Homemade UAV

uav

[Terence Bordelon] sent in his impressive UAV (Unmanned Arial Vehicle). The hack is a culmination of his other projects. It can be turned to fully automatic at the flip of a switch. It will fly itself to gps way points, land, and take off. The UAV has a range of 100km thanks to his home built RF Unit which runs on ham bands. The brains of the setup is his custom IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit). The unit is controlled by his ground station which either allows him to fly it normally or toggle through the various modes. [Terrence] is also a game developer and has worked on many popular titles such as Zoo Tycoon 2 and Ratchet and Clank.

Comments [46]

tagged: airplane, controll, ham, remote, terrence, uav, unmanned airal vehicle

Reader Comments

The Department of Homeland Security must be thrilled.

Posted at 6:07 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by Ohear

No details…. although the details would probably be too complicated to understand! Looks like it has a lot of features not found on my UAVs, like auto trimming and auto landing.

Posted at 6:12 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by RazorConcepts

^^meant to say “many UAVs”

Posted at 6:12 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by RazorConcepts

“which runs on ham bands” = 5 Watts of RF power in the 430 mhz HAM/ISM band

Right on, TJ! Looks great. Shop around that “auto-land” code. Your routines are probably more valuable than the design.

Posted at 6:38 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by jimmys

TJ, you could be the coolest RC’er ever!

Posted at 7:13 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by kuhl

This is SO COOL!

Posted at 7:35 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by andrew

That’s beautiful…

Posted at 7:43 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by Tulio

Very cool, I was thinking HAM Bands would be good for RC stuff. Wish I had some more details on auto take off and landing.

Posted at 7:53 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by ciric tech

typo: it’s spelled aerial

Posted at 7:57 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by cyanide

The first poster had my same exact thought. I wonder how long until we have a background check just to purchase an RC device.

Posted at 8:05 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by Bob38

@Ohear

I was under the impression that civilian GPS isn’t accurate enough to do, say, a bombing of a small target, and any UAV with enough lift to carry serious weapons would be pretty hard to build.

Posted at 9:11 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by nave.notnilc

Our UAV is online!

Posted at 9:16 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by Craig

LOL @Craig, BF2 ftw

Posted at 9:29 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by ProGamingLife.com

That would be really cool actually. get a camera on there, send the feed down through the RF, then stream it to the web.

Posted at 9:32 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by tripp

@tripp: i was thinking the same thing, although my motives were driven by how awesome of a recon vehicle this would be during the zombocalypse.

Posted at 11:12 pm on Sep 27th, 2009 by the_twiz

Can’t wait for the Unmanned Comic Sans Vehicle.

Posted at 12:27 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by Andrew

lol @ Andrew

Posted at 12:43 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by Gopher

that’s FIVE years of work!

Posted at 12:52 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by Mikey

Forget flying bombs into things I want to build one of these to fly drugs into America I’ll be rich!~ Make it ultra light out of balsa wood and carbon fiber with none of the heavy surveillance equipment and pack it full of drugs. Really I wouldn’t be flying the drugs into America but you could sell these planes to RC hobbyist drug lords to use for their own entertainment.

Posted at 12:57 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by no1uknw

…. Actually… Yes.

Considering how insanely profitable drugs are (Thanks prohibition!) I wouldn’t be surprised if drug runners don’t already have UAVs.

Really, really nice ones you can’t afford….

Posted at 1:44 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by xrazorwirex

@no1uknow:

UAVs would not be so good for running drugs because they have pretty low payload capacity, especially over the long ranges that they would actually be useful. Considering the relatively low cost of materials it is still much more effective to run large shipments with the expectation that some of them will be intercepted.

HOWEVER, while they would not be good for transporting drugs, I imagine UAVs would be pretty darn useful for scouting out border patrol.

Posted at 1:57 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by Insipid Melon

@Insipid Melon: or, finally finding out what’s really there at Area 51. Google Earth just doesn’t cut it.

