on moon when you activate the button in the mine if you see what im talking about i see a lot of people doing fighting drone who can turn and stuff but i dont really see much like the one in this scenario but i think this need script too i dont know all i want is to do a scriptless fighting drone with a simple machine gun but again thanks you a lot and sorry for talking the way i talk that was just making 7h with no break i was searching for a way to do that
I know everything about Drones..... Might be a good idea to watch some of "ShArPy1o1 Game's" Drone Tutorials? (My Main Channel). Great video of yours covering the basics ✌️👌