Season II has begun and we are clear about our approach this time.We have already learnt a lot from the first year and seem to have become more professional this time around.
Updates on Ground Control Station
Java has been replaced by Python and Pythonic way has been keeping me stuck to my laptop for hours.With Python being the ideal RAD(Rapid Application Development)Language,my work has been progressing well.For the previous two months have been at forums/mailing lists trying to figure out which libraries to use and how to use them.Two months into PyGtk and suddenly i come across wxPython which has a really decent GDI(Graphical Display Interface) and have been using it for last few days.
Some work which has been done at the local level:
1.Creation of virtual cockpit(haven't figured out displaying roll there)
2.Creation of a clock/timer showing mission time
3.Reading from serial port and writing to it(and yes this time i don't need to press enter key each time to transmit data)
4.Interpret data coming from serial port via "re" module(beautiful feature in Python)
5.Creating a 3d box to show imu data in VPython
Some territories that i have not yet visited but plan to:
1.UI designing principles(883 pages book)
2.OpenGL/PyOpenGl(have used Vpython,but have been advised to minimise it's usage and completely shift to OpenGl)
3.Mapping:Contrary to what i did last time i am tryinfg to figure out how to use any open source GIS to my benefit,otherwise i have my older approach as a backup anyway)
4.Integrating the data with SQLite instead of simple text files acting as database
5.If needed shift the entire code to wxWidgets(C++) to make it lightningn quick and processor friendly
6.Make an installer for the application for all environments
7.Try and integrate Matplotlib(open source equivalent of Matlab+Labview)for all the analysis purposes
If anyone feels that there is anything more that i shall do.please add comments
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I'm not sure how far along you are at this point with your Ground Station development, but you might be interested in an open-source project created by Chris Anderson on his DIY UAV blog; he created a Ground Control station using LabVIEW, which is a easy tool to use for creating UI and gathering/displaying data from sensors. I can't copy/paste the URL for some reason but if you google "diy drones labview ground station" it should be the first link that comes up. Take a look at the ground station code; if you aren't familiar with LabVIEW, let me know and I'd be happy to offer a bit more explanation.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Yes i have a had a look at Chris' work.It seems really nice and professional.But i tried my hands on LabView and didnt like it very much,more over it's way too expensive.But as a part of this project ,the Image Processing Team will be using LabView and they would like to get in touch with you.Please provide your contact details.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a student, I'm pretty sure you can get LabVIEW for free. Hopefully that reduces your concerns about cost. Granted, I understand if you haven't used LabVIEW much; rather than learning an entirely new language, it might make sense to go with what you already know.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too familiar with our vision products, but I am certain I can help point your Image Processing Team to an NI employee who can help. They can email me: emilie.kopp@ni.com.