Playing with Arduino (ardupilot mega v2)

After a while of thinking and preparing the electronic part, here I come again to write about our needs for AHRS : altitude and heading reference system

As explained before, the payload will be stabilized so that the images that we film do not suffer from turbulences.

We use an arduino plateforme named Ardupilot Mega (I bought the latest version APMv2), which comes with gyroscopes and magnometer, so that I am able to program the main heading, and so that the plateform maintain it's heading in gusty winds (usually causing the payload to spin around the axis of the parachute).

Need :

• To manage different modes of heading and autonomous modes, pre programmed before launch and selectable by sending a remote command.
• Mode 1 shoud consist in programming a fixed heading
• Mode 2 shoud consist in programming an autonomous rotation of 45° heading every minute
• Mode 3 shoud consist in programming an autonomous rotation of 45° heading every 15 secondes
• Mode 4 shoud consist in programming a rotation of 180° heading

• At any time, I should be able to change the heading using my transmitter (or by sending manually a value as a new heading)
• The plateform should be gyrostabilized, meaning that if the wind generates an angular speed of 5°/seconde, the servo should apply a rotation of -5°/seconde. The only axis concerned is the Z axis.
• The two other axis are stabilized only to compensate gusty wind meaning a relatively slow degree of motion (and no need of 360° rotation)

That's it

Now, I will be looking deeper into the manual of ardupilot mega in order to find out more about how to answer those needs. Next post is about that.