Piccolo system user guide - Unmanned Aircraft & Drones
Contents
1. 1 4 Servos Piccolo includes 10 servo outputs These outputs are geared for model aircraft servos which require pulse width modulated signals and 4 6 volt power Alternatively some servo systems use a CAN Controller Area Network bus to provide the servo signals Piccolo includes two independent CAN buses In either case the servo power supply is isolated from the main logic power supplies so that transient servo loading doesn t disable core system functions 1 5 Datalink Piccolo includes a sophisticated datalink that is built on the MHX 910 2400 radio modem from Microhard Systems Inc The datalink has up to 40Kbaud of throughput and is used for command and control autopilot telemetry payload data transfer functions differential GPS corrections uplink and pilot in the loop modes The datalink architecture allows multiple aircraft to be controlled by a single operator from a single ground station Piccolo User s Guide Page 5 PR Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 1 6 Payload interface An unmanned aircraft is only as useful as its payload Accordingly Piccolo provides several means of connecting to payloads including CAN asynchronous serial and discrete I O Data received from the payload s can be downlinked over the main datalink 1 7 Expansion In addition to the interfaces available on the external connector Piccolo includes two daughter boar2. Piccolo User s Guide Page 24 RE Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 11 Surfaces The surfaces page is used to control how the five autopilot outputs are mixed and matched to generate up to ten servo outputs and also to provide the calibration information to go from surface angle to servo pulse width Piccolo 271 22347319 05 10 17 27 February 2004 SS GPS FASS 0M r aso Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload JW Enable surface setup Request all data Send all data m Configuration m Surface selection r AILERON 1 calibration Send Config i Order Table 10 channel SendTable C 5 channel C Throttle 1 Aide deal Pu Lae Rudder 1 ngle deg Pulse us Mising udder Ail Rosi 0 25 73 1103 Differential 1 Li 1 2000 mg FI S Aleron2 2 1432 1286 E fo C Elevator 2 Be Lin Elevator E P C Tolle A fio Rudder 24 Di 8 Rudder 2 cp He Flap 2 poco Flaperon fo FED 1653 Tr Elevon Arm Surface Test 714 32 1745 r Ruddervator 820 00 1837 B Test Angle deg 32573 1929 C Upright Test Pulse us Inverted Figure 11 Surface calibration page 4 11 1 Actuator calibrations In a real airplane the surface position direction of travel and amount of travel depend on the actuator to surface linkage desig
3. 232 U_B 2 U_B 3 H ser RS232 Output TPU_B 0 ser RS232 Input TPU_B 1 ser Configurable I O ser Configurable I O aoa wl Cle clololo O gt gt gt Z Z Zz P P O sse RE SIE Cl OZ S OJO alal Kea Coa ed re G v SININO9 1VIHIS PROGRAM USER HRESET rogram User Mode Control Input MPIO32B5 ardware Reset actve low rogram Port Ground Station Interface User Serial NN VOI CI_2_RX_232 23 Sal je Q Dv 3 U fe fe i ES n E Di e 3 5 D ml Dv QO D x E n D Wal D DI lt z 9 0 zQ EE CH N zZ PIN EW 20 44 14 29 E EW 28 WM 12 Zi RS PL 26 40 L 28 28 3 28 WER 25 24 USER Vout 23 USER Vout __ 6 10 9 8 S 22 LZ 34 _33_ 5 20 BS 19 18 3 WER _31_ 16 zi 2 Gia eni CI 2 _TX_232 O RS23 ES dl ES lt O O SI Kei S a Bi N lt EN These pins are ganged together onboard the Piccolo Typically one is used as the servo power input with the rest available as outputs to power servos or payloads Piccolo User s Guide Page 8 RE Cop olo 7 Techno oY PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 2 2 Power options Piccolo accepts 8 to 20V DC 3 6 Watts at 12 Volts nominal input power This power is reg
4. Figure 5 Autopilot commands page 4 6 1 Current autopilot status The left half of the autopilot command page gives the current status There are five autopilot loops and hence five rows in the table The first column of the table gives the telemetry data that is appropriate for that loop The second column of the table gives the gives the status of Piccolo User s Guide Page 16 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 each individual loop AUTO ON or OFF The third column gives the commanded value for each loop The auto states means that the loop is enabled and the command for that loop is automatically generated This applies only to the turn rate and altitude commands when the tracker is on ON or OFF indicate the loop is enabled or disabled respectively The actual loop status is a logical or of the global autopilot status and the loop status Hence it is possible to have a loop on but still have the autopilot off 4 6 2 Changing autopilot commands The right half of the autopilot command page provides a location for changing the current commands either individually or all at once The desired commands are entered in these fields are then are sent by pushing the Send Autopilot Command button For cases where you only want to change one command press the send button next to the loop in question The copy Status button will copy the information from the s
5. 33 User Port Seri Payload data at Payload data at user baud rates 34 al 57 600 less than 56K Table 5 Modes of operation for the payload signal lines SM 0 SM 1 SM 2 SM 3 SM 4 A 0 A 1 A 2 A 3 A 4 B 2 B 3 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 al Description Default 0 Signal operates as its primary function Discrete Out Discrete In Operates as a discrete input only valid for the TPUs Pulse Period Out 3 Generates a repeating square wave with user specifiable fa period and high time Inverted 4 Generates a repeating square wave with user specifiable i period and low time Pulse Period Out Pulse In 5 Measures the time between the rising and falling edge Pet the signal only valid for the TPUs Inverted Pulse In Measures the time between the falling and rising edge of the signal only valid for the TPUs Period In 7 Measures the time between rising edges only valid for the TPUs Each signal line has two 32 bit parameters that are used to describe its functionality The meaning of each parameter depends on the mode of operation Piccolo User s Guide Page 31 PR Technology PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 Table 6 Parameters for different operational modes of the payload lines Meaning of first parameter Meaning of second parameter Discrete Out Zero for low output nonzero for N A
6. high output Pulse Period Out Period of the output signal in Pulse width of the output nanoseconds signal in nanoseconds Inverted Period of the output signal in Pulse width of the output Pulse Period Out nanoseconds signal in nanoseconds Pulse In Number of input periods over N A which to accumulate the signal Inverted Pulse Number of input periods over N A I which to accumulate the signal Period In Number of input periods over N A which to accumulate the signal fem Piccolo 61 70827801 17 18 06 03 June 2003 HAS sys GPS Rss COM 1 Audio Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload Serial Ke file Payload 57600 E _Send Save Open Request all data Comm 57600 el I Flowcontrol External IO Mode Parameter Parameter2 Sample Right Aileron Deut sl a ct Send boo Right Elevato Defaut sl et ec Send bo Right Throttle Dett sl oo fo Send bo io iw P __ 7 RightFlap Defaut ll oo smj TPU B2 Deut wif sejp TPU B3 Jean lh hb zenik Left Aileron Dett sl ct ct Send Left Elevator Detut sl o o__ Send Left Throttle Defaut sl ct ct Send Left Rudder Dett zl a ot Send Sample Time s leftFlep Deut lh hh Selm Figure 20 Payload control page The payload control page also gives the ability to set the baud rate for the two external serial ports One of the p
7. if needed sl Figure 8 Preflight checklist The Zero Air Data button is used to zero the dynamic and barometric pressure sensors 4 8 2 Zero Air Data The air data sensors dynamic and barometric pressure can be zeroed to take out any residual error before launch To do this press the zero Air Data button The sensor readings at the time the button is pushed will be stored as the sensor offset and applied to subsequent readings If the Actual Altitude field contains a value when the sensors are zeroed then the barometric pressure zero is also adjusted to match the actual altitude It is best to zero the barometric pressure sensor after setting the altimeter setting Piccolo User s Guide Page 21 peo Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 9 Autopilot limits The limits page is used to view and alter the autopilot and mission limits 4 9 1 Command limits The airspeed altitude and turn rate commands are limited by max and min dynamic pressure max and min altitude and max and min bank angle The Piccolo autopilot is mostly de coupled between longitudinal and lateral control hence extending the bank angle limits beyond 30 should only be done with caution 4 92 Output limits In addition to the command limits this page also shows the output limits The five outputs from the autopilot will not exceed the values given here To see the current limits p
