Aquila UAV
From Bob's Basement
Project Leader: Blue_Chimp
Status: Killed, Cost too high and easier to make microcopters
The aim of the Aquila project (aka T.R.O.U.S.E.R.S) wass to make a cheap open source UAV. It would have eventually had a whole number of different uses but the main focus of the project is initially to carry camera's to allow for aerial photography of locations but eventual goals will include war flying equipment (War Flying is the process of looking for wi-fi hotspots in the air as opposed to convential methods such as war driving and war sitting). It does sound a little over the top and unneccesary, however I think once everything is sorted and all the bugs are ironed out, it has the potential to be a very interesting project. I plan to open source everything to do with Aquila, I also plan to share frequencies in use during the trials (this includes both voice and video downlink frequencies) I also plan to stream everything over the interweb for everyone to see.
Contents |
Airframe
After a discussion with the other project leaders I have opted to go for a glider type design, this will not only allow the engines to be switched off, it's also more aerodynamic and should hopefully increase aquila's endurance
Engine
Aquila will initially propeller driven for a whole number of reasons which include the fact that you can aquire engines ready out of the box and also because of the fact that Aquila will be going through trials I won't cry to much if something happens on take off or landing as compared for example a pulsejet.
After a bit of discussion we are going to focusing on either electric or internal combustion, at the moment, whilst the first flight Aquila is still experimental it's easier and for the sake of keeping it simple.
Control Systems
The eventual plan is to have an auto-pilot system enabled on Aquila, we are going to use gumstix boards with exactly the same source code as used in the Pirate Ship (which I really appreciate the help with because I know nothing of using embedded contollers) but for the time being the control system will be manual handheld remote controls, as will be the camera pod (which will also be pan-tilt enabled).
I am also going to include a number of fail safe systems should Aquila go off track and not respond to manual control, this will include 800Mhz, 49Mhz and Long Wave data modules with a kill code, hopefully it will either have a Return Home or Crash
Payload
I have plans for a whole range of different payloads to go up, but the intial effort will be on a pan-tilt camera to go up, it will for obvious reasons need to be downlinked from Aquila, which is why I plan to use 900Mhz camera's the reason for my selecting 900Mhz is this, not only do they allow for more power, the sheer amount of traffic on 2.4Ghz would mean Aquila would be causing interference whilst overhead. Also propagation at 900Mhz is slightly better as compared to the overcrowded 2.4Ghz band (although I will probably stick, 2.4Ghz and 1.2Ghz downlink modules on) I also plan to share the downlink frequency for Aquila test flights so anyone in the local area can watch whats going on.
I also plan for war flying equipment, more than likely this will be a linux embedded system running kismet linked to Aquila's GPS module, because of Aquila's airspeed, Aquila will probably need a number of passes over the area to effectively gather data. There will also be some problems with antenna's as well which will more than likely mean that Aquila will have to take an antenna pod up with it.
There are plans afoot to add more modules, if you have any questions/comments/suggestions/abuse then contact me via the mailing list the address is on the home page
Ground Control Station
For obvious reasons Aquila is going to need a ground control station, this will hopefully consist of a laptop (running the appropriate software which I plan to use Linux for), a transmitter and receiver, Some form of video display and various antenna's, I will be sharing the layout/setup once everything is verified, I plan to homebrew the antenna's as well, I plan to use a converted satellite dish for receiving video, a full wave antenna for the data and command and a few other miscilaneous items.
