Really respect you putting your failures out there - I went through similar struggles in my first few builds, and also just came out of a similar break from drone building like you. Great perseverance, and excited to see what you build next.
That moment at the end when the drone finally works was awesome. I know that feeling all so well and it makes all the hard work totally worth it. I am currently working on a similar project but on a rover chassis. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing this project! It really gets across how big of an undertaking this is. I had some similar ideas - so far only got to a fairly regular fpv drone to show for. That is lots of fun to fly, but nothing special yet. I'll see how far I get in the years to come, but stories like yours are very helpful to decide which directions to take!
Great stuff man! I am also working on an autonomous drone build using raspberry pi and Pixhawk for my Senior Design project at my university. I look forward to more videos like these showing your progress. Keep it up!
Thanks! It’s probably good for me to mention that my pipeline was created in early 2018 - there’s likely better approaches nowadays 😅. The general principle is the same though! There’s some great comparisons between different photogrammetry packages here: peterfalkingham.com/2020/07/10/free-and-commercial-photogrammetry-software-review-2020/
I was going to do this for a Master's thesis in 2014. Had the same idea about streaming video to a GPU ground station for recognition. Needless to say, I also had to switch me topic. If I were doing it today, I would use the PixHawk in combination with a Nividia Nano. But as if 2023 this problem has been solved. You can buy a drone made in China for under $200 that does it very well.
Was really impressed!! I’m still in process of thinking what my dissertation is gonna be about but your work really inspired me ! Thank you and congratulations!!
Nice work getting the raspi up in the air. I don't know how things were going at 2017, but nowadays in 2021 you can get a dedicated flight controller with gyro built-in for the price of a raspi alone. From the video, I infer your original goals is the 3d mapping stuff. Why don't you use a prebuilt flight controller which already handle the heavylifting of flying stuff so that you can focus on the 3d mapping thing? Not meant to be fussy about it, just curious. Maybe you'd like to learn about the flying mechanism? Great work, I am looking forward to see where this will go. Good luck 👍🏻
From memory, going for the Raspberry Pi was a case of it could run Linux for doing stuff onboard the drone, and with the right hardware could also run ArduPilot. You’re absolutely right though - a pre-built flight controller would have been a much better idea! Many times I wish I’d just gone with a PixHawk or something similar… oh well!
This is really an interesting project, would love to recreate it. Sadly, the link to your dissertation can be reached. Is there an alternate link that you could share?
That’s effectively what I ended up doing on the second build in this project: the camera itself has onboard hardware for neural nets which runs YOLOv4-tiny, and a Jetson Nano for control (and eventually other onboard vision processing)
Haha yes, I did gloss over this a little. The changes were; - Changed propellers - Re-calibrated the ESCs - Re-calibrated IMU and compass - Tweaked the offsets for the IMU and compass to better account for the Raspberry Pi being mounted slightly out-of-true - Dialled down the responsiveness to controller input, so that it was easier to fly - Removed a killswitch from 2018 that I added, which would cause ArduPilot to be restarted completely if connection to a ground station was lost then re-connected (mega dumb, don’t know why I added it originally) - this must have caused at least half of my “wtf” crashes
Aha, I think so far I’ve put about £300 into this? That’s not including the 3D printer though for some of the extra parts I added on, and doesn’t include the Jetson Nano + stereo camera I bought a few days ago!
More or less, yeah! I’m running ArduPilot under Linux on the Raspberry Pi, which sends data out to the ESCs via the PXFmini. That board also provides IMU, barometer etc data for ArduPilot.
That’s the plan yeah. I haven’t looked much into it other than the surface level of “this thing exists”, but I aim to also tie in MAVProxy in there for ground telemetry over WiFi
Wow, this was as if was watching a theater drama where every word and gesture is exaggerated. Me don't like. Apart from that, I'm interested in the matter being discussed.
You got a big enough soldering iron there fella? I think that model is meant for plumbers to braze copper pipes, lol. Joking aside what a great video, I wish you lots of luck for the future.
I also used PXFmini to build a drone for my final project at the university. It was always a challenge to make it fly correctly and I only did it once. The PXFmini was not discontinued by chance. Pixhaws is definitely the way to go. That Photogrammetry stuff is awesome, hope you continue to work on that.