Posted at 3:50 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by adam

Option #2: Set your South African ISP as a waypoint, give the plane a flash drive payload and have it transport information for you faster than the internet, elevating sneakernet to new heights (NPI).

I just want to be able to say “Is my email in time for the 4 o’clock post?” :)

Posted at 3:54 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by PKM

5 watts in the 440Mhz bad will get out pretty well line-of-sight too.

Very cool setup!
Years ago I built a wheeled ROV with the intention of doing similar stuff.
While my platform is great, the rest is too obsolete and needs to be completely re-fitted to attain coolness levels of THIS magnitude.

Great work and 73 DE N2NLQ!

Posted at 4:36 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by strider_mt2k

Yawn, many people have been doing this. You can get a Complete UAV board kit from sparkfun. Hell you can add in a cellular comms system so you dont have to communicated via short range RF but use the Cellphone network.

This would have been news 4 years ago, but now anyone can make a UAV if they can solder and code.

Posted at 6:07 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by farthead

very cool! i too thaught about using a cellphone for controlling a uav over long range. until which altitude above ground would that work?

@farthead
anyone who can solder and code can hack so your post just is a dumbass post

Posted at 6:24 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by schlomo

God… that’s fucking beyond awesomeness!

Posted at 9:00 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by fryser_d

DIY low altitude hi-res google maps plz

Posted at 9:05 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by Skitchin

@schlomo Call me when you have “hacking kits” you can buy and have it running in a single afternoon.

Because they freaking have complete UAV kits with code to get you started. I can build a UAV like his in 1 evening with the kits available.

Big difference there.

Posted at 10:23 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by farthead

@farthead
as i already said, dumbass post (#2 now)

quote:
>You might cry “Oh no! YADA!” for “yet another >drone aircraft”. But this autopilot system is far >from a repackaging of 3rd party modules and kits >from mail order websites. I completely scratch >built this system from the chips on up[...]

so wtf

Posted at 11:18 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by jan

I see that Mr. Bordelon developed a previous nav unit under Army contract. That suggests that if he ever plans to market his newer IMU outside of the US, he already knows to ask for an ITAR waiver, first. Otherwise, he could end up like this woulda/shoulda/coulda known better guy: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=tennessee-physicist-sentenced-to-4-2009-07-03

Posted at 11:18 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by cmholm

This is perfect for delivering granges to Obama’s barrack ಠ_ಠ

Posted at 11:40 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by therian

*grenades

Posted at 11:42 am on Sep 28th, 2009 by therian

I tried to use the kits everyone is talking about. They all require lots of work. Plus I was generally unsatisfied with them. I know there are a few $1k autopilot units, but all the sparkfun / Adruino kits require loads of custom work anyway.

I think the interesting thing about my project is simply that I did it from scratch, and it is possible for 1 person to build a UAV from the boards up without starting with someone else’s stuff.

Maybe in a year or so, a cheap autopilot will be available for a few hundred. But a plug and play version at that price point doesn’t exist.

But that’s not the point. The point is that I had a blast and made a UAV from chips. You can go buy many of the things on this site and have one in 15 seconds. But where’s the fun in that?

Posted at 12:01 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by Tj Bordelon

OH- no none of this stuff is complicated. That’s my point.

I’ve written an article for Circuit Cellar on the IMU algorithm. It’s 15 lines on non-PHD code. I think it’s the simplest IMU code I’ve come across. Very easy to visualize. The point is always (For me) to roll your own for maximum fun and learning.

The auto land and autopilot stuff are a handful of feedback loops. Nothing too complicated.

And to cmholm: I have signed no such contract, nor do I intend to give away government owned secrets. I have none anyway. All this stuff is public domain. I’ll never understand the reasons people think UAVs are some secret weapon. I think anyone who wants to build one can do it now. I hold no secret sauce aside from my IMU algorithm, and the only advantage there is the simplicity.

It’s far cheaper and more effective to make a swarm of autonomous Honda civics! Their payload capacity is higher anyway, plus you can install bass tubes and neon under them.

