Santa Martina Testing Nov 2022

November 28 tests

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.

Flight List

GPS Coordinates

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

GPS-Measured Coordinate Offset

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.

Drone as seen by the Meade LX200GPS telescope

2022-12-26 13.50.43.pdf

Setup

Before finishing adjusting drone position

After adjusting drone position

Telescope position settings

Used to determine the ENU system needed to determine the azimuth and elevation.

Telescope pointing coordinates

azimuh error: 3 arcmins

altitude error: <1 arcmin

Inclinometer angle data

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.

Inclinometer full data output (F09)

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.