“A challenge to make it fly” is definitely an understatement, that’s for sure…! Looking now at pairing a PixHawk with the Jetson Nano or a Pi 4, though space limitations on the drone means that I’m likely going to have to rebuild with a new frame. Should make a good video, at least! 😅
@@akamatchstic I had been working on a build a while back but got caught up with work and life and such, using the raspi 3 and navio2,. I have that operational once again, as I have no found significant time to focus on a smaller drone version that is 3d printed among other cool features, that are all relative to your goals. First off awesome work. Second off, why are you using PixHawk and other autopilot hats instead of a flight controller that supports inav or betaflight and then connects to raspi? Also super open to talking and collabing on work. I have a TON of drone ideas that I am finally trying to spend more time getting involved in. I have noticed a TON of flaws in the embedded systems community especially around drones too. Maybe not flaws but lack of standards, frameworks, modular adaptability, and among other things software choices. So please feel free to pm me on this topic as well.
Dear I have just a question I need to create a drone delivery short distance with autopilot but it carrying weight between 5kg and 10 kg is it possible to create like this drone ?
As long as you spec your power source and propulsion to handle that weight, that would be possible. You are definitely looking at a *much* larger drone than in this video. I’d recommend going for a 6-propeller design at minimum for that, which gives you redundancy if a motor fails during flight. You’ll likely have to design your own airframe too at the size you’ll need
Funny story actually about that. I took on a short term contract in my final year, to do some research on the heart rate sensor on the Apple Watch - this was to try and get some money coming in. The company paid for me to get a Series 3 so I could do the work!
I’m using a Spektrum DX7 transmitter with a LemonRX receiver - protocol is DSM2 I think? I haven’t tested the range to be honest, so can’t give an accurate answer unfortunately for that
Unfortunately not, the company who built it appears to now be shut down. From my experience, I would seriously recommend looking at PixHawk for a flight controller. It’s been miles better than the Pi Zero setup I used on my first drone shown in this video.
I was just thinking about doing same stuff... using pi zero to do everything. After watching your video, I think I shall get a separate flight controller for basic functions.
It’s definitely the way to go I think, with a separate flight controller. Off-loading that side of control makes a major difference in the compute resources you then have access to 👍
Unfortunately Earle Robotics who make the HAT went out of business a year or so ago - it’s not available for purchase any longer. If you’re looking to do this yourself, you probably will get better results using a PixHawk 4 and then pair it over a serial link to a Raspberry Pi etc!
What an amazingly high quality for the channel size. Good luck!
Really respect you putting your failures out there - I went through similar struggles in my first few builds, and also just came out of a similar break from drone building like you. Great perseverance, and excited to see what you build next.
That moment at the end when the drone finally works was awesome. I know that feeling all so well and it makes all the hard work totally worth it. I am currently working on a similar project but on a rover chassis. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing this project! It really gets across how big of an undertaking this is. I had some similar ideas - so far only got to a fairly regular fpv drone to show for. That is lots of fun to fly, but nothing special yet. I'll see how far I get in the years to come, but stories like yours are very helpful to decide which directions to take!
Great stuff man! I am also working on an autonomous drone build using raspberry pi and Pixhawk for my Senior Design project at my university. I look forward to more videos like these showing your progress. Keep it up!
Same here, we're using arduino for flight control tho, cos a pixhawk is expensive
Super interesting! Love the photogrammetry part the most! I wanted to work on something similar for a very long time now!
Thanks! It’s probably good for me to mention that my pipeline was created in early 2018 - there’s likely better approaches nowadays 😅. The general principle is the same though!
There’s some great comparisons between different photogrammetry packages here: peterfalkingham.com/2020/07/10/free-and-commercial-photogrammetry-software-review-2020/
Superb work, Matt! You're off and running! This project is the COOLEST thing ever... and I look forward to more installments!!
Hard work never fails, congratulations 🎊 👏
Great vid!
I was going to do this for a Master's thesis in 2014. Had the same idea about streaming video to a GPU ground station for recognition.
Needless to say, I also had to switch me topic.
If I were doing it today, I would use the PixHawk in combination with a Nividia Nano.
But as if 2023 this problem has been solved. You can buy a drone made in China for under $200 that does it very well.
Arduino! Submarine to the trenches YAAAAAR!!!
Was really impressed!! I’m still in process of thinking what my dissertation is gonna be about but your work really inspired me ! Thank you and congratulations!!
Awsome Prj!!!
