Suddenly the situation is becoming very urgent and critical deadlines are coming closer....
It's kind of like the end of a movie when after a lot of suspense and buildup everything explodes into action in the last 5 minutes leaving u breathless and barely able to keep up.
Now we are entering into April and the targets have been clearly defined:
Sensor fusion: Finish estimation of roll,pitch,yaw before 8th April
Ground Station:Basic work done by 15th April
Math Modelling: Ready by 23rd April
First Flight of Sig: 20th April
If we can achieve these aims,there is a good chance we can make the UAV in time.
Lets hope for the best.
Suraj
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Next week = This week -> next
Hey guys,
It's been a pretty long week, tons of things happened....sig finally arrived, components undelivered, presentation postponed, account tending to zero, wap still not installed...but overall just one good thing happened- the sig . Since chak has already dedicated a post to it,so let's get into 'behind the scenes' of the other stories.
Last batch of components ordered using the seed money include the camera,video TX/RX, frame grabber,development terminal ATMega128, Serial Port Dongle Programmer, magnetometer etc. Two orders were placed at Sparkfun for the embedded items, out of which only one has been delivered, that too after a long delay. The other order shall be arriving in 1-2 days. Order placed for the camera at Sify, has been cancelled by them due to non-availability of stock, but I am still waiting for the amount to be refunded back. Frame grabber is on its way to the UAS lab. The main cause of worry for me until this noon was TX/RX order placed at BlackWidow. I say until this noon because after almost 15 mails, Bill Strong took few minutes out of his busy schedule to reply back to me regarding the order status and further details, hence I believe the package will step into the UAS lab hopefully next week.
Last weekend everybody was asked to bring a pair of formals for the big presentation to be given in front of the Technical Committee, Dean IRD and hon'ble Director. But due to lack of communication, it was only the UAS team, plus it's faculty advisers, physically present in the senate hall. The meeting has been hopefully rescheduled for next Tuesday. This time, I am not bringing any formals (I think they are jinxed!!).
To successfully complete the project this year, the ream desperately needs the second instalment of Rs.2.5 Lakh, that too before the next week ends. All the paper work for the same has been almost done.
Internet is one intangible component of the UAV without which I think nothing can be done and it's lack of it in the UAS lab is definitely a huge problem. Wimax was considered as the best solution for this but money constraints and a promised high bandwidth and speed from our CC head led to the acquisition of the Wireless Access Point, which is yet to be installed. Again, I am 'hoping' that it will be done in the first half of the next week.
Now some update on machine vision, I have completed the Phase 1 and started studying neural networks. A feed-forward network designed by Alexander Faaborg is the best I could find till now. I will be starting coding it asap. Moreover, I have mailed Mr. Faaborg, who is currently working on the user interface of Firefox 3, to guide me a bit. His homepage :http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~faaborg/index.htm
That's it for this week, I will be back with more interesting stories next week (which will obviously be longer than this one), till then 'May the force be with Us'...
Rohit Arora aka. RA
It's been a pretty long week, tons of things happened....sig finally arrived, components undelivered, presentation postponed, account tending to zero, wap still not installed...but overall just one good thing happened- the sig . Since chak has already dedicated a post to it,so let's get into 'behind the scenes' of the other stories.
Last batch of components ordered using the seed money include the camera,video TX/RX, frame grabber,development terminal ATMega128, Serial Port Dongle Programmer, magnetometer etc. Two orders were placed at Sparkfun for the embedded items, out of which only one has been delivered, that too after a long delay. The other order shall be arriving in 1-2 days. Order placed for the camera at Sify, has been cancelled by them due to non-availability of stock, but I am still waiting for the amount to be refunded back. Frame grabber is on its way to the UAS lab. The main cause of worry for me until this noon was TX/RX order placed at BlackWidow. I say until this noon because after almost 15 mails, Bill Strong took few minutes out of his busy schedule to reply back to me regarding the order status and further details, hence I believe the package will step into the UAS lab hopefully next week.
Last weekend everybody was asked to bring a pair of formals for the big presentation to be given in front of the Technical Committee, Dean IRD and hon'ble Director. But due to lack of communication, it was only the UAS team, plus it's faculty advisers, physically present in the senate hall. The meeting has been hopefully rescheduled for next Tuesday. This time, I am not bringing any formals (I think they are jinxed!!).