8. in the loop operation e Attitude independent installation 1 2 CPU The heart of Piccolo is the MPC555 microcontroller This is a new breed of automotive controller based on the PowerPC architecture The MPC555 marries an enormous array of interfaces to a powerful RISC engine that delivers 40Mhz PowerPC operation including hardware floating point 1 3 Sensors Piccolo features three Tokin CG 16D rate gyros and two two axis ADXL202 accelerometers which combined with its CPU horsepower gives Piccolo the ability to run sophisticated filters and allows installation in any attitude The PiccoloPlus uses three ADXRS300 gyros and two two axis ADXL210e accelerometers Piccolo includes a dual ported mpxv50045 4kPa dynamic pressure sensor an absolute ported mpx4115a barometric pressure sensor and a board temperature sensor Together these sensors provide the ability to measure true air speed and altitude The Motorola M12 GPS provides Piccolo with its basic groundspeed and position The M12 is differential capable and Piccolo will supply it with any DGPS corrections received over the datalink The Piccolo ground station is capable of generating these corrections using its own M12 Piccolo can generate an estimate of winds aloft each time the aircraft turns by fitting true airspeed against GPS groundspeed The wind estimate is useful since it enables an intelligent selection of heading when the wind speed exceeds the flight speed of the aircraft
9. position data Alternatively you can make a simple two waypoint flight plan by clicking New quick plan Using this option a flight plan is built from the current location of the vehicle to the wherever you click on the map 4 7 3 Sending flight plans To send a local flight plan to the avionics press Sena The map will prompt for the starting waypoint index The index you choose depends on what plans are already onboard the avionics After sending the flight plan the avionics will echo the plan back to the map and it will be displayed in red The local plan displayed in white will remain 4 7 4 Dragging waypoints As of software version 1 1 9 and later you can click and drag waypoints To do this choose the Select radio button Then click and drag on a waypoint When you release the mouse button the waypoint location will be updated If the flight plan was local the change occurs immediately If the flight plan was remote the change is sent to the avionics and the screen will be redrawn when the avionics echoes the new waypoint position 4 7 5 Geo referencing your own map file If you have an image of the area you wish to fly and you want to use this image for your map you will need to geo reference it The map will accept geo referenced TIFF image files so your first step is to get your image in TIFF format The geo referencing is done through a separate file called a world file that has the same name as the image file but with the exten
10. readings at the time the button is pushed will be stored as the sensor offset and applied to subsequent readings If the Actual Altitude field contains a value when the sensors are zeroed then the altitude zero is also adjusted to match the actual altitude During the zeroing process the system assumes that it is level and not accelerating Hence the dynamic pressure sensor gyros and x and y accelerometers should be reading zero while the z accelerometer reads 9 8 me Since the system automatically estimates gyro biases most of the time you only want to zero the dynamic and barometric pressure sensors In that case the zero Air Data button can be used 4 10 3 Gyro bias estimate Even with temperature compensation the gyros have more drift than is acceptable Hence the avionics continuously estimates the bias error in the gyros using data from the GPS The bias estimates are displayed in the gyro bias estimate box 4 10 4 Gyros in Piccolo The gyros are the most crucial sensors for basic stability of the vehicle They are also the most sensitive to disturbances In particular the most common problem with the gyros results from rapid temperature changes These errors are most visible in the gyro bias numbers The gyros have about 100 s at 10 bits of dynamic range Hence if the bias value approaches these limits the gyros will stop functioning as the sampling hardware becomes saturated The gyro calibration scheme used in the Piccolo provide
11. servo leads is available for review on our downloads page Table 1 Vehicle Interface Connector Pin Out Piccolo User s Guide Page 7 b Cloud Ca Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 nm NAME TYPE LEVEL FUNCTION GND _ nd for servo 1 ervo 1 signal output Left Aileron ower for servo 2 ervo 2 signal output Left Elevator ower for servo 3 w ervo 3 signal output Left Throttle nd for servo 4 ower for servo 4 ervo 4 signal output Left Rudder nd for servo 5 ower for servo 5 ervo 5 signal output Left Flap ervo 6 signal output Right Aileron ervo 7 signal output Right Elevator ervo 8 signal output Right Throttle ervo 9 signal output Right Rudder ervo 10 signal output Right Flap n Q ERVO_Vout Pe E a PwMsMo JO GND SERVO Vout PWMSMM1 _______ O GND S SERVO Vout 9 Z oO mec a H n ei DU VI HA U PWMSM 2 _ O O CND ERVO_Vout PWMSMB I___ CND ERVO_Vout PWMSM 4 O O PU_A 1 PU AGT SER_Vout SER_Vout SER_Vout WITCHED_USER_Vout N J n evo nonmas orse s e HA n ow ajaja OO O1f O1f O1f C1 Caf On ol ol ol ol Ninn 0 4 O E ervo power input 4 8 6V DC 4 or 5 cell pack witched Output Voltage Driven by Deadman s Switch round Ground Ground Ha Wa N AN_GND AN HA UO CAN AN_LO_A AN XD_RS232 o 232 LI
12. the designer can guard against tip stall induced by downward aileron motion or remove asymmetries caused by the up aileron moving into more sluggish air than the down aileron Left aileron gt Diff Left 1 sign Left Diff Left aileron gt A Right aileron gt _ gt D Right 1 sign Right Diff Right aileron gt Piccolo User s Guide Figure 14 Aileron differential Page 27 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 The differential parameter in Figure 14 controls how the differential is applied When differential is zero the up and down aileron motions are equal when it is 1 0 the ailerons only move upwards and when it is 1 0 the ailerons only move downwards 4 11 5 Aileron to rudder mixing In this mode the aileron output from the autopilot is summed with the rudder output to form a new rudder output The aileron output is unchanged This feature is useful for aircraft that have strong adverse yaw characteristics that must be countered or for aircraft which have their primary roll control via the rudder Yaw command gt Yaw Roll Mixing Left rudder gt Mixing d Yaw Roll Mixi Roll command 8 Yaw Roll Mixing Right rudder gt Figure 15 Aileron to rudder mixin
13. those applications that require fine control over the software the software source code for the entire Piccolo system can be licensed 5 2 Design environment In recent years new design tools for control systems have come to maturity The popular Matlab environment with its controls simulation package Simulink has been augmented by the addition of autocode tools Real Time Workshop RTW and Stateflow Using these tools control system designers can graphically model physical plants and design control laws and state machines The resulting designs can then be automatically coded in C using RTW compiled using the software environment and downloaded to the target system Piccolo has more than enough CPU muscle to run complicated autocoded algorithms Indeed the basic control software that comes with Piccolo was designed in exactly this fashion and Cloud Cap has made the design available to developers 5 3 Hardware in loop simulation Hardware in loop HIL simulation is a cornerstone of unmanned aircraft development Well designed simulators allow the aircraft control laws and mission functionality to be tested without risking hardware in flight test Although HIL simulation can not replace flight testing it measurably reduces the likelihood of failure by detecting bugs and deficiencies in the lab To facilitate this vital and typically difficult function the Piccolo developers kit includes a hardware in the loop simulator that can be used to t
14. used in the calculation and the iterations required to get the solution to converge The wind data are an integral part of the sensor fusion algorithms on the vehicle as well as the navigation system In addition they can be useful when planning longer range flights 4 5 6 Gyro and Accelerometers The gyro and accelerometer data follow standard US aircraft sign conventions i e the X axis points through the nose the Y axis through the right wing and the Z axis down Hence when flying at a one g loading the Z accelerometer will indicate 9 8 m s s 4 5 7 RPM External IO lines 5 and 20 TPU _B2 and B3 are provided for measuring RPM The RPM is measured by sampling the time between falling edges on the signals TPU_B2 is used to measure left engine RPM and B3 is used to measure right engine RPM The request fast and request slow buttons alter the rate at which the telemetry data are sent The system defaults to slow mode in which it sends data once per second In fast mode the data are sent 20 times a second or as fast as available bandwidth will allow Fast mode is provided for diagnostic purposes and is not used for routine flying 4 5 8 Deadman Status The deadman is an i o line on the external connector which can be used to control a flight termination system ignition fuel cutoff parachute etc The deadman output requires a continual hardware refresh in order to remain on Hence if the system hardware or software fails the deadman o
