Quadcopter follower

Firmware/software/electronics/mechanics
adadawuhehe
Beginner
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:19 am

Quadcopter follower

Post by adadawuhehe »

Hey hi, any ideas on working with two quadcopters, for example quadcopter B will follow at the back of quadcopter A, no matter how A goes ... :mrgreen:
derf
Expert
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 12:17 am
Location: Germany

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by derf »

Tie a string to both quadcopters.... DONE. :P

Without information about the quad's position, either from onboard or external sensors (like cameras) this is highly unlikely.
marco.tognon
Member
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:22 am

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by marco.tognon »

Hi, I'm working on a similar project. I want to implement a swarm of quadrotor. The problem is which sensor we can add to do this. For example i would that each cf knows the distance from the other cf (without some external tracking systems).
adadawuhehe
Beginner
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:19 am

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by adadawuhehe »

lol, string is not a good idea in my case and it does not look like a good way to do it. So, what if I am given camera, sonar sensor etc... how do I implement it? Anyone can help I'm a beginner... :D
derf
Expert
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 12:17 am
Location: Germany

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by derf »

@adadawuhehe:
Sorry If I burst your bubble, but it's far away from an easy ten step setup guide for a process which has been done a hundred times.

A lot of groundwork still needs to be done to give a SINGLE Crazyflie position and orientation information in a robust way.
Let alone having multiple Crazyflies flying together, be aware of each other or exchanging data.

Some groundwork stuff:
http://cfusting.wordpress.com/2013/07/2 ... ntric-data
http://www.bitcraze.se/2013/08/autopilo ... t-and-a-pc
http://www.bitcraze.se/2013/01/crazyfli ... cking-test
prashant7891
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Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:01 pm

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by prashant7891 »

Hi,
I have a set of sensors which can measure the position of the quadrotors and also have a control algorithm running in matlab. I wanted to know if there is anyway to send control signals to these quadrotors, automatically using my matlab code, without actually having to use the controller?
tobias
Bitcraze
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Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:17 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by tobias »

I'm not sure how to easily integrate the python lib with matlab but it should definitely be doable. Have a look at the lib here. There is also a c++ lib and ruby lib.
adadawuhehe
Beginner
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:19 am

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by adadawuhehe »

Hey hi, I am still thinking how to make one follower follows the leader crazyflie. At first I was thinking of using Kinect with the help of OpenCV but it limited my area of flying.So finally, my mind ends up with using a GPS. Basically, the idea is I put the GPS module on the leader, the absolute position of it will then capture on computer and it will be process and send a command to the new follower so that it can form a leader-follower formation. Is it possible to do so? :?
omwdunkley
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Posts: 162
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:56 pm
Location: Munich

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by omwdunkley »

Hey Prashant,
id be interested in your setup. I just did something similar in python (posted it yesterday on this forum) - but am by no means a control expert. What kind of tracking system / control scheme did you use?
tobias
Bitcraze
Posts: 2339
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:17 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: Quadcopter follower

Post by tobias »

GPS functionality would be awesome. The new uBlox-7 module is small and suitable for the Crazyflie. We recently ordered some breakout-boards from here. I'm not expecting them to work inside though so it will only be for outside flight.

Making them follow each other should be possible as the radio allows for communication between Crazyflies. Nothing implemented yet though but it would be an awesome project!
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