Nice work getting the raspi up in the air. I don't know how things were going at 2017, but nowadays in 2021 you can get a dedicated flight controller with gyro built-in for the price of a raspi alone. From the video, I infer your original goals is the 3d mapping stuff. Why don't you use a prebuilt flight controller which already handle the heavylifting of flying stuff so that you can focus on the 3d mapping thing?
Not meant to be fussy about it, just curious. Maybe you'd like to learn about the flying mechanism?
Great work, I am looking forward to see where this will go. Good luck 👍🏻
From memory, going for the Raspberry Pi was a case of it could run Linux for doing stuff onboard the drone, and with the right hardware could also run ArduPilot.
You’re absolutely right though - a pre-built flight controller would have been a much better idea! Many times I wish I’d just gone with a PixHawk or something similar… oh well!
You did awesome work!
This is awesome, such a lot of information and really well presented, cheers for the channel
hope to see more
What a story, well done. I couldn't find your research paper though
Thanks! I had the paper listed as “dissertation”, here’s a direct link; incendo.ws/files/dissertation-mclarke-2018.pdf
6:47 how to cope with failures 😂
Good job mate
I lost it at 11:55 😆
Drones = masochism. But it seems we're both hooked!
This is really an interesting project, would love to recreate it. Sadly, the link to your dissertation can be reached. Is there an alternate link that you could share?
what about multiple cpus for dedicated tasks instead of using one single computer to do everything?
That’s effectively what I ended up doing on the second build in this project: the camera itself has onboard hardware for neural nets which runs YOLOv4-tiny, and a Jetson Nano for control (and eventually other onboard vision processing)
So nice - good work - please dont fly evening in bat areas
❤
can i use raspberry pi 4( 2Gb). triple challenge ..build robotic arm to be a robotic barista.
Hi bro, the dissertation link doesn't work :( I would like to read it
OMG , what University you studied in that left you clueless regarding RPI hardware specs....
most excellent
Hey, I want to know, Weather you ever considered using ROS2, Microros for this development. btw your project is great
Nice one bro! how long does its battery last while flying? and what's the model of the rotors?
I wonder if my hailo 8;could help do something AWESOME!?
Brother Please Suggest me which course should I follow to make this drone.
going to follow you for that AI drone, thanks a lot
nice vid!! Now i want to use Raspberry Pi to Image-processing so does the Pi 3 strong enough to do that?
Soooo, all you needed to do was change the color of the props and it flies perfect? I think some information was withheld.
Haha yes, I did gloss over this a little. The changes were;
- Changed propellers
- Re-calibrated the ESCs
- Re-calibrated IMU and compass
- Tweaked the offsets for the IMU and compass to better account for the Raspberry Pi being mounted slightly out-of-true
- Dialled down the responsiveness to controller input, so that it was easier to fly
- Removed a killswitch from 2018 that I added, which would cause ArduPilot to be restarted completely if connection to a ground station was lost then re-connected (mega dumb, don’t know why I added it originally) - this must have caused at least half of my “wtf” crashes
Have you tried having all the computing power from your pc, having your pc process all the inputs from the drone ?
Mate, how about to use the new radaxa zero ? same form factor and way more powerfull !!! Good luck. I'm a subscriber now !
Thanks!! I'll have to check that out, wasn't aware it had been released
Very well done..not like most of us who pay thousands euros to DJI..😂🤪
Aha, I think so far I’ve put about £300 into this? That’s not including the 3D printer though for some of the extra parts I added on, and doesn’t include the Jetson Nano + stereo camera I bought a few days ago!
the dissertation link doesn't work
Should be sorted now - for some reason CloudFlare dropped the A record for my domain again 😔
Hey this is awesome, one question, you used the raspberry pi as a flight controller?
More or less, yeah! I’m running ArduPilot under Linux on the Raspberry Pi, which sends data out to the ESCs via the PXFmini. That board also provides IMU, barometer etc data for ArduPilot.
Man i want to learn AI but but don't know where to start, Can you will guide me
How did you control your drone ?
with remote or your laptop?
In 2017 it was an Xbox 360 controller via WiFi (bad idea!), then moved to a Spektrum DX 7 transmitter and lemonRX receiver
@@akamatchstic which flight controller did you use ?
@@Jimmy_Neutron A PXFmini with a Pi Zero W - this is now discontinued. See 0:49 in the video 👍
did you run ROS under Mavlink Mavros protocol ?