15. 1 387 2030 1 Introduction Piccolo is a complete integrated avionics system for small unmanned aircraft The system includes avionics hardware and software ground station hardware and software and a development and simulation environment This document is the end user s manual for the Piccolo system and provides a basic description interface guidelines and system setup 7 User defined TPUs 2 RS232 Servo Serial I O Timing IO ports 5 PWM Outputs Servos 1 5 Optional Daughter Board Interface Connectors Dual CAN Interface SPI 10bit AtoD Inputs x8 External Trigs x2 Serial PPS 2nd order Figure 1 Piccolo block diagram 1 1 Features e Exceptional integration and processing power from the MPC555 main processor e Small size 4 8 x 2 4 x 1 5 e Weight 212 grams 7 50z with radio GPS and enclosure 90 grams 3 10z without radio and enclosure e 3 axis rate and acceleration measurements e Deadman s switch for safety e Expandable using the external interface or daughter board connector Piccolo User s Guide Page 4 Pe Cop olo 7 Techno oY PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 e Complete hardware integration including sensors datalink and servo drivers e Wide range of software support including complete end user programmability e Reference software design for ground station and simulation tools e Fully autonomous or pilot
16. 17 Elevon mixing Left elevon gt Right elevon gt This mode is used for V tail operation in which the rudder and elevator outputs are mixed together Ruddervator mixing depends on the type of V tail either upright V or inverted When defining rudder motion for a V tail the sign convention follows the same one used in the elevators Standard ruddervator Left Left gt rudder Elevator Left rudder Elevator A v Right Elevator Right Right Se rudder rudder Inverted ruddervator Left Left gt rudder Elevator Left rudder Elevator A v Right Elevator Right Right gt rudder rudder 4 12 Autopilot gains Figure 18 Ruddervator mixing The gains page is used to view and alter the autopilot gains There are gains for seven loops Table 3 Autopilot loops Loop Inputs Outputs Notes Dynamic Dynamic Elevator Maintains a commanded dynamic Pressure Pressure pressure Altitude Static Throttle Maintains a commanded altitude pressure Turn Yaw rate Aileron Maintains a commanded turn rate Rudder Tracker GPS Turn rate Drives the turn rate loop to achieve Command desired track targets Roll Roll angle Aileron Alternative turn rate control and roll Piccolo User s Guide Page 29 A Cloud Ca 7 Technolog Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hoo
17. 25 1 000 Direction of flight gt C Zaccel m s s 318 165 2028 1 000 el Gyro Bias estimate 3 2 2 031 1 000 Ba RollRate deg s 017 f6 2034 1 000 SS Pitch Rate deg s 0 00 232 2 037 000 Yaw Rate deg s 0 00 37 3 2040 1 000 Ee 503 2042 fi 000 SOA acuaratiude 687 Dog wm Ze RE Zero Air Data Won 2047 omg Aioni ade it Blue Xa Figure 10 Sensor calibrations 4 10 1 Sensor calibrations The sensors are calibrated using a linear relationship which is based on an offset and gain number The calibrated output is the raw signal minus the offset times the gain The offset and gain number is displayed top center in the sensor calibration page In order to extend the temperature range over which the avionics can function the sensors are temperature compensated This compensation takes the form of an offset shift and a gain multiplier that depends on the temperature of the board The table of offset shift and gain Piccolo User s Guide Page 23 Pe Cop olo 7 N Techno oY PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 multiplier is displayed below the main offset and gain numbers Each Piccolo unit is temperature compensated at the factory 4 10 2 Zeroing sensors The sensors can be zeroed to take out any residual error before launch To do this press the zero Sensors button The sensor
18. 7 R Aileron 0 057 Capture Trim Aileron 0 000 L Elevator 1 604 R Elevator 1 604 Trim in Synch Elevator 10 000 See L Throttle 0 45 R Throttle 0 45 R Ti Throttle 0 31 e L Rudder 0 172 R Rudder 0 172 Request Trim Rudder 0 139 Sme L Flap 0 000 R Flap 0 000 _Send Trim i Figure 19 Autopilot gains page To see the current gains press the Request Gains button When the avionics responds the Gains in Synch field will turn green To change the gains alter one of the fields and push the Send Gains button Adjustments to the gains should be done first on the simulator before fine tuning in flight The gains page also gives a display of the current control surface positions both the left and right The labels on the control surface display will update according to the type of mixing selected in the surfaces page i e elevons ruddervator etc To the right of the surface display is the initial trim value Whenever a loop is turned from off to on its integrator gets initialized The turn rate airspeed altitude and yaw damper loops get initialized to the value displayed in the Initial trim display The other loop integrators get initialized to 0 To request the current trim setting push Request Trim You can enter trim values and push the Send Trim button to change them You can also tell the avionics to use its current loop commands as the trim value by pushing the Capture Trim button 4 13 Payloa
19. No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 2 7 Communications antenna A 900MHz or 2 4GHz ISM band wave or similar antenna will need to be installed on the host airframe You should try to maximize the separation between the GPS and UHF antennas to minimize potential interference Again refer to the Vehicle Integration Guidelines document for examples and further details 3 Ground Station Piccolo s ground station is based upon the same hardware that makes up the avionics package It manages the communication link to one or more avionics systems interfaces to the pilot in the loop console and provides a command and control stream to the operator interface PC 3 1 Power The ground station is powered through the included power supply that provides DC power A battery is included in the ground station for backup operation in case the main input power is lost When main power is connected the battery will be charging Yellow LED The ground station will not be on until the external switch is turned on Green LED 3 2 Connections The Ground Station connects to the operator interface PC through a standard 9 pin serial cable The ground station GPS Antenna is connected to the rear panel SMB connector and the ground station UHF antenna is hooked up to the BNC connector The pilot console connects through the included 6 pin circular DIN pilot console cable Please refer to the Quick Setup Guide for ph
20. Piccolo system user guide A Cloud Cap f Technology 8 Fourth Street PO Box 1500 Hood River OR 97031 541 387 2120 phone 541 387 2030 fax CCT pgorge net Bill Vaglienti Ross Hoag February 26 2004 Version 1 1 9 Pe Ca 7 Techn ology PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 eege 4 1 1 ul 4 US 2 EE 5 1 3 e 5 1 4 SEIVOS Licia 5 1 5 Lilia 5 lo Poldi 6 IT Exp nsi te eiiieaen iaia 6 UR E 6 AVIONICS ssaa 6 2 1 Front ponete 6 KR E 9 2 3 SEI VCP OTIS lalla 9 2 4 Installation location and OHeM AMON ssxccsssedavssssivenssurnsousndsdbaecsevonseusdusoursdsnessdseeanetaniaxestines 9 EE 9 2 6 CES 9 Zo Communications Atea ila 10 Ground RE E 10 3 1 IN 10 gt Loca 10 3 3 Rilotintie 100P sa ini 10 RE E 11 4 1 Installation and inner 11 42 lies 11 4 3 Ground aisi 12 44 Avionics ee E 13 4 5 Telemetry ei 14 46 eelere 16 4 INVA o E Giaveandebintepnasanceiotaanbadadiacaniwunnd 18 GA Polpo 21 49 APRI 22 Piccolo User s Guide Page 2 Tee Cap Technology PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 410 SENSOTS lille SEET OE aE a EAEE Eegeei 23 ill iii 25 GH Kee 29 4 15 Payl ad ai 30 gt Dapper 33 5 1 IR EE 33 SNE KEE E 33 5 3 LEE EE E ico 33 Piccolo User s Guide Page 3 RE Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 54
21. The pitch data given is not actually the pitch angle of the aircraft but is instead the climb gradient which is the pitch angle minus the angle of attack 4 5 4 System The system group contains diagnostic data from the avionics This data is identical to that from the ground station T c is the temperature of the main board in degrees Celsius The boards have been tested from 0 to 80 C for Piccolo and 40 to 85 C for PiccoloPlus RSSI is the receive signal strength indicator from the MHX radio It is in units of dBm and ranges from 71 strong signal to 115 no signal Iin refers to the input current and is displayed in Amps Vin is the input voltage which should always be between 8 and 20 volts s v is the servo voltage and s A is the servo current The servo voltage and current are only available on PiccoloPlus The remaining system data are only visible in advanced mode 5 3v is the voltage after the first stage regulator and should nominally be between 5 3 and 5 5 Volts 5 0v D and 5 0v a are the digital and analog five volt rails respectively 3 3v is used to run the MPC555 and memory 3 0v is used to run the M12 GPS 4 5 5 Winds The winds group displays the latest data from the wind finding by maneuver calculation Winds are named for the direction they come from hence South wind is the component of the wind from the South going to the North The time of the wind calculation is also provided as is the number of points
