The goals of these test flights at Santa Martina Observatory where the following:
Evaluate the new software (Flylitchi) used to program the automated flight schedules.
Evaluate the performance of the inclinometer when carried on the drone during nominal scans (e.g. discard the presence of harmonics or aliasing).
Test the external attitude control and automation functionality of the Ronin MX gimbal (via a Raspberry Pi 4).
Compare the measured drone GPS coordinates vs. the actual coordinates as measured by a telescope when centered on the drone.
The drone RTK base was placed on the floor and the E-Survey RTK base was placed 2.9 meters West of the drone base. The coordinates of the drone base where recorded from the controller (iPad) and the coordinates of the E-Survey base where manually input in the E-Survey base initialization parameters (previously calculated from the offset of 2.9 m West):
Drone RTK Base:
lat: -33.2692695, long: -70.5343877, height: 1445.346 meters
E-Survey RTK Base:
lat: -33.2692695, long: -70.53441882, height: 1445.346 meters
The coordinates of the Drone RTK base as measured by the E-Survey RTK GPS rover where:
Drone RTK Base (Measured with the E-Survey GPS):
lat -33.26926926, long -70.53438781, height: 1445.153563 meters
The equivalent ENU offset of the Drone RTK Base when measured by the E-Survey RTK GPS Rover then corresponds to:
E: -0.0102508 m, N: 0.0266243 m, U: -0.192437 m
These values are close to the advertised accuracy of an RTK GPS receiver (centimeter-level accuracy). The Up offset can be explained by the height of the Drone RTK Base antenna size (roughly 20 cm long), as well as an imprecise declaration of the E-Survey RTK Base antenna height.
 2022-12-26 13.50.43.pdf
2022-12-26 13.50.43.pdfSetup
Before finishing adjusting drone position
After adjusting drone position
Used to determine the ENU system needed to determine the azimuth and elevation.
azimuh error: 3 arcmins
altitude error: <1 arcmin
The inclinometer was configured to output angle, acceleration, angular speed, magnetic field and quaternium data. It was set to be polled at 500 Hz (its maximum rate) at a serial speed of 460 800 bauds. With these settings, the inclinometer data shows an appropiated behavior, with appropiately sampled signals.
The full output of the inclinometer during flight 09 is shown in the following pictures. This includes angle attitude (pitch, roll and yaw), angular velocity, acceleration, magnetic field and quaternion.
name,latitude,longitude,height
tel40lx200gps,-33.26913231,-70.53447659,1445.269936118,,
basedrone,-33.26926926,-70.53438781,1445.153563
tg1,-33.26943587,-70.53455257,1444.790228682
tg2,-33.26936617,-70.53464473,1443.611141164
tg3,-33.26933278,-70.53455698,1444.614686786
tg4,-33.26916984,-70.53452467,1444.596354921
tg5,-33.26923647,-70.53460368,1443.677407958
tg6,-33.26908051,-70.53417417,1445.333688869
tg7,-33.26930494,-70.53476227,1442.134005311
tg8,-33.26896217,-70.53441763,1444.799530563
tg9,-33.26914011,-70.53464496,1443.141602688
tg10,-33.26916756,-70.53431022,1445.232710643
tg11,-33.26917173,-70.53442348,1445.236697217
tg12,-33.26925718,-70.53431649,1445.122581549
Camera: Enable and test automatic video exposure compensation
Camera: Disable software-based video stabilization
Inclinometer: Several long duration hover measurements and fixed flight pattern