To successfully complete the project this year, the ream desperately needs the second instalment of Rs.2.5 Lakh, that too before the next week ends. All the paper work for the same has been almost done.
Internet is one intangible component of the UAV without which I think nothing can be done and it's lack of it in the UAS lab is definitely a huge problem. Wimax was considered as the best solution for this but money constraints and a promised high bandwidth and speed from our CC head led to the acquisition of the Wireless Access Point, which is yet to be installed. Again, I am 'hoping' that it will be done in the first half of the next week.
Now some update on machine vision, I have completed the Phase 1 and started studying neural networks. A feed-forward network designed by Alexander Faaborg is the best I could find till now. I will be starting coding it asap. Moreover, I have mailed Mr. Faaborg, who is currently working on the user interface of Firefox 3, to guide me a bit. His homepage :http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~faaborg/index.htm
That's it for this week, I will be back with more interesting stories next week (which will obviously be longer than this one), till then 'May the force be with Us'...
Rohit Arora aka. RA
Monday, March 23, 2009
SIG is HERE !!!!!
Yes dats true our main vehicle Sig Rascal 110 (with a wing span of about 10 feet!!) is finally here with us and its really HUGE..
After starting the project more than an year ago we finally have our own vehicle..
Things are finally taking shape, we have almost all the components we need and yes the next task is the software design and electronics hardware integration.
Long Road to go !!
Rochak
After starting the project more than an year ago we finally have our own vehicle..
Things are finally taking shape, we have almost all the components we need and yes the next task is the software design and electronics hardware integration.
Long Road to go !!
Rochak
Monday, March 9, 2009
Macine Vision Plan
Working alone and most of the time at home, the team doesn't get to know what all I am doing and how far I have progressed,and since I have fallen prey to this blogging virus I think its time to post something regarding that.
This is a short report on my progress and the plan I will be following.
I have divided the entire task into three main phases :
Phase 1
Implementation of IP algorithms to segment the image into its component objects.
This was done with the help of the color data and then using their relationship with the other objects in the image. The techniques used for this process are not specific and differ for every problem parameters. After narrowing down to two algorithms to process the color data, 1 of them is working properly and giving satisfying results. The second step was completed with the help of a very popular greyscale segmentation technique.
The last step in this phase is to cut and scale the identified blobs from the image.
Phase 2
Using Neural Networks to identify the target alphanumerics and color
The neural networks will be trained with the input data in the form of a vector,from the last phase. And the output will be printed or sent to the VDU.
Once the nets are working fine in MATLAB, the code will be ported to C/C++ .
Phase 3
Integration of all the hardware : camera,wireless adapters,converters
This will be done as soon as all the products are available in the lab.
Rohit Arora aka. RA
This is a short report on my progress and the plan I will be following.
I have divided the entire task into three main phases :
Phase 1
Implementation of IP algorithms to segment the image into its component objects.
This was done with the help of the color data and then using their relationship with the other objects in the image. The techniques used for this process are not specific and differ for every problem parameters. After narrowing down to two algorithms to process the color data, 1 of them is working properly and giving satisfying results. The second step was completed with the help of a very popular greyscale segmentation technique.
The last step in this phase is to cut and scale the identified blobs from the image.
Phase 2
Using Neural Networks to identify the target alphanumerics and color
The neural networks will be trained with the input data in the form of a vector,from the last phase. And the output will be printed or sent to the VDU.
Once the nets are working fine in MATLAB, the code will be ported to C/C++ .
Phase 3
Integration of all the hardware : camera,wireless adapters,converters
This will be done as soon as all the products are available in the lab.
Rohit Arora aka. RA
Friday, March 6, 2009
Components here finally !!!
SBC.....IMU..... and by next week RA's camera.. we can finally see things happening in the lab.And inevitably, just as things are getting exciting,the dreaded "even sem mid-sem week" is coming up( in which the odd sem results come out too!i mean c'mon!!!).
Assuming we survive( somehow!),we're in for some really long nights as we shift into top gear cuz the competition deadline is fast approaching.But hell, those are our favourite working conditions anyway, so it's all good. After all, there's nothing like a healthy mix of stressed out idiots screaming at each other, with frequent bakchodi sessions and a LOT of visits to maggi baba to get the technical juices flowing.So i guess some pretty wild times lie ahead...