22. They are the along track distance which is the distance to go before reaching the waypoint the cross track distance which is the perpendicular distance from the track to the vehicle positive right and the along and cross track velocities Piccolo User s Guide Page 17 RE Cap olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 7 Map lem Piccolo 61 7901843 23 49 18 02 June 2003 iss sYs GPS RSSI COM r asio Telemetry Commands Map Preftight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload Alt 500 15 m TAS 2493 m s Vin 11 6 TEC 46 RSSI 86 W Mm Send Flight plans m Cursor mode Mouse position m From ground station C New multipoint Select Cin Lat N 40 571629 deg Range 897 99 km C New quick plan C Pan Out Lon WW 128 239318 deg Bearing 184 3 deg Edit Delete Request Send Ee Open W Local Copy MW Remote Addimage layer Add vector layer WE N E x A V Auto Center 1164 90 km Figure 6 Map page The map page displays the current location of the vehicle and provides an interface for creating flight plans The map is built on ESRI s MapObjects which means that it is capable of displaying geo referenced raster files as well as vector shape files To add a layer to the map select the button Add image layer Of Add vector la
23. as measured from a Futaba pilot console Piccolo User s Guide Page 25 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 The surface calibrations and mixing rules cannot be altered unless the Enable surface setup check box is selected The Request all data button will trigger the avionics to send all of its surface setup information On the left of the page the mixing options are given To change the mixing options alter the settings accordingly and then press the Send Config button The mixing rules shown in Figure 11 are for a conventional aircraft that does not have ailerons and uses rudder as its primary roll rate control note the 100 mixing from aileron to rudder The surfaces page only shows the pulse width to angle calibration for one surface at a time The surface displayed is chosen with the Surface selection radio buttons To change the surface calibration table enter in the new table data then press Order Table which will put the table in order of increasing angles then press Send Table In order to determine the calibration numbers it is helpful to be able to explicitly set the pulse width being sent to any given channel This can be done with the surface test feature in the bottom center of the page To use the feature the autopilot must be on Then pressure the Arm Surface Test button The surface test feature will remain armed for 30 seconds Then enter i
24. created which is specific to that avionics The window is built upon a tab dialog box with each tab displaying a different part of the system The top of the tab dialog displays the address of the avionics the number of milliseconds that the avionics has been on and the date and time from the GPS Just under the title bar is a series of lights that are used as alarms The represent the five most important parameters regarding the health of the vehicle The alarms are giving in order of decreasing priority from left to right For each parameter the light will be red if the data indicates that parameter is out of range e ALT is the altitude alarm The altitude alarm is based upon the altitude limits specified for the avionics see section 4 9 e IAS is the indicated airspeed alarm Similar to the altitude alarm the IAS alarm is based upon the airspeed limits for the avionics see section 4 9 e SYS is the system diagnostic alarm It is based upon the main input voltage and the board temperature e GPS is the GPS alarm It is based upon the health of the GPS receiver as indicated by the number of satellites and PDOP precision dilution of precision value e COM is the communications alarm It is based upon the communications timeout specified for the avionics see section 4 9 Piccolo User s Guide Page 13 RE Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 An audio
25. d River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 angle disturbance rejection Pitch Pitch angle Elevator Damps out pitch oscillations Yaw Yaw rate Rudder Damps out yaw oscillations Turn com Commanded Elevator Helps maintain the TAS command when pensator turn rate entering or exiting a turn Pitch rate fm Piccolo 61 8850005 19 01 09 10 August 2003 Dir ias SYS GS fissi 60M rase Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensars Surfaces Gains Payload 15 x m Airspeed hold gt Altitude hold i Tum rate i Line tracker Dyn P to elevator Barometer to throttle Yaw rate to aileron GPS to tum rate Prop 0 00020000 Prop 0 01000000 Prop 0 00000000 Prop 0 17000000 Intg 0 00006000 Intg 0 00020000 Intg 0 00000000 Intg 0 00000000 Deriv 0 00030000 Deriv 0 01000000 Derivi0 00000000 Deriv F0 20000000 i Roll damper i Pitch damper Yaw damper Cony 200 00000001 Roll angle to aileron Pitch angle to elevato Yaw rate to rudder Enable Iv Enable Je Enable IV Gains in Synch Prop 0 15000001 Prop 0 10000000 Frop 0 20000000 Request Gains Intg 0 01500000 Intg 0 00000000 Intg 0 00000000 Deriv 0 10000000 Deriv 0 20000000 Deriv 0 000000d0 Send Gains Tum compensator V Surface Display deg Initial Trim deg L Aileron 0 05
26. d connectors for user defined applications These connectors provide analog SPI timing serial and CAN methods of attaching hardware 1 8 PiccoloPlus PiccoloPlus is the next generation of the Piccolo system The PiccoloPlus was introduced in early 2004 as a form fit function replacement for the Piccolo avionics It utilizes new inertial sensors to improve the performance and robustness of the system For the purposes of this manual the Piccolo and the PiccoloPlus are equivalent units 2 Avionics Avionics refers to the airborne component of the Piccolo system It is the most complicated part of the system and requires the most care in setup Most of the setup is actually done through the operator interface software and is described in that section This section deals with the physical installation of the avionics Figure 2 Piccolo Front Panel 2 1 Front panel connections All connections to the Piccolo are through the front panel as shown in Figure 2 and include the filtered 44 pin vehicle interface connector GPS and UHF antenna SMA connectors as well as the Pitot and Static pressure port nipples which are compatible with 3 32 ID tubing Table 1 Piccolo User s Guide Page 6 Tee Cop olo 7 Techno oY PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 outlines the functionality of each pin on the external interface connector A complete fight harnesses reference schematic with power and
27. d page The payload page gives the user the ability to control the I O lines on the external connector Ordinarily the manipulation of these lines is done through third party applications which can provide the user with an application specific interface However the operator interface provides Piccolo User s Guide Page 30 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 a generic payload control display which can be used for testing purposes There are twelve I O lines and two serial ports which can be manipulated Each of the I O lines has a primary function and several alternate functions See Table 4 for a description Table 4 Signals available on the main Piccolo connector for payload expansion Left aileron j t t lse period pulse Left elevator j 7 lse period pulse Left throttle j lse period pulse Left rudder pulse j lse period H Discrete I 0 ulse period I O pu Discrete I O pulse period I O pu Ri Ri TE lse ight lse ight throttle Discrete I O pulse period I O pulse ight lse R Discrete I O pulse period I O H Right flap pulse Discrete 1 0 ulse period I O Vi me e e n PU PU PU PU PU T Discrete 1 0 pulse period 1 0 Discrete 1 0 pulse period 1 0 31 Program Seri External comm at External comm at user baud 32 Port 57 600 rate Program at 56K
28. dress to receive manual pilot commands from the pilot console Only one pilot address can exist in the system The Remove Address button is used to remove addresses from the list except the pilot address Remove A11 will remove all addresses from the list again excepting the pilot address The ground station stores the list of serial numbers in non volatile memory so any changes made to the list are not lost when the ground station is powered down Note that each address in the list will occupy a certain amount of communications bandwidth whether the avionics in question actually exists or not Hence the list should not contain addresses that you do not wish to talk to In practice there is only enough bandwidth for about 10 avionics at one time 4 3 5 System The system group contains diagnostic data from the ground station T c is the temperature of the main board in degrees Celsius The boards have been tested from 0 to 80 C Rsst is the receive signal strength indicator from the MHX radio It is in units of dBm and ranges from 71 Piccolo User s Guide Page 12 Pe Cop olo 7 Techno oY PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 strong signal to 115 no signal When communicating with multiple avionics the Rsst field will be a composite of the different signal strengths Iin refers to the input current to the ground station and is displayed in Amps vin is the input voltage which
