Serenity

After having made a few adjustments to the front sail, as well as to the intermediate waypoint angle offset from the headwind stall direction, I had a very successful test this morning! It could still use some adjustment to optimize speed, but all tests worked in autopilot mode this morning. The tests included direct headwind navigation, as well as near-direct (in an attempt to trick it). Also, wind conditions were very light, which generally makes it more challenging/slow-going for the navigation.

I made a crude utility to play back the course data from the logs. Here's a video:
Course from 20120708

Officially, I can state: "Mission Accomplished!" 🙂

...but then again, I keep thinking of more changes and additions (some quite necessary) I would like to do... Here are some examples, in no particular order:

1. Software tweak to optimize tacking further. I realized the software makes an assumption that it shouldn't regarding when the sail sensor indicates that the boat is stalled. It's a bit tricky to explain without sketching it out, but I will post a sketch if it proves a beneficial change.

2. Address a major known issue that I've been able to work around up to this point. The issue is that if I turn the RC transmitter off or go out of range, the software has a tendency to lock up. I haven't looked too deeply into the issue yet, but I'm hopeful a few software updates will do the trick (I'm on a pretty outdated version of Arduino IDE/compiler) Worse-case scenario, it could be a problem with the ArduPilot board (which is also a deprecated version of the board) so I could upgrade that as well. With any luck the problem is in my code, but I'm really using 'out of the box' code for the servo interfacing, so I don't think I'll be that lucky.

3. Simulation playback mode using the log data. This would be designed to keep in mind the possibility of live-streamed data as well if I decide to introduce wireless connectivity. (for example, using XBee)

4. Google maps integration for better visual feedback and course planning. Adding more flexibility to the tool itself. For example, currently you cannot scroll/zoom without changing some constants and re-running the application. There are plenty of existing tools that could be used for course planning, but since the simulator is fairly flexible, I like the idea of having an 'all in one' tool.

5. Make it easier to associate 'serenity-cam' photos and videos with specific locations. This should actually be very easy by just logging when pictures are taken. The 2nd part to this however, is tying this in to the simulator playback mode so that links to the content are displayed alongside the waypoint data on the maps (similar to how google maps will show photos if enabled)

There are several other things I'd like to tackle as well, but for now these are some of my top picks. I would like to rearrange this site as well now. There are so many details I am not really explaining or cleanly presenting on this site yet. 🙂