That’s the plan yeah. I haven’t looked much into it other than the surface level of “this thing exists”, but I aim to also tie in MAVProxy in there for ground telemetry over WiFi
Wow, this was as if was watching a theater drama where every word and gesture is exaggerated. Me don't like. Apart from that, I'm interested in the matter being discussed.
Did you worked in scooby dooby do? 🤭😂
Just asking 💀
Broke but a iWatch. ;-D
His long fingernails fits super to his long hair... ;-D
Lmao...trying to be BBC news
This is the news at 10. Coming up on the program: …
You got a big enough soldering iron there fella? I think that model is meant for plumbers to braze copper pipes, lol. Joking aside what a great video, I wish you lots of luck for the future.
I also used PXFmini to build a drone for my final project at the university. It was always a challenge to make it fly correctly and I only did it once. The PXFmini was not discontinued by chance. Pixhaws is definitely the way to go. That Photogrammetry stuff is awesome, hope you continue to work on that.
“A challenge to make it fly” is definitely an understatement, that’s for sure…! Looking now at pairing a PixHawk with the Jetson Nano or a Pi 4, though space limitations on the drone means that I’m likely going to have to rebuild with a new frame. Should make a good video, at least! 😅
@@akamatchstic I had been working on a build a while back but got caught up with work and life and such, using the raspi 3 and navio2,. I have that operational once again, as I have no found significant time to focus on a smaller drone version that is 3d printed among other cool features, that are all relative to your goals. First off awesome work. Second off, why are you using PixHawk and other autopilot hats instead of a flight controller that supports inav or betaflight and then connects to raspi? Also super open to talking and collabing on work. I have a TON of drone ideas that I am finally trying to spend more time getting involved in. I have noticed a TON of flaws in the embedded systems community especially around drones too. Maybe not flaws but lack of standards, frameworks, modular adaptability, and among other things software choices. So please feel free to pm me on this topic as well.
Very informative video , Thank you
Dear I have just a question I need to create a drone delivery short distance with autopilot but it carrying weight between 5kg and 10 kg is it possible to create like this drone ?
As long as you spec your power source and propulsion to handle that weight, that would be possible. You are definitely looking at a *much* larger drone than in this video.
I’d recommend going for a 6-propeller design at minimum for that, which gives you redundancy if a motor fails during flight. You’ll likely have to design your own airframe too at the size you’ll need
awesome video my son is studying computer science @college
"being a student i was broke"
*has an apple watch*
Funny story actually about that. I took on a short term contract in my final year, to do some research on the heart rate sensor on the Apple Watch - this was to try and get some money coming in. The company paid for me to get a Series 3 so I could do the work!
Did you ever figure out why Minecraft was stuffed into that OS for the PXFmini?
If I had to guess, they just took a base Raspbian image that included it, added in all the necessary packages, and simply popped it back into an ISO 😅
what kind of rc used? and what is the range of it!
cheers
I’m using a Spektrum DX7 transmitter with a LemonRX receiver - protocol is DSM2 I think? I haven’t tested the range to be honest, so can’t give an accurate answer unfortunately for that
Hey, is the PXF mini board really available
and where can I get it?
Unfortunately not, the company who built it appears to now be shut down. From my experience, I would seriously recommend looking at PixHawk for a flight controller. It’s been miles better than the Pi Zero setup I used on my first drone shown in this video.
Thank you so much! My drone journey begins.
That's a great project. Thnx for showing us.
cool
Both your hair and your mind are majestic af! Good on ya mate
This is awesome
Great video. Very enjoyable and interesting
Nice work. I am also working on the same thing
I was just thinking about doing same stuff... using pi zero to do everything. After watching your video, I think I shall get a separate flight controller for basic functions.
It’s definitely the way to go I think, with a separate flight controller. Off-loading that side of control makes a major difference in the compute resources you then have access to 👍
Nice work. I never heard about this rpi hat/shield. Is available to buy? Where?
Unfortunately Earle Robotics who make the HAT went out of business a year or so ago - it’s not available for purchase any longer. If you’re looking to do this yourself, you probably will get better results using a PixHawk 4 and then pair it over a serial link to a Raspberry Pi etc!
Matt, you are fantastic. A great presenter with great projects. I truly hope to see more projects from you.
I’m currently editing a new video! Hopefully will be done soon
so what was the total costs at the end?
200th subscriber 😌
Thank you! It’s crazy to see how much the channel has grown from this one video 😊
@@akamatchstic i forgot to say... You editing skills are amazing. Congratulations too 🤝😊