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Aerial Photography and Video > FMA Flight Systems, FS8 Co Pilot.

Leegolf
Heliman
Location: England

Hi,

This looks amazing! But does it do what I think it does or am I just just dreaming?

Will this keep the heli in a stable hover if you let the sticks go??

Are there any other flight stabilization systems for this modest price or are they mostly the price of the carvec system?

04-05-2004 Over year old.

MikeDD
Senior Heliman
Location: Elkhart, IN

The FMA will only keep the cyclic level. It doesn't control collective or tail or compensate for drift.

Michiana R/C Choppers

04-05-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

cyborg
Heliman
Location: Westchester, NY

Hi,

I have been using the older version, which works the same, and I must say it does do a good job. You can remotely control it whether you want it on or off, which is good, because for hovering where you can see the heli good, I found it to be not as usufull.

Where the system is good is when you are up there, and you cant really tell if you are level or not, letting go of the sticks will level the bird out, and it does work as advertised.

That is about it. Not many more features other than that, and I guess the proce is reflective of that.

04-05-2004 Over year old.

Leegolf
Heliman
Location: England

So I assume the carvec system with not only control the cyclic but also control collective, tail and compensate for drift so keeping the heli completely stable when letting go of the sticks?

04-05-2004 Over year old.

cyborg
Heliman
Location: Westchester, NY

The carvec system is much much more advanced. It also has GPS navigation which would basically allow the heli to be flown strictly by way-point control, if desired.

I had some discussions with John at carvec in the past, and in an email to me, he described how the carvec might work:

"When I switch on, the camera mount between the skids automatically retracts
to a 'park' position for maximum clearance. I lift off with the CARVEC
stability augmentation engaged into the hover. I switch flight-modes to
'idle-up1' and the mount is automatically driven down. Simultaneously, the
camera is turned on through the LANC interface. Via the video downlink, I
can see the camera view via a small side-display on my right eye. This
display is overlaid with battery voltages, rotor-speed, GPS position,
altitude and various other flight data. I can slew the mount using a
shoulder-lever on my Tx, and the camera is attitude-stabilised in tilt.
Once in position, I switch to 'idle-up 2' and the camera is commanded to
take a still every 4 seconds (again through the LANC interface).

When I've finished and come back down, I switch back to 'normal' and the
camera is turned off (retracting the lens) and the mount drives back to the
'park' position for landing."

So you see, a single person can operate this system quite easily. It basically makes the FS-8 co-pilot look like a toy :-)

04-05-2004 Over year old.

JohnC
Veteran
Location: East Yorkshire, England

Hi,

Just to keep the record straight, CARVEC does interface to a GPS receiver, and knows where it is and how to get home. However, it does not fly autonomously yet. This area is still under development and progress is being taken quite slowly: operating a UAV is a much more serious activity than an RPV.

The main difference between an inertial flight-control system like CARVEC and 'co-pilot' lies in the complexity of how it works. A co-pilot operates on a very simple principle: if it is 'brighter' in one direction than another, it moves the swash plate to even it out.

This is great for what it is intended for: helping novice pilots avoid a crash. However, co-pilot is far from perfect. It won't work where it can't see the horizon, it will react to warm objects and weather fronts, and some days it just doesn't work at all.

An inertial system uses gyroscopes, accelerometers and some quite powerful software processing to 'track' the attitude of the helicopter. It doesn't rely on external sensors - and so works any time, indoors or outdoors.

Basically, if you need to depend on the stabilisation system then inertial-sensing is the only practical solution I am aware of. If you want a low-cost aid whilst fun-flying then something like co-pilot is great.

The real benefits of an inertial system come when you start adding extras. The camera-ship described by cyborg above is now a reality, and is being flight-tested as the weather improves here in the UK ( a very slow process it seems at this time of year). This is just the beginning - the possibilities are limited only by the imagination (and the time to develop the software)

John C.

04-05-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

daggit
Elite Veteran
Location: Waseca MN

The really nice thing about the CARVEC system is that it doesn't rely on external sensors to stabalize flight.

The FMA co-pilot uses infared sensors so terrain and atmosphere conditions affect the control inputs

04-05-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Heli_Pod
Heliman
Location: Luanda-Angola

CARVEC

The CARVEC system really look nice when it will the ready for the general public?

04-05-2004 Over year old.

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