29. e WF Preturn Orbit gt To 4 ml dI Latitude Longitude m km km i 24 10 87 588694 4125 404054 B00 Don E IE a Lan ri 69153996 123 661547 Boo nn KE r fia fisss3 ra Deag 121623700 600 nm RE RER EC 13 40 542095 1119 054241 500 pn KE JE fa fieaer 14 0128618 1117 193598 500 Dn KE fs haar 15 8 947258 116 4847861 mm vu E IE bE feisa Close Figure 7 Flight plan edit dialog Note that Figure 7 shows the dialog for a remote plan which cannot be edited If the plan were local the edit boxes would be white i e editable and any changes made would be reflected on the map Piccolo User s Guide Page 19 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 7 2 Making new flight plans To make a new flight plan select the New multipoint radio button Then using the mouse click on the map once for each waypoint To end the flight plan double click The flight plan will automatically close To control which point it closes to double click on top of the desired point When you are finished the OI will prompt you for the flight plan altitude After entering the altitude the new flight plan is drawn as a local plan on the map There is only ever one local plan so the previous local plan will be discarded The local plan can be edited to include any altitude information or fine tuning of the
30. e also has the altimeter request and send button The altimeter setting is the atmospheric pressure at seal level used to calculate altitude Push the request button to learn the current setting and push the send button to alter the setting to whatever is in the edit box 10 x Piccolo 271 6181176 00 40 51 27 February 2004 SS O ROSI Gam r o Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload System Altimeter setting GPS Health Vin v 11 95 101325 Pa Zero Air Data Status DGPS ST BD 20 Aco lin A 0 30 F send Actual Altitude Satellites Btracked of O visible RSSI 71 d _send m PDOP 22 D Check and record initial battery voltage and current e Configure map page as required for the mission Ga Verify and or load flight plans Gi Verify correct autopilot gains limits and trim settings ES Verify mission limits including deadman status and lost comm waypoint e Verify working aircraft GPS check number of satellites and PDOP 6 Get altimeter to local base pressure 7 Select manual control and verify manual control indicated in autopilot page e Verify control surface trims in manual mode Adjust using pilot console fa Verify manual control both magnitude and direction for all surfaces un Verify reported control surfaces on the autopilot page match the actual control positions 11 Check sensor readings and zero them
31. e operator interface and they are drawn in red Local plans are those that are stored on the operator interface i e they have not yet been sent to the avionics and they are drawn in white Piccolo User s Guide Page 18 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 To see the flight plans that are onboard the avionics press the Request button This will trigger the avionics to send all of its flight plans 4 7 1 All about flight plans Flight plans are made of linked lists of waypoints Each waypoint encodes latitude longitude altitude and the index of the next waypoint to be used The avionics has storage for 100 waypoints These waypoints can be used to make one flight plan that is 100 waypoints long or 50 flight plans with two waypoints each or any combination between The key concept is that all flight plans must close This means that at some point the next waypoint must point to a waypoint that was previously in the list In Figure 6 the flight plan is made of waypoint 10 which goes to 11 which goes to 12 to 13 to 14 to 15 to 16 and back to 14 Note that although all flight plans must close they do not have to be a loop In the sequence given above the aircraft will end up flying the triangle between waypoints 14 15 and 16 Flight plans also encode altitude Each time the navigator switches waypoints it changes the altitude command to the value in
32. eg l Drop deadman if Min 35 000 Min 28 548 IV GPS times out Max 35 000 Max 28 648 A lil IT GPS AND Comm time out Throttle Limits in Sach M Engine Kill Asserted Min 10 000 E Request Limits Max 1 000 T Kill eng ra aana dropped am Flap deg m Deadman status Send in m DER crs com Max 85 944 m Configuration file Save Request Limits Open Figure 9 Autopilot limits page The avionics also supports a deadman s output This is an output switch which requires a continuous hardware refresh in order to stay active Hence if the system fails for any reason the switch will turn off For safety the deadman can be connected to the engine ignition or some Piccolo User s Guide Page 22 4 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 flight termination system The deadman output can also be controlled as a function of the mission limits The deadman has a global enable which is controlled by the user and flags to drop the deadman output in the event of e Lost communications controlled by timeout Lost GPS controlled by timeout Lost GPS AND lost communications Engine kill is asserted by the user see section 4 6 The deadman logic can also be used to assert the engine kill state if the deadman is dropped Hence for vehicles which do not have a conven
33. eg Altitude 203 67 m Pitch 2 75 Height 203 26 m Air Temperature 13 C Yaw 83 02 DSS Speed 2373 m s System Wind m s Gyro deg s 4 Direction 78 0 deol mo om South D Roll 5 50 Status DGPS MNM BB PD ACQ pssi 7i west 474 Pitch 1 09 Satellites 8 tracked of D visible GER Enor 0 22 Yaw 762 ALI i Vin MIS Time 031 Accel m s s 4 S A 0 00 Points 12 x 0 40 UHF radio settings sw D ie EA y 003 Channe 3 Deg sv Ba 10 25 Power Wf1 00 Send ap 4 99 ti PM B A 4 96 Request Slow Left 7460 System version _4 any Bad Right 0 Piccolo Plus am Do Version 1 1 9 Request Deadman status Feb 26 2004 Release GPS Comm Figure 4 Telemetry page 4 5 2 Air data The air data gives the airspeed and barometric altitude information The temperature indicated is based on the internal board temperature with an offset to account for warming in the box 4 5 3 Attitude The attitude display gives the estimated Euler attitude angles for the vehicle The angles are estimated based on integration of the gyro rate data combined with a correction step based upon Piccolo User s Guide Page 14 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 the GPS and air data information
34. est the performance of a Piccolo implementation The HIL simulator is based upon the external CAN interface When in simulation mode Piccolo sends control surface signals and receives sensor inputs from the CAN interface A PC with a CAN interface card running the HIL simulation software completes the necessary hardware See the documents Hardware in the Loop simulator for the Piccolo Avionics and the Piccolo Quick Setup Guide for more details on how to use the simulator Piccolo User s Guide Page 33 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 Piccolo User s Guide Page 34
35. g 4 11 6 Flap to elevator mixing The flap to elevator mixing is used to compensate for the change in elevator trim as the flaps are moved Most vehicles will use a positive amount of flap to elevator mixing i e positive flap deflection causes positive elevator deflection 4 11 7 Flaperon mixing In this mode the ailerons are used to provide aileron and flap functions This is done by biasing the aileron outputs with the flap output according to Figure 16 Note that the flaperon value can be positive or negative A flaperon of 100 will cause the ailerons to move down as far as the flaps move down A flaperon of 100 will cause the ailerons to move up as far as the flaps move down Left aileron kb Left Flap Left flaperon gt Flap command A Flap e Flaperon Right aileron gt Right Flap Right flaperon Figure 16 Flaperon mixing 4 11 8 Elevon mixing In this mode two elevator like surfaces are used to provide aileron and elevator functions This is done by biasing the elevator outputs with the aileron output according to Figure 17 Piccolo User s Guide Page 28 A Cloud Ca 7 Technolog Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 Left elevator gt Left Aileron Aileron A v Right elevator gt Right Aleron 4 11 9 Ruddervator mixing Figure
36. ient flight termination system like an ignition the engine can be driven to zero throttle if the communications or GPS fails 4 10 Sensors The sensors page gives the current sensor readings and calibration information for each sensor It is normally only used during the setup process On the left of the page each sensor is listed as a radio button Select the radio button corresponding to the sensor calibration you wish to view Push the Request A11 button to trigger the avionics to download all of the sensor information 15 x Piccolo 271 6729180 00 49 59 27 February 2004 Sve GPS mssi GOM ss Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload Request All Save alll Open all m Roll Rate Calibration Euler Angles Caly Sensor Reading Reg Channel Save chan Reg Euler Save Euler l Board Temp TI 40 00 Send Channel Open chan Send Euler Open Euler g ta deg sl 5 87 offset 0 001 MI 1 psi 0 00 deg 190 Pitch Rate deg s 0 74 Gain 247 EES deg s V 2 theta 000 ersat C YawRate deg s 1 26 Temperature Compensation 3 phi 0 00 deg 180 ci Don Press Pall 234 T Offset Shift Gain Euler transformation is from C Static Press Pa 98956 TO MI Multiplier lavionics axis to vehicle axis C Xaccel m s s f 0 21 440 2 021 1 000 Principal axis option 4 C Yaccel m s s 0 02 30 5 2 0
