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BigTechDay 2011
Raphael “trappy” Pirker Sales & Marketing, Team BlackSheep Switzerland
FPV (First Person View) flight with model aircraft and video downlink
Introduction Technology Community Uses Challenges
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Raphael (“trappy”)
Wirtschaftsinformatik, University of Zurich
FPV Experience 3 years, 500 hours
Special skill: Tree hugging
“RiSCyD”
Self-employed electronics engineer, Switzerland
FPV Experience 2 years, 300 hours
Special skill: Canyoning
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Founded 1 year ago to aggregate marketing efforts, business contacts and competence
Small business since 3 months, selling drone kits and video services
Hold unofficial records in distance and altitude for model airplanes
Most known for various R/C stunts around the globe
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Flying from the perspective of a model aircraft
Use COTS security components for cheap, reliable and long range video transmission
Simulate the sensation of flight in the real world using virtual reality goggles
Increase situational awareness by using on-board sensors (voltage, GPS, temperature)
Explore the world like Superman
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Aircraft construction
Aerodynamics, build techniques, design parameters
Radio Frequency
Signal propagation, transmission, modulation
Piloting
Navigation, airspace, climate
Electronics
Sensors, EMI filtering, wiring, soldering
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Typical UAVs: controlled by an operator, piloted by a computer
For technology used it’s a continuous transition between FPV and UAVs
Key differentiators: Latency, Line of Sight, Range, Avatar
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Various aircraft for different missions, usually made from EPP or ELAPOR (elastic foam)
Predominantly flying wings, Ritewing Zephyr Simplicity, Robustness, Safety
In the past standard R/C airplanes, now increasingly task-specific designs: Precision flying, agile planes
Stable planes (video production)
Helicopter hybrids (surveillance)
Long range (high efficiency) planes
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Design from Arizona, USA, made from TBS specifications and improved throughout last year
About 600 aircraft in use worldwide
1.4m wingspan, 2kg Speed: 40 – 150 km/h Endurance: 90 minutes Altitude: 5600 meters Power: 750W
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Use of wireless video transmitters and receivers from security/spy market
Analog transmission over various frequencies and EIRP between 10mW to 1.5W
5.8GHz, 2.4GHz, 1.28GHz, 900MHz
Size & weight: about 15-20g, post stamp size Range: 86.9km with 500mW @ 2.4GHz Quality: 480 TVL, approx. equivalent to 640 *
480 pixels or old tube TVs
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Heads-Up Display with aircraft vitals
Speed, altitude, distance from pilot, battery consumption, RSSI
Digital piggy-back in video or modulated audio transmission to ground station
Automated antenna tracking, iPhone/iPad application with Google Earth, recovery help
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Current available systems
2nd generation radio (35MHz): 5-8km range, analog, no RSSI
Current generation radio (2.4GHz): 1-3km range, digital, RSSI
FPV grade radio (433MHz): 50 – 80km range, digital, RSSI
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Capture head-movements using acceleration sensors and magnetometers
Translate head-movements into servo motion FPV camera on pan & tilt mount = Full “Virtual Reality” immersion
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Transition into UAV space Top of the line HUD include
aircraft stabilizers, fly by wire
return to home
waypoint navigation (autopilot)
Careful: No collision avoidance! Currently in development: aircraft to aircraft
telemetry exchange, autonomous formation flight (?) and swarm (?)
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First mention of the term FPV on RCGroups.com, R/C community forum
Today community dispersed among various online forums and portals
fpvlab.com
fpv-community.de
rcgroups.com
About 1’000 active online participants, roughly 50’000 pilots worldwide (estimate)
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Community responsible for the rapid technological development in this area
Contributors Aerospace engineers
plane designs, modifications
Electronic engineers hardware designs, e.g. HUD, R/C systems, head trackers, peripherals
RF engineers antenna designs, amplifiers, measurements and modifications
Thrill-seekers entertainment
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Predominantly online information exchange Only formal organization in the form of
insurances Already in place in USA & UK, in the works in
Germany
Symbiotic (or some say parasitic ) relationship with R/C interest groups
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National meetings in regular intervals in some countries
One international meeting in L’Aigle, France in May
About 100 pilots
Around 10 vendors and sponsors
Little significance on global scale
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Video Productions
Tourism
Commercials
Movies
Search & Rescue
High-resolution mapping
Construction assistance
For commercial use, UAVs are more common 28
Sight-seeing Scenic flights through mountain tops
City tours Challenges High altitude
Long range
Races Thrill-seeking Mountain proximity flying
Stunts
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Surveillance Disposable Drone
Target practice
“Kamikaze” missions
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Analog vs. Digital Digital
Compression algorithm
High bandwidth transmission
Latency
Battery consumption
Component weight
High cost
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Biggest market for development, but very difficult due to self-excluding requirements (CPU vs. battery use, bandwidth vs. range)
Status quo:
400g, 5W consumption, car radio size, $4000
Target Q3 2011
75g, 2W consumption, credit card size, $1000
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Electric planes preferred
Legal requirements (weight, noise, safety)
Reliability and functional requirements (vibration, emissions)
Batteries are major contributor to overall weight
Optimize battery capacity and wing loading for run times, agility, durability
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Example:
In Germany, 433MHz @ 10mW (0.01W) for R/C
Berlin TV Tower (“Alex”): 500Mhz @ 120’000W
In close proximity:
Video transmitter and R/C receiver
High power electricity (~50A) and analog information
Consumer cameras and R/C receivers
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Flying locations Experiment: Go to any given local R/C field and count crashes per day. Now imagine the same reliability for a plane that flies in New York City
Equipment cost Regular R/C aircraft cost: 100 – 300 EUR Regular FPV aircraft cost: 400 – 800 EUR
Vibrations Humidity & temperature variations Rough landings
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On a philosophical level
Two approaches: fallback for everything or rigorous reduction of failure points
On a hands-on level
Continuous maintenance on aircraft
Over-power components by factor of 2 or 3
“One step at a time” mentality
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So much fun can’t be legal, right? … right!
Legal Status Germany / EU Legal definition Drone
▪ Aircraft that is not in direct visual contact with pilot: Drone ▪ Drones require a license to be flown ▪ License hard (and expensive) to obtain
RF: ▪ 433MHz at 10mW ▪ 2.4GHz analog video @ 10mW, digital @ 100mW
Airspace ▪ Flight in unrestricted airspace only
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