Autonomous Blade CX2 Helicopter Navigates Hallway

[BennettLogan23]

guy at 1:50 was like dude Thats BADASS!

[fernando13e]

Now do that with a Raptor 90 hehehe, great work guys!

[RStephenLegge]

great project, I am sure you got an A and are on the greater things. I am trying to do the same thing, and have figured out how to deal with the range sensors for the horizontal to control the pitch and roll servos. My question is: how did you tap into the dual motor coaxial electronics to allow you to control the altitude? I know this comment is very late and you probably are not even monitoring anymore, but if you are, please let me know. thanks

[msghazi]

This is a much better way to go than when I tried this in college. My team decided to use a standard RC helicopter (ie all controls mimic those in a life size helicopter). We had 11 weeks to complete the project, and failed pretty utterly. Your helicopter takes much of the annoying aspects of actually flying a helicopter away from the code you write, so that you can focus more on control. Well done. Now all it needs are a couple 20mm cannons.

[Veo77]

Can you list all the components that you used?

[Iljadinovits]

Like a Helicomand, but much more better.

[rcguy4373]

so where you at with this project now?

[amoney59]

@rcguy4373 I'm in flight school now and I haven't worked on this project any further. Some students at USNA continued the project in 2009, and I believe they added the ability for the helo to turn 90 degrees down new hallways!

[rcguy4373]

@amoney59 To bad you were not able to work at this. I have made a lot of break throughs on this. I've made alot of money on this idea And im working on ai.There's not much more i can say about it though. Good luck in flight training.

[CrazyHeliDude]

Really great stuff Amoney, I like the vid. keep up the great work, 5 stars

[Screendoor8]

Hooyah Blade. I just bought one today Im at CID Corry Station.

[Colemanski6712]

i was the 10,900 viewer of this video! Yes!

[stickboy090681]

WOW!! Thats cool!!

[dangilliam]

thats so cool but why is he whereing his PJS?????

[darkslateblue]

If you designed an autonomous helicopter, i think you can wear whatever you want.

[1337H4KZ]

navy uniforms not PJs

[arg13415]

hahaha under $50, this is why military research should be done in house, rather then by outsourcing...

These guys are brilliant

[UltiGamer101]

This is GREAT!

And all those mods for under $70? dang! this is great.

[alex681219]

Nice, this coaxial helis are the best cheap elegant solution to test an auto pilot device.

The comercial gadget for CP Helis is cost +- $500 "Helicommand ", have you any reference or tutorials for replications? see this interesting link watch?v=l1oEm0J90nw

[vanepico]

how much coding went into the PIC? i have just recently got a pic programmer, i would love to do something like this! can you still manually control it?

[wakeboarder4200]

~5 pages of code. The helicopter can still be controlled manually. When the channel 5 knob at the top of the controller is turned down, the PIC simply sends the same signals that come in to the receiver to the actuators. When the knob is turned up, the helicopter operates itself.

[potobill]

Wonderful project guys...I am trying to do something similar

I wonder if you guys can tell me for example how did you manage to make it balance...were you using an accelerometer...if so which one???

I am trying to look for a cheap and good accelerometer but all are something like $35+

what do you guys recomend

thank you guys

[wakeboarder4200]

It's a coaxial helicopter with a fly bar, so it does a great job of keeping itself balanced. We didn't add any accelerometers to the helicopter! It does have a built in controller that uses a gyro to measure rotation. This is used to prevent the body of the helicopter from rotating around the shaft (when turning is not desired).

[potobill]

so eventually you get readings from the gyro into the microcontroller in order to control this right right???

[wakeboarder4200]

The gyro signal only goes to the built-in, stock motor controller. The PIC microcontroller, which we added, only receives the ultrasonic and infrared sensor signals.

[potobill]

Sorry for asking so many questions...this is very interesting to me...LOL

[potobill]

I have another question...how did you get to control the pitch?????

did you use the sonar for this???

like measuring some type of angle or something????

[alex681219]

Collective pitch is different to coaxial rotors, this helis have no pitch, just yaw and ruder

[darkslateblue]

Actually, the CX2 has pitch control. (Yaw and rudder are the same thing.) A swashplate tilts the lower rotor, rolling the heli forward and back and from side to side.

[jph701]

dang nice can i have one sir?

[CraZyCarl6212]

absolutely amazing you should post a link to download your code and schematic. It make alot of people happy

[HeliRyan]

Awesome!

[openrobotics]

Hi!

How do you measure helicopters roll and pitch to hold it in a vertical poisition?

[amoney59]

The Blade cx2 is great because it's a coaxial helicopter. The two blades and flybar make it inherently stable - you don't have to worry about it pitching or rolling while the blades are rotating (assuming no other controls are given). However, it does have a gyro to detect yaw.

[openrobotics]

And what about control laws? How do you control servos to move forward? How do you determine this laws?

[openrobotics]

One more question. How about altitude holding?

It's a PID or more advanced algorithm? How do you determine coefficients?

[alex681219]

coaxial helicopters have no servos, the nose direction (yaw)is controlled for the 2 rotors speed difference (each rotor have a separate motor), and the ruder is controlled for a tail horizontal propeller that allows the hely moves forward or backwards :)

[Smasher77th]

Point of correction: the blade cx2 has 2 servos, one controls elevator (nose up/down) and the other controls aileron. You can fly the blade cx2 forward/backward, left and right. it's a 4-channel heli

[alex681219]

tks... for your correction!, I have a 3ch coaxial and thinks that works in the same way, but not :)

[jasmine2501]

Your 3-channel coaxial works by rotor speed differential for heading, and a pitch blade on the back for forward and backward. The Blade CX2 has true cyclic pitch control on the bottom rotor, and can move in all 6 directions, with 4-channels control. This makes it an excellent platform for experiments such as this one.

[mcgmark]

That is badass!

[js21392]

thats great, the only question i have is how did u increase the weight of the heli and have it not affect thecontrol and mobility???

[amoney59]

We first determined that the Blade could carry about 55g of extra weight. The parts we added are VERY lightweight - less than 25g of additional weight. The helicopter is still very agile.

[acicuecalo]

This is completely amazing!!

[irusev]

I have noticed that the blades are pretty stiff on their attachments.. If you loose the bolts that hold them a little, you will have way more stable flight. and avoid the wobbling.( i am not shure however if the wobling is a rezult of "scaning" or just mechanical) I know this from experience i have similar helly. and had this problem when changed the blades and screw them a little too tight . The blades have to be able to find their way trough the air which compensates for the wobbling

[NightFlyyer]

Absolutely Fabulous! 5 Stars! I spent some time with UAV design after 33 years in Marine Corps Aviation and still am involved. I have forwarded your video to a few engineers. I commend you for your work and your military duty.

(Did you ever see my USS Midway Tribute Video?)

Best regards <<<x)))