37. lecting any avionic window Vin 327 oe a i 7 sv Fa and for cascading or tiling the avionics windows As of version DO 1 1 4 the window menu also gives the option for an advanced Gi O es versus simple view The simple view hides the primary system V B setup windows on the avionics window 8 m Firmware 5 e el Versioni 4 3 2 Units Menu Pilot Address May 12 2003 Test The units menu allows the user to select the units that telemetry are Pilot f1 displayed in Angles can be displayed in decimal degrees degrees UHF radio settings minutes seconds or in radians Anything which is not an angle can Channel f4 Reg Request be displayed in either Metric or English units ict 1 00 Send Spectrum Figure 3 Operator mee geg station window 4 3 3 GPS The GPS button invokes a dialog that gives a display of the current ground station GPS data and the differential base station setup 4 3 4 Network Control The ground station manages simultaneous communications to multiple avionics by using a polling scheme in which it periodically requests communications from each avionics in a list The list is composed of Piccolo addresses which are the serial number of each avionics The Add Address button can be used to send a message to the ground station telling it to add the requested serial number to its polling list The pilot Address button works like the Add Address button except it tags the ad
38. n In order to account for variations in the linkage the autopilot and or mixer outputs are translated to actuator signals via calibration data The calibration data account for sign convention surface neutral travel limits and any non linearities in the surface motion Each channel has it s own calibration data an example of which can be seen Figure 11 The data relate the actuator pulse width in micro seconds to the surface motion in degrees In the case of the throttle the surface position is interpreted as percent of full scale and is always between 0 0 and 1 0 The surface position data are usually given in ascending order and the pulse widths are in ascending or descending order The sign convention on the surface deflection has the following rules flaps ailerons and elevators are all positive down Rudders are positive right For ruddervators the sign convention follows the elevator rule i e positive down The autopilot outputs 5 signals that are then adjusted using the output mode 5 or 10 channel and mixing rules The resulting outputs are then converted to pulse widths via linear interpolated lookups through each channel s calibration data If the requested deflection is outside of the table then the pulse width is limited to the extremes in the table Although the pulse width column in Figure 11 is regularly spaced this is not required Note the extreme pulse width values of 1103 and 1929 These correspond to 100 pulse width
39. n a desired pulse width and press the Test Pulse button The requested pulse width will be sent out the selected channel until the arming of the surface test times out While the pulse is being sent you can measure the actual surface deflection By doing this for each desired pulse width the surface calibration table can be built up 4 11 2 5 channel mode Roll Left aileron Left aileron gt Channel 1 gt Aileron differential Aeron y Optional Flaperon differential mixing Right aileron m Right aileron gt Channel 5 gt Roll Dv pag a DEENEN Pitch Left elevator i Channel 2 E Optional Flap Optional Elevon E gt toElevator gt SC i g Se mixing 7 mixing 2 Right elevator I Channel 1 gt a iena EE i T bei S E Engine Channel 3 gt 5 5 e oe RT Yaw gt Left Rudder gt l Channel 4 gt E Aileron to Aileron to Optional a gt Ruddervator Rudder rudder mixing Se mixing gt Right Rudder gt Channel 2 gt Flap Left Flap Channel 5 gt Figure 12 5 channel servo output diagram In this mode only 5 output channels are used The channel mapping depends on the type of mixing option that is to be supported see Figure 12 Note that in 5 channel mode flaperon and elevon mixing cannot be used simultaneously elevon and ruddervator mixi
40. n the file to launch the installer The onscreen instructions are simple to follow and amount to choosing where you d like the operator interface to be installed 4 2 Running Once installed the operator interface executable can be run like any windows application In its default mode it expects to find the ground station connected to serial port 1 of the PC However the mode of operation can be affected with command line switches Table 2 Command line switches Switch Meaning P Controls the serial port that the OI will use to connect to the ground station For example P 2 will cause the OI to look for the ground station on COM2 B Changes the baud rate used for the serial connection The nominal connection to the ground station is done at 56K 57600 However specialty applications may require a different baud rate LISTEN Enables the OI to act as a server In this mode the operator interface will listen for incoming TCP connections and send and receive Piccolo packets over the connection The port number used for the listening mode is passed on the command line for example ISTEN 2000 will cause the OI to listen for clients on port 2000 SERVER Enables the OI to connect to a Piccolo data server which could be another OI in server mode The data passed on the switch controls the computer name and port number that the OI will try to connect to For example SERVER MyServe
41. ng cannot be used simultaneously and aileron differential is only available in flaperon mode Piccolo User s Guide Page 26 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 11 3 10 channel mode In this mode all 10 output channels are used The channel mapping depends on the type of mixing option that is to be supported see Figure 13 Roll Left aileron gt Left aileron gt Channel 1 gt Aileron differential gt Aleron gt Optional Flaperon differential mixing Right aileron gt Right aileron 5 Channel 6 Pitch Left elevator gt Channel 2 gt i Optional Flap l l gt toElevator Optional Elevon Se mixing D mixing Right elevator Channel 7 gt E E 8 Engine Left Throttle Channel 3 gt a T bei S E Right Throttle Channel 8 gt o 5 3 E Yaw gt Left Channel 4 gt o e I Optional Aileron to Aileron to a Ruddervator Rudder rudder mixing ge l mixing gt Right Channel 9 gt Flap Left Flap Channel 5 gt Right Flap Channel 10 gt Figure 13 10 channel servo output diagram 4 11 4 Aileron differential Aileron differential is used to control the ratio of up aileron motion to down aileron motion By adjusting the aileron differential
42. nose the Y axis out the right wing tip and the Z axis pointing down You do not have to install the avionics in its natural coordinate system however the Euler angle rotations between the avionics coordinate system and aircraft coordinate system must be known 2 5 Air data system Piccolo has pressure port inputs for total or pitot pressure and static pressure A 4KPa differential pressure sensor measures the difference between the total pressure and static pressure to determine the dynamic pressure A 115KPa absolute pressure sensor measures the static pressure An accurate air data system is critical to the performance of Piccolo Both the dynamic and static pressures are used in the primary control loops In addition the dynamic pressure is used to calculate the true air speed which is used for wind measurement The total and static pressure ports should be plumbed to pressure probes see Vehicle Integration Guidelines document for further details 2 6 GPS antenna The GPS antenna should be mounted on the aircraft where it has a clear view of the sky In particular consider how the antenna s view of the sky will change with aircraft pitch and roll motion Ideally the antenna should be mounted on a large metal groundplane however satisfactory performance can be had with a small a few inches across groundplane made of foil or metal tape on the aircraft Piccolo User s Guide Page 9 Fe Cop olo 7 N Techno 9Y PO Box 1500
43. orts called the payload port is used to send a bi directional stream of data between the operator interface and the avionics The other port supports the same communications protocol that runs over the main UHF link and allows external communications systems to be integrated The external communications port can run with or without the flow control scheme implemented for the UHF data link See the document Piccolo Communications for details Piccolo User s Guide Page 32 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 5 Development environment The development environment is the set of tools that allows the vehicle designer to configure the avionics and software to accommodate the specific application The tools that make up the development environment include Avionics hardware with built in debugging and communication resources Software compiler debugger and driver source code Control systems design and analysis tools Auto code generation tools for control systems and state machines Aircraft simulation model Hardware in loop simulation tools While there are many small avionics systems available few provide all the tools listed above Piccolo is novel in part because the development environment was designed in from the beginning 5 1 Software environment Piccolo includes built in software that will be suitable for many applications however for
