AirbrakesV2 🚀

Overview

This project is for controlling our Air brakes system with the goal of making our rocket "hit" its target apogee. We have a Raspberry Pi 4 as the brains of our system which runs our code. It connects to a servo motor to control the extension of our air brakes and an IMU (basically an altimeter, accelerometer, and gyroscope). The code follows the finite state machine design pattern, using the AirbrakesContext to manage interactions between the states, hardware, logging, and data processing.

AirBrakes.mp4

A video of our air brakes extending and retracting

Design

As per the finite state machine design pattern, we have a context class which links everything together. Every loop, the context:

Gets data from the IMU
Processes the data in the Data Processor (calculates speed, averages, maximums, etc.)
Updates the current state with the processed data
Controls the servo extension based on the current state's instructions (e.g., extends air brakes to slow down the rocket)
Logs all data from the IMU, Data Processor, Servo, and States

System Architecture Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'dark'}}%%
flowchart TD

    %% Define styles for different shapes
    classDef circular fill:#44007e,stroke:#fff,stroke-width:2px,rx:50%,ry:50%;  %% Ovals for classes
    classDef bubble fill:#164b6c,stroke:#fff,stroke-width:2px,rx:10px,ry:10px; %% Bubbles for methods
    classDef outputSquare fill:#044728,stroke:#fff,stroke-width:2px; %% Squares for outputs
    classDef textStyle fill:none,color:#fff,font-weight:bold,font-size:16px; %% Text style for bold white text
    classDef mainColor fill:#ac6600,stroke:#fff,stroke-width:2px,rx:50%,ry:50%; %% Color for main.py

    %% Main structure with main.py at the top
    subgraph mainFlow[Main Flow]
      direction TB
      mainpy((main.py)):::mainColor --> Airbrakes((Airbrakes Context)):::circular
     
    end
    Airbrakes --> Update[update]:::bubble
    %% IMU Data Packet Flow
    IMUDataPacket --> Update
    
    %% States as individual nodes
    State((State)):::circular
    CoastState((Coast)):::circular
    Standbystate((Standby)):::circular
    FreefallState((Freefall)):::circular
    LandedState((Landed)):::circular
    MotorBurnState((Motor Burn)):::circular

    %% Connections between States and Airbrakes
    State((State)):::circular --> Airbrakes:::circular
    State --> Update
    
    CoastState((Coast)):::circular --> State
    Standbystate((Standby)):::circular --> State
    FreefallState((Freefall)):::circular --> State
    LandedState((Landed)):::circular --> State
    MotorBurnState((Motor Burn)):::circular --> State
    
    %% Connections with Labels
    Airbrakes ---|Child Process| Logger((Logger)):::circular
    Airbrakes ---|Child Process| IMU((IMU)):::circular
    IMU((IMU)):::circular ---|Fetch Packets| IMUDataPacket