Anyway,RA seems to be getting all steamed up after the "discussion" last night.Well, good for u dude, makes this blog come alive and be rest assured we wont miss out on any future opportunities to hurl abuses etc on you.
Lastly, as i've given up all hope of the "mech team" ever posting here,i'd like to mention that the SIG along with engine + accessories is almost here and should be in the college in 1-2 weeks maximum.
Promise to post progress on linux and navigation soon
cheers and so long
Suraj
Assuming we survive( somehow!),we're in for some really long nights as we shift into top gear cuz the competition deadline is fast approaching.But hell, those are our favourite working conditions anyway, so it's all good. After all, there's nothing like a healthy mix of stressed out idiots screaming at each other, with frequent bakchodi sessions and a LOT of visits to maggi baba to get the technical juices flowing.So i guess some pretty wild times lie ahead...
Anyway,RA seems to be getting all steamed up after the "discussion" last night.Well, good for u dude, makes this blog come alive and be rest assured we wont miss out on any future opportunities to hurl abuses etc on you.
Lastly, as i've given up all hope of the "mech team" ever posting here,i'd like to mention that the SIG along with engine + accessories is almost here and should be in the college in 1-2 weeks maximum.
Promise to post progress on linux and navigation soon
cheers and so long
Suraj
The Camera Issue
After the uber-heated discussion in our lab last night about how the Toshiba PTZ camera is completely obsolete, loads of indegenous abuses were thrown at me. Hence, the dormant blogger in me booted up to life and here is my first sweet post....
The small cameras that the team saw are similar to this one:
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/oem-cameras/usb-ccd-color/dfm21bu04/
DFM 21BU04
Dimensions H: 50.6 mm, W: 50.6 mm, L: 50 mm
Mass 265 g
Supply voltage 4.5 to 5.5 VDC
Current consumption approx 500 mA at 5 VDC
So lets take this as an example and proceed...
Some of its drawbacks are average image quality,no inbuilt autofocus(cause images to be very blurry and the objects in the image are thus difficult to extract from background),no light sensitivity detector (clouds,air densities will change the amount of light entering the camera lens), the camera lens has to be manually changed for different focal lengths testing (focal length depends on the working distance,object height and width and CCD format,moreover there are standard lenses, our requirement is 59.96 mm (WD=250ft Object H=10ft CCD type=1/4"),there is a 60 mm lens available on this site but whether it will be sufficient can only be commented on after testing few lenses within this range.)
If the respective departments think the mechanical and electrical requirements are well under limits then I still wouldn't mind working with this camera. Moreover, a better quality digital camera has already been ordered,hence,if the team again decides to throw some unnecessary heavy custom abuses at me ,there will be no hardware constraints in switching back.
And thus I would like to end this post with a humble and happy note by thanking everyone for their kind and ever-ready support.
Thank You
Rohit Arora aka. RA
The small cameras that the team saw are similar to this one:
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/oem-cameras/usb-ccd-color/dfm21bu04/
DFM 21BU04
Dimensions H: 50.6 mm, W: 50.6 mm, L: 50 mm
Mass 265 g
Supply voltage 4.5 to 5.5 VDC
Current consumption approx 500 mA at 5 VDC
So lets take this as an example and proceed...
Some of its drawbacks are average image quality,no inbuilt autofocus(cause images to be very blurry and the objects in the image are thus difficult to extract from background),no light sensitivity detector (clouds,air densities will change the amount of light entering the camera lens), the camera lens has to be manually changed for different focal lengths testing (focal length depends on the working distance,object height and width and CCD format,moreover there are standard lenses, our requirement is 59.96 mm (WD=250ft Object H=10ft CCD type=1/4"),there is a 60 mm lens available on this site but whether it will be sufficient can only be commented on after testing few lenses within this range.)
If the respective departments think the mechanical and electrical requirements are well under limits then I still wouldn't mind working with this camera. Moreover, a better quality digital camera has already been ordered,hence,if the team again decides to throw some unnecessary heavy custom abuses at me ,there will be no hardware constraints in switching back.
And thus I would like to end this post with a humble and happy note by thanking everyone for their kind and ever-ready support.
Thank You
Rohit Arora aka. RA
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