44. ot request or change the radio settings when flying under manual control 4 6 AP commands The autopilot commands page displays the current autopilot command status and allows you to change the commands In the upper left hand corner the green box indicates that the autopilot is on This is because the global autopilot switch on the pilot console is on or the console is not plugged into the ground station or this avionics is not selected for manual control If manual control were selected from the pilot console the AUTOPILOT ON box would be red and would read MANUAL fax Piccolo 61 6872870 23 32 09 02 June 2003 mkA St lias sys GPS RSS COM Mauao Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload Current Commands In Use Change Commands Here Loop Telemetry Status 7 Target New Cmd Off On Auto Change 4 TAS m s 24 90 ON 250 250 MIF Send Altitude m 500 15 AUTO 500 0 Tracker L B a Send Tum rate deg s 000 AuTO 0 115 f4 985 a VIE Send Flaps deg ON 0 000 0 000 VIE Send Tracker WP ON 50 Of E z B Send Enable Auto Launch Kill Engine Engine ON Enable Steering Track Send All Commands Position m Velocity m s Along 22429 Along 241 Cross 49 Cross 1 2 Send Reset
45. otos and a complete descriptions of each component 3 3 Pilot in the loop Pilot in the loop commands are input to the ground station through a Futaba compatible buddy box 6 pin DIN connector The ground station will attempt to decode 6 pulses in the serial train They are aileron elevator throttle rudder autopilot on off gear and flaps The fifth channel usually used for retract landing gear is used to select autopilot on off status A pulse longer than 1 5ms on this channel selects autopilot off A short pulse selects autopilot on The power switch on the Futaba pilot console should be left off it will receive its power from the ground station In addition the RF module of the pilot console can be removed since it serves no purpose in this application Piccolo User s Guide Page 10 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 Operator Interface The operator interface OT is a software system that runs on a Windows PC and provides a command and control interface for Piccolo operators Most of the system features are accessible from this interface and so we will use this part of the user s guide to describe many of the basic capabilities of the system 4 1 Installation and running The operator interface must be correctly installed before it can be used A windows installer file Operator Interface msi is provided for this Double click o
46. output can be enabled for the alarm system If one or more of the parameters are alarming and if the audio output is enabled then a warning will be given every two seconds for the alarm with the highest priority 4 5 Telemetry page The telemetry page displays data from all the sensors of the system This display in Figure 4 is shown in advanced mode 4 5 1 GPS data The GPS data gives the information received from the GPS onboard the avionics The GPS data are updated once per second The data in Figure 4 indicate that the vehicle is covering ground at 25 meters per second over San Francisco The data displayed here are coming from the piccolo simulator which why the GPS indicates that no satellites are visible Notice the PDOP value This is the precision dilution of precision number which is based purely on the geometry of the visible satellite constellation Typical values should be less than 5 There are usually always at least six satellites visible and sometimes as many as 10 If you are seeing high PDOP values or few satellites that indicates the GPS is not performing well typically due to problems with the antenna configuration 240 x es Piccolo 271 5598174 00 31 08 27 February 2004 SS EPS SI COM rase Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Sensors Surfaces Gains Payload GPS data Air data Attitude deg s Latittude 37 619294 deg True Air Speed 19 75 m s Roll 10 20 Longitude 122 371508 d
47. rName 2000 will cause the OI to initiate a TCP connection to a computer call MyServerName on port 2000 This switch cannot be used at the same time as LISTEN or P R Enables the OI to replay a binary log file The data passed on the switch is the name of the binary log file usually tel This switch cannot be used with any of the other switches except LISTEN The windows installer is a relatively new component of Windows Windows 2000 and XP include the windows installer however older versions of Windows must have the installer installed ironic I know If your version of Windows does not recognize the msi extension it is because you need the windows installer Use the WinInstall9X exe or the WinInstallNT exe files to install the installer Piccolo User s Guide Page 11 PURO Cop olo 7 Techno 9Y PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 3 Ground station screen x The operator interface communicates to the ground station over a Ele Window Units About serial link default to COM1 When the OI starts the first page Network Control which is visible is the ground station screen Add Address GPS Rem Address System 4 3 1 Window Menu emoveAll pgs oe The window menu has options for minimizing or restoring any DR ar lin ost avionics windows in the system for se
48. ress the Request Limits button To change the limits press the Send Limits button 4 9 3 Mission limits The limits page also shows the mission limits The pilot timeout gives the amount of time the system will remain in manual control mode without new manual control inputs If this timeout elapses the system will automatically switch to autopilot mode If communications fail entirely for the time defined in comm timeout the avionics will take action by flying the flight plan indicated by the Lost comm waypoint It is important to note that the lost communications waypoint identifies a whole flight plan not just a single waypoint When the communications timeout elapses the avionics examines the lost comm flight plan and makes an intelligent choice of the waypoint to use The choice is based on finding the waypoint which is closest to the avionics AND which is closer to the termination point of the flight plan than the avionics is ER Piccolo 61 66717916 16 09 36 03 June 2003 0 xX ALTI lias SYS GPS RSI COM Tu Telemetry Commands Map Preflight Limits Surfaces Gains l Payload IAS m s p Aileron deg Mission Limits Min 18 07 Min 15 000 GPStimeout 200 fs Max 50 00 Max 5 000 Comm timeout 20 0 s Altitude m Elevator deg Pilottimeout 20 s Malo 0 Min L28648 Lost comm waypoint 10 Max 5000 Max 28 648 M Deadman output enabled Bank angle deg Rudder d
49. s for a hardware shift of the gyros Hence the actual offset number displayed on the calibration pages represents an offset in hardware rather than software The Piccolo software will automatically shift the gyro hardware bias if it detects that the gyro errors are becoming too large for correct operation of the system 4 10 5 Gyros in PiccoloPlus The gyros used in PiccoloPlus are much more stable and robust than those used in Piccolo as well as having more dynamic range 100 s at 16 bits Hence the hardware shifting done in Piccolo has been eliminated in PiccoloPlus 4 10 6 Installation orientation Since the avionics has 3 axis gyros and accelerometers it can be installed in any orientation and the readings rotated to match the installation angles The installation orientation is given by the three Euler angles Yaw psi Pitch theta and Roll phi Currently the operator interface only supports choosing Euler angles that are along principal axes of the vehicle There are 24 different possible principal axes orientations which can be selected with the Principal axis options spin buttons The Euler angles are used to describe the rotation from the avionics coordinate frame to the vehicle coordinate frame The avionics coordinate frame is marked on the front panel of the box To change the angles press the Send Euler Angles button Finally note that the calibration date are given in avionics axis but the readings are given in vehicle axis
50. should always be near 12 Volts for the ground station The remaining system data are only visible in advanced mode 5 3v is the voltage after the first stage regulator and should nominally be between 5 3 and 5 5 Volts 5 0v D and 5 0v a are the digital and analog five volt rails respectively 3 3v is used to run the MPC555 and memory 3 0v is used to run the M12 GPS 4 3 6 UHF radio settings The UHF radio settings allows the user to control the power output and the hopping pattern of the Microhard radio in the ground station The radio is spread spectrum which means that it doesn t use a single frequency but instead hops along a pattern of frequencies In order to operate multiple ground stations in close proximity they must be using different hopping patters to avoid interference Pushing the Req button will request the current hopping pattern and power output of the radio Pushing the Send button will update the hopping pattern and power output of the radio The request spectrum button is used to invoke a special feature of the radio which allows it to operate as a spectrum analyzer The radio will sample all of its channels and return a text based result which allows the user to see the background noise level on every channel Note that when any of these radio features are invoked the radio will be taken offline suspending communications for a short while 4 4 Avionics Window When data are received from a Piccolo avionics a new window is
