AIRO-LAB Drone Standardization

Aoligei-C, Aoligei-V, Aoligei-L

This documentation serves as the tutorial for setting up (from hardware to software) drone Aoligei, including -C (for control), -V (for visual), -L (for LiDAR).

奥利给兄弟们，造他就完了啊

1. What to buy.

Follow this file to buy all the things your need.
Use the files here to order 3D models.

2. VIM4 - the on board computer

This document provides detailed guidance of configuring VIM4. We assume that you have

A VIM4
A heat sink for VIM4
A fan for VIM4
A 512G SD card
A stable WIFI connection
A HDMI monitor
A set of external keyboard and mouse

2.1. Install Ubuntu 22.04 to VIM4

Install the heatsink and the fan to VIM4 by following the manual provided in the heatsink package. VIM4 does not work without a heatsink.
Insert the SD card into a SD card reader.
Download the software from https://docs.khadas.com/products/sbc/vim4/install-os/install-os-into-external-storage, and download “ETCHER FOR WINDOWS (X86|X64) (INSTALLER)”.
Download the system image from https://dl.khadas.com/products/vim4/firmware/ubuntu/generic/. Choose “vim4-ubuntu-22.04-gnome-linux-5.15-fenix-1.6-231229.img.xz”.
Use the software “balenaEtcher” and the system image downloaded in Step2 to install ubuntu for VIM4.

2.2. Post Installation

First setup a new username with NATO-alphabets (for easy management lah...). Make it administrator to have sudo power.
Then, reboot, login with new user, and delete the khadas user. Run the following to change the username:
```
sudo passwd {username}
```
For convenience, you'd better install Firefox to your VIM4 because Google Chrome is not supported.

However, YOU MUST NOT USE "snap" to install Firefox since there might be a bug in arm-ubuntu22.04. Therefore, either install Firefox with traditional "apt-get" or do not use Firefox !!

Install docker in VIM4. Follow this page and it should get the task done. Remember to read everything when you are doing the installation, please do not just blindly copy every single command into your terminal.

Do the following to get your Docker image:

git clone https://github.com/HKPolyU-UAV/airo_docker_lib
./build_hehe.sh vimswift

After building the image, do:

./run_hehe.sh vimswift

Voila! You have an usable programming environment now! When modifying your code, we suggest you to use VScode on your own laptop and connect the drone with ssh. You can refer to this documentation for more info.

3. Firmware Setup

A computer w/ Ubuntu >=20.04
A Kakute FCU (v1.3 || v2)
A Type-C USB wire
A 4G SD card (if you are using Kakute v1.3)

3.1. Firmware Upgrade

Install DFU library on your own computer
```
sudo apt install dfu-util -y
```

Erase and load the binary file to the FCU.

git clone https://github.com/HKPolyU-UAV/Aoligei.git && cd Aoligei

Then, unplug your USB connection, press the DUF button, plug your FCU into your computer, and unpress the DFU button. Then, do:

dfu-util -a 0 --dfuse-address 0x08000000:force:mass-erase:leave -D ./build/holybro_kakuteh7_bootloader.bin 
# ignore the error
# use "holybro_kakuteh7v2_bootloader" if your are using v2

And then, unplug your USB connection, press the DUF button, plug your FCU into your computer, and unpress the DFU button. Now do:

dfu-util -a 0 --dfuse-address 0x08000000 -D ./build/holybro_kakuteh7_bootloader.bin
# again, use "holybro_kakuteh7v2_bootloader" if your are using v2

Load firmware to the FCU. Open QGC, and go to "Firmware" to upload .px4 to FCU. Note that you should tick on "advance settings", and then select "Custom firmware file..." under the drop-down options.

Click "OK", it should pop out a file selection panel. Go the "build" file of this repo, and select this (v1.3) or that (v2).
If you want to build from source on your own, refer to this

4. Pre-configuration of the FCU

4.1. Parameter settings

We assume you have at least finished the procedure "C" aforementioned. This part provides some pre-configurations of the FCU. Therefore, we assume you have

An assembled drone with a FCU, a VIM4, four motors, a battery. (If you still don't know how to install ubuntu22 or docker file into VIM4, never mind. It won't affect this step.)
QGC in Ubuntu. (Windows would be fine, but Ubuntu is preferred.)
A type-C cable.

NOTING: This drone is currently only used in a motion-capture-located in-door room. Out door flight is currently not supported.