Posted at 12:07 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by Tj Bordelon

CORRECTION: I do not fly 100km away. The modem range (theoretical) is 100km. I fly line-of-site at all times, below 400 feet. Anything outside of that is just risking loss of the aircraft.

Posted at 12:08 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by Tj Bordelon

@Tj

Very, very awesome work. Boards look professional grade, and from what you say, the performance is too.

Took a look around your site, and all I can say is “holy crap.” You, sir, are a god among mortals.

Posted at 12:50 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by leftsquarebracket

Tj Bordelon, you’ve put together some great stuff, some of which I hope I can play with on a patched up old (expendable!) glider in the garage. I wasn’t too sure about the IR-based attitude sensing, and you’ve worked around it.

Re: ITAR, if all but a few subsequent code tweaks of your work is already out there, great. I had noticed the previous IMU stuff in your portfolio, which reminded me of the travails of others (working on more sophisticated stuff) who forgot that there’s no Constitutional right to “export” tech, contract or no.

Posted at 4:16 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by C. Holmberg

As Tj Bordelon points out, we in the US are rather limited in what we can legally do, rather than what’s technically possible. For instance, Art Vanden Berg’s autonomous glider would have landed him in hot water if he were south of B.C.

We can fly an autonomous UAV, but for now it’s gotta stay below 400 ft AGL, within visual range, and with immediate operator override. Needless to say, that’s putting a crimp into my dream of lofting one to 90kft.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A28583

Posted at 4:34 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by C. Holmberg

you thing such small plain will be detectable on radars ? how they will know you over limit altitude if they cant see it

Posted at 11:02 pm on Sep 28th, 2009 by therian

Could one get away with busting the FAA regs? For most locales away from busy airports, probably. But, the skies have eyes, and who just wants to go fly once? Hence, the party line on the DIY UAV wikis is to just say no, until such time as the FAA loosens up. If regulators start seeing evidence of unauthorized autonomous long distance and/or high altitude flights, it’s just going to make life difficult for hobbyists.

Posted at 2:27 am on Sep 29th, 2009 by cmholm

There goes the jobs of the people in the traffic copter. He should employ it as a personal AWACS.
“See that plane up there? It follows me.”

Posted at 5:28 pm on Sep 29th, 2009 by Byron

Back when me and my dad were into flying RC planes, we had one of these:
http://www.btemodels.com/flyin_king.html

Never put it together, but its a pretty big gas (well actually diesel nitro-methane) kit. Able to haul quite a bit at a decent speed..

If speed is not a concern, the Lazy Bee kit
(http://clancyaviation.globalhobby.com/lazybee.htm) is a high lift design that can take off in about 5 feet. It’s not that big but I kinda remember a larger version of the original being sold.

The only issue would be running a gas powered UAV. So far I haven’t seen anybody do this, although I’ve been itching to give it a shot.

Anyways, hope this helps anyone seeking payload capable kits for a UAV.

Posted at 1:17 am on Sep 30th, 2009 by Dan Fekete

Holy shit, apparently there’s the Super Flyin’ King now (http://www.btemodels.com/sfk.html).

In the FAQ for the kit, the designer discusses payload capabilities:

“Oooh, that’s tough to answer without actually testing. My guess is it that it wouldn’t even breathe hard with ten pounds of payload. Twenty pounds should be very manageable with careful piloting. More than that and I’d consider some beefing up in certain areas.”

That’s a lot of cameras/cocaine/ANFO/etc…

Posted at 1:24 am on Sep 30th, 2009 by Dan Fekete

Disclaimer:

I do not advocate carrying any illegal payloads, or operating a civilian UAV for any purpose other than those deemed legal by the appropriate governing authorities.

Any of my comments that contradict the above statement were made for dramatic/humorous effect and should thereby not be taken seriously or otherwise construed as intent or advocacy for any action.

Posted at 1:58 am on Sep 30th, 2009 by Dan Fekete

um arial…. do you mean aerial?

Posted at 10:45 pm on Oct 8th, 2009 by ihateacid

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