51. sion tfw The world file contains six numbers one on each line and has the following format degrees longitude per x pixel 0 0 degrees latitude per y pixel negative Longitude of the upper left corner positive East Latitude of the upper left corner positive North The geo referencing assumes that the image is linear therefore it must be a rectilinear projection and it must be oriented so that North and South are in the vertical direction Note that the y axis scale factor should be negative this is a result of computer graphics coordinates systems which increase downwards An example world file which is for Wasco airport in Oregon follows 0 00005140576 0 00000000 0 00000000 00005140576 Piccolo User s Guide Page 20 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 120 68207806 45 591328 4 8 Preflight The preflight page gives a simple preflight checklist Each item of the checklist is represented by a button that can be pushed in to indicate that step has been done For a detailed description of the preflight checklist items see the document Preflight Checklist for the Piccolo System In addition the actual checklist item the preflight page include some of the user interface elements required to perform the checklist items including the altimeter setting sensor zeroing and GPS health 4 8 1 Altimeter setting The preflight pag
52. tatus display into the command fields 4 6 3 Automatic launch The Enable Auto Launch button puts the avionics into its automatic launch mode This mode is used for catapult launches When entering this mode with the autopilot on the autopilot will suspend execution of the main control loops leaving their outputs at the trim position The only exception is the altitude control loop which will continue to function The autopilot will stay in this mode until the airspeed signal reaches 75 of its minimum command value When this happens the autopilot will pause for 0 5 seconds and then return to normal operation 4 6 4 Engine Kill The Kill Engine button gives the user the ability to override the altitude control loop and force the throttle output to zero The engine kill feature can be driven by the user through the button on the autopilot page or driven by the deadman status logic see section 4 9 for details 4 6 5 Manual steering Manual steering provides the ability to use the pilot console to steer the vehicle while still under control of the autopilot If the vehicle is selected for manual pilot control then the data from pilot console are sent to the vehicle even if it is in autopilot mode When manual steering is selected the tracker is suspended and the aileron stick on the pilot console becomes the source of the turn rate command 4 6 6 Track data Below the autopilot status display the tracker input variables are displayed
53. the waypoint it is going to To edit a flight plan including the altitude push the Select radio button highlight the flight plan and then click Edit The dialog in Figure 7 dialog will appear In addition to the basic position the flight plans include a feature called the wind finding interval wF in Figure 7 This interval describes the time between performing s turns along the flight plan The s turns allow the avionics to measure the wind You can disable the wind finding by setting the interval to zero or less than zero Each waypoint also has a feature called pre turn which can be enabled or disabled according to the check box in Figure 7 Pre turn allows the avionics to estimate when to turn so that it doesn t overshoot the segment that follows the waypoint When you create a flight plan in the operator interface pre turn will be on by default however if you need to guarantee the vehicle flies over a waypoint you can disable the pre turn for that point Each waypoint also has a feature called orbit which can be enabled or disabled according to the check box in Figure 7 Orbit allows the avionics to circle the waypoint rather than flying to it When orbit is enabled the avionics will not switch waypoints but instead will fly to the target waypoint and orbit it in a left hand turn The orbit radius is equal to the tracker convergence parameter see section 4 12 i x Index set Altitud
54. ulated down to internal voltages required for the main board A second input 4 8 to 7V DC is used to power the servos either a 4 or 5 cell battery pack can be used It can be applied to any one of the unused servo power or user_vout pins we typically use pin 23 2 3 Servo options Piccolo has ten PWM Pulse Width Modulation outputs available for servos There are two basic modes of operation 5 channel mode and 10 channel mode Most systems will use 10 channel mode In either mode individual servo control signals can be reassigned to other payload control functions Details of the different servo options can be had from section 4 11 2 4 Installation location and orientation There is no limitation on the installation location of Piccolo However in general you should choose a location that will minimize vibration see the Vehicle Integration Guidelines document for further installation details Piccolo s basic autopilot system does not use the accelerometers However if you plan to use the accelerometer in your application you will want to mount the avionics close to the center of gravity in order to reduce the acceleration that results from centripetal motion and changes in angular rate The orientation of the avionics in its final installation is important The avionics has a natural coordinate system which is marked on the front panel The coordinate system uses English aircraft conventions with the X axis pointing through the
55. utput will drop It can also be explicitly turned off by GPS failure or by communications failure In Figure 4 the deadman is on and the GPS and communications are working normally If the deadman were off or the GPS or communications were failed the fields would be red Piccolo User s Guide Page 15 44 Cloud Cop N Techno ogy PO Box 1500 No 8 Fourth St Hood River OR 97031 ph 541 387 2120 fax 541 387 2030 4 5 9 UHF radio settings The UHF radio settings allows the user to control the power output and the hopping pattern of the Microhard radio in the avionics The radio is frequency hopping spread spectrum which means that it doesn t use a single frequency but instead hops along a pattern of frequencies It is possible to work with multiple ground stations by configuring each ground station to use a different hopping pattern and then changing the hopping pattern of the avionics to match the desired ground station Pushing the Req button will request the current hopping pattern and power output of the radio Pushing the sena button will update the hopping pattern and power output of the radio When changing hopping patterns the avionics will automatically revert to the previous setting if communications are not established with a ground station on the new pattern Note that while requesting or changing the radio settings the radio will be taken offline and communications will be suspended for a few seconds As a result you should n
56. yer Each layer added is displayed below the add buttons In Figure 6 there is one layer which is named wsiearth tif The layer can be turned off by pressing the wsiearth tif button and removed by pressing the rem button Whenever the mouse pointer is over the map the location of the pointer is displayed at the top of the map The map can be zoomed in by selecting the In radio button and using the mouse to click and drag a rectangle on the map The rectangle will become the extents of the map Zooming out is accomplished by selecting the out radio button and clicking on the map Each click expands the map area by 50 To move the map select the Pan button and click and the drag the map with the mouse Or use the scroll bars to pan the map At the top of the map page the most important data from the telemetry stream are displayed the altitude true air speed input voltage board temperature and receive signal strength from the radio In addition the waypoint shown as WP in the upper right corner that the vehicle is currently tracking is displayed The waypoint command can be changed by entering a new waypoint and clicking Send The map also displays flight plans for the vehicle There are two types of flight plans displayed remote plans and local plans The display of either type of flight plan can be turned on or off using the Show Local or Show Remote check boxes Remote plans are those that are stored onboard the avionics i e remote from th
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