Flight Club

Welcome to the Flight Club wiki page!

Here you will find information about participating in Flight Club, the EclipseCon Europe 2012 programming competition.

The challenge

The challenge is to control the camera mount so that the video image remains stable while the Aibot is moving. The Flight Club Aibot will transmit an image from its camera to a nearby beamer. Participants will have access to all sensor data and to an interface that controls the camera mount.

Example Project:

You need a 32bit Java sdk and Eclipse on Windows XP or higher. Unfortunately we have so far only experience with Windows 7. About Feedback with other operating systems, we would be very pleased.

This sample project in the first step needs no radio module and no Aibot. It loads a DLL and simulated sensor data. With this project, the first steps can prepared and tested at home.

Media:FlightClub1.zip

Functions

int	init(int tabletID, String dev)	opens the connection to Aibot
int	initSim()	works without an Aibot and send fake data
int	deinit()	close the connection to Aibot
int	getDCMRoll()	returns Roll Angle in 1/100 degrees (1800 = 18°)
int	getDCMNick()	returns Nick Angle in 1/100 degrees
int	setCamRoll(int value)	send new setpoint Roll to the camera mount. See Table 1.
int	setCamNick(int value)	send new setpoint Nick to the camera mount.

Table 1 camera mount angle Setpoints Nick Roll CamNick CamRoll 0 10 -30 190 0 20 60 370 0 -10 40 -190 0 -20 90 -390 0 0 0 0

Roll 0°

Roll 10°

Roll 20°

Roll -10°

Roll -20°

The value to be set, is calculated from an offset and the value from the table. For Example setCamNick(3850+90);
Unfortunately, the offsets are different for each Aibot. All offsets will be announced shortly before the contest.

Example Datas

Here are some example data. In this example the camera wasn't in the center of the camera mount and the reference lines was in a distance about 30cm. This explains the influence of the DCMRoll value on the CamNick value.

These values ​​keep the camera mount in a stable position.

Table 2

Sensor Input		Camera
DCMNick	DCMRoll	CamNick	CamRoll
-421	794	-45	100
-398	1143	-80	170
-711	1541	-120	250
-558	-6	-40	-70
-550	-389	-70	-130
-584	-948	-110	250
-473	287	0	0
-37	284	50	0
842	288	180	30
997	322	-150	0
2078	168	390	20
-2910	391	-730	-20

Tasks

1. The position of the Aibots is changed to a fixed position. The camera have to be re-stabilized within 3 seconds, by using all sensor data.
   
2. While the position of the Aibots is changing, the camera should be stabilized at any time.
   
3. Same Taks as 1, but without using the precalculated DCM Datas. For this Taks it could be enough, to use the Accelerometer.
   
4. Same Taks as 2, but without using the precalculated DCM Datas. But at the latest now you need a kind of sensor fusion.

When we have time and content, we will put more on this page.

Questions? Email Anne.