U of A Aerial Robotics Club http://blog.uofaarc.org Making Planes Fly Themselves Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:18:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Great Test Fly and Flyday http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/11/10/great-test-fly-and-flyday/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/11/10/great-test-fly-and-flyday/#comments Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:17:53 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=693

This past weekend’s flyday was incredibly successful.  Not only did the Twinstar UAV take off autonomously via hand-launch and land autonomously repeatedly, but it took off several times from our wheeled cart (under manual control).  Next week:  We’ll try to get the autopilot to handle the takeoff from the cart.

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/11/10/great-test-fly-and-flyday/feed/ 0 Flyday with new members http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/28/flyday-with-new-members/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/28/flyday-with-new-members/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:38:56 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=655 The first flyday with new member was fun. We had some plane flying and the new member can try to fly some RC plane, too.

And here some picture of us having fun.

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/28/flyday-with-new-members/feed/ 0 Fly day on Sunday Oct 10, 2010 http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/09/fly-day-on-sunday-oct-09-2010/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/09/fly-day-on-sunday-oct-09-2010/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:24:07 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=651 We are having flyday on Sunday Oct 10, 2010. The main reason for the flyday is to train some of the new member to fly and to show how the autopilot works with the Twinstar.

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/10/09/fly-day-on-sunday-oct-09-2010/feed/ 0 New member welcome http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/22/new-member-welcome/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/22/new-member-welcome/#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:22:17 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=612 ...Read the Rest]]> We are having a new member welcome meeting on Weds, Sept 29, 2010 in AME N715 at 5 PM. All majors are welcome, come and learn what we do in our club. This will be the first big meeting that will start the year off for anyone interested in the club.  We will talk about all the exciting things we will be doing this year such as teaching any member to fly, learning about RC planes, learning about and building UAV’s, competing in international competitions, and having a good time.  (And crashing as little as possible!)  Just a reminder that it is completely FREE to join and that there will be FREE PIZZA at the meeting!

See you guys there!

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/22/new-member-welcome/feed/ 0 the new competition http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-competition/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-competition/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:23:31 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=604

the main focus  this year for the older member of the club is for this competition.We want to design and build our own aircraft with the help of a team from AME 498A, to design the camera and autopilot system.

website: http://65.210.16.57/studentcomp2010/default.htm



]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-competition/feed/ 0 2011 going back again http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/2011-going-back-again/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/2011-going-back-again/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:22:03 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=602 This year, we hope to go to SparkFun again and use that to train all the younger member of the club.

website: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/2011-going-back-again/feed/ 0 The First Flyday of the Year http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-first-flyday-of-the-year/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-first-flyday-of-the-year/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:50:57 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=587 ...Read the Rest]]> Since the year just start not long ago for U of A, we are having a fun fly day as a kick off for the club on Sunday, Sept 19, 2010. All is welcome, so come and check out what we do in a fun fly day. We will be meeting in the parking lots outside of AME.

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-first-flyday-of-the-year/feed/ 0 The New year, The new competitions, the new member recruitment http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-year-the-new-competitions-the-new-member-recruitment/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-year-the-new-competitions-the-new-member-recruitment/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:44:31 +0000 Josh Alexander http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=584 ...Read the Rest]]> The long needed update about the arc club is here. As most of the U of A already knew the new school year had started and therefore we are starting our big recruitment event. We had been talking to prof. and other people about how can we get more people to join our club. For this year, our club actually want to be in two competitions, one being the SparkFun AVC again and this time we want first place, second competitions being the AUVSI seafarers. The seafarers is the one that most of the older members of the club will be focusing on and the SparkFun is mainly going to be for the newer members to learn about thew club. The last thing i should mention is that we are going to have a fly day this Sunday, Sept 19 and we will meet at the zone one parking lot right outside the AME building at 4 pm, this fly day is only going to be a fun fly day so bring your plane and come fly with us or we will have some plane that you can try out.

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/09/16/the-new-year-the-new-competitions-the-new-member-recruitment/feed/ 0 Windy Fly Day http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/02/26/windy-fly-day/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/02/26/windy-fly-day/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:25:33 +0000 ed http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=214 ...Read the Rest]]> The previous two fly days had been pretty successful in terms of tuning the autopilot and overall autonomous flight time. This weekend however, the wind was too much for the airframe and autopilot. When the plane attempted to fly into the wind, it floundered and usually ended up actually losing ground. As we fiddled with the roll gains, the situation improved slightly but the aircraft still zigzagged back and forth struggling to make progress.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6i9x3mx8T4

Airframe Config File

Flight Plan

]]> http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/02/26/windy-fly-day/feed/ 0 Glider Crash http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/02/02/glider-crash/ http://blog.uofaarc.org/2010/02/02/glider-crash/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:01:08 +0000 ed http://blog.uofaarc.org/?p=333 ...Read the Rest]]> While we were out tuning the paparazzi autopilot, Josh and Chris attempted to tow up a glider with our trainer plane. The takeoff was nice and smooth, but the glider seemed fairly unstable in the air. A nice gust of wind folded the wings, dragging both planes into the ground.

Ya that's right, Darth Vader is in the cockpit

Ready for death

The ever reliable trainer plane

The results:

As a second attempt to get the glider in the air, a motor was added to the equation. The plane still flew horribly and was quickly sold for better equipment.

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