You may need half a minute to connect the FCU with QGC. When the connection is stable, you can see a content on the left of GQC. Select "Parameters", and the following parameters need to be reset:

Parameter	Value	Comment
SYS_HAS_MAG	0	This FCU does not have a magnetometer
SYS_HAS_GPS	Disabled	This drone does not have a GPS
SYS_HAS_BARO	Disabled	This FCU does not have a barometer
SYS_MC_EST_GROUP	ekf2
SDLOG_MODE	disabled	Disable the log file to save CPU memory

Reboot the FCU with QGC, when the FCU is reloaded, set

Parameter	Value	Comment
EKF2_EV_CTRL	15
EKF2_HGT_REF	Vision
MAV_0_CONFIG	Disabled
MAV_1_CONFIG	TELEM1
SER_TEL1_BAUD	921600

Reboot the FCU with QGC, and this step is completed.

4.2. Quadrotor calibration

Then, we start to calibrate the quadrotor. Noting that different people have different styles. Therefore, you don't need to follow EVERYTHING. We assume you can connect the FCU with QGC.

4.2.1 Sensors

Calibrate Gyroscope, Accelerator, Level Horizon, and Orientations, respectively. The "Autopilot Orientation" is "ROTATION_NONE" (default.)

4.2.2. Radio

We need to connect the FASST receiver to the radio. Firstly, open the radio and switch it to FASST mode. Secondly, push the mode select button on the receiver and then power on the receiver. Now the light on the receiver is shinning and remains green. Then connection is finished. We use "Mode2" here, as shown bellow. (If you have your own style, follow you own style.)

Then, calibrate the radio as others do. Nothing special; therefore, detailed description is omitted here.

4.2.3. Flight mode setting

The following is the mode setting of our group. You can have your own style.

4.2.4. Power setup and ESC calibration

DO NOT INSTALL PROPELLERS!!

Connect the drone with the battery. Push the first "Calculate" in the following figure. Enter the measured voltage of the battery into the blank. Then, and write the series of your battery (3, 4, or 6) into "Number of Cells"

Then, calibrate the ESC. Click the button in the following figure. Just follow the instructions.

4.2.5. Calibrate Actuators

Firstly, you should see a screen like this.

See the right column, set the MAIN1-2 and MAIN3-4 to "DShot1200", and then press "Identify & Assign Motors".

Secondly, see the left column, the positions (X and Y) from Motor 1 to 4 are shown below.

Motor	Position X	Position Y	Direction CCW
Motor1	0.08	0.08	Yes
Motor2	-0.08	-0.08	Yes
Motor3	0.08	-0.08	No
Motor4	-0.08	0.08	No

Noting that the "0.08" here is especially designed for our own drone. You'd better use a ruler to measure the semi-major axis of your own drone. Then, the expected rotation direction of the four motors are shown in the QGC.

Finally, you need to reverse the rotation direction if some motors don't rotate as expected. Use the buttons "Set Spin Direction 1" and "Set Spin Direction 2" to correct them, which are shown below.

4.3 Post Calibration

Unplug your SD card, connect the SD card to your PC. Create a new folder "etc" to the SD card. create "extras.txt" in "etc" folder. Then, copy the following items into the txt file.

mavlink stream -d /dev/ttyS0 -s LOCAL_POSITION_NED -r 100
mavlink stream -d /dev/ttyS0 -s ATTITUDE_TARGET -r 100
mavlink stream -d /dev/ttyS0 -s BATTERY_STATUS -r 100

Congratulations! If everything goes well, you have finished pre-configurations of the drone.

Tips: Although we provide detailed calibration instruction here, many users (including ourselves) would meet many confused bugs while doing the step. That is because different people have totally different styles, use different hardware, have different QGC version, have different radios, et al. PLease feel free to ask the "Maintainers" shown below and share us your weired bugs. We might don't know how to fix your bugs, but we are curious about them. Thank you very much!

5. System Identification

@ https://github.com/RockyJBL

嗨嗨嗨，老铁们啊，我又来了啊。虽然不是同一时间，但是是同一教程。今天，由我教老铁们辨识这款无人机的参数。

Maintainers

Yefeng @ AIRO-LAB @ RCUAS, HKPolyU
RockyJBL @ AIRO-LAB @ RCUAS, HKPolyU
VITO @ AIRO-LAB @ RCUAS, HKPolyU
pattylo @ AIRO-LAB @ RCUAS, HKPolyU