After two grueling months, the wait was finally over. A large, but light, package had arrived in the mail taped shut at one end with Atlantahobby.com packaging tape. Lauren had ordered it for me months ago for our engagement anniversary, but every hobby shop locally and online had it back ordered until the middle of February. It took time for it to travel overseas from Germany.

This weekend it made it here. It took great restraint, but I waited until the next day to open the package. I wanted to make sure I had enough daylight to photo document it, and that is what I did.

I swiftly used my Swiss Army knife to dispose of the packaging. Its contents were what I had been waiting for all this time; my very own Multiplex EasyStar R/C airplane. This is the same aircraft used by the developers of the ArduPilot and our platform for the Flying Android project.

The EasyStar is an ideal platform for learning how to fly R/C airplanes, plus it is actively used for aerial robotics. I plan to pursue both as soon as we leave the unfriendly winter weather behind.

The Multiplex EasyStar comes as a Ready-to-Fly (RTF) kit, so there was little for me to build once I had it unpacked. The Hitec 72Mhz 4-channel single stick transmitter needed eight AA batteries. Replacing the batteries required taking apart the entire transmitter; therefore, rechargeable NiCd batteries should be a wise investment.

Inside of the fuselage is the Hitec 72Mhz 6-channel receiver. Only three of the channels are used on the transmitter and receiver: one for the throttle, one for the elevator, and one for the rudder. This leaves the fourth channel open for customization, which we use for toggling the autopilot on/off on our Flying Android EasyStar. Next to the receiver is the electronic speed controller (ESC) and a NiCd battery pack can be found in the nose of the airplane.

The assembly required to put this airplane together merely took ten minutes. The elevator is glued to the tail and attached to one servo, while the rudder is glued on top of the elevator and attached to the other servo. The wings are joined by a plastic rod and can be easily attached and detached from the aircraft.

I was ready to test the servos and throttle in no time. First, I turned on the transmitter and then the receiver (and vice versa when powering off), else I could risk damaging the servos or other electronics. Then, I verified that the trims and stick moved the control surfaces in the correct directions. Finally, the throttle needed to be tested, so I ramped it up to full power!

I have already started to make a list of modifications in my head: switching over to the 2.4Ghz transmitter from the Blade CX2 helicopter, a brushless DC motor and ESC for more power, and a LiPo battery pack for longer flights. Plus, a camera module is definitely a must.

Make sure to check out my Flickr set for more photos.

Hallo.

To kick off this blog, here is a photo of one of my current projects: a Multiplex EasyStar R/C aircraft + Google Android developer smart phone = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This photo was taken on a cold, rainy, and windy day in early December at Ft. Benning, GA.

The UAV is remotely operated by a safety pilot on the ground, while the smart phone records sensory information and takes photographs. Below are just a few of the photos captured during one of the test flights at altitudes between 300 and 500 feet above ground level (AGL). By the end of this two semester project, the team plans to demonstrate fully autonomous flight of the UAV.

I develop and implement the flight controls in the autopilot. In the first phase of this project, I ported the ArduPilot to work on the smart phone and its Android platform. The flight controls consist of simple proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, which adjust the elevator, rudder, and throttle. The accelerometer, digital compass, and GPS receiver on the smart phone are used as feedback in the control loops. I plan to explore more complex control strategies in the second phase of this project.

We plan to extensively document our project on flyingandroid.com, including how to hack the serial interface on the G1 and some other creative ways to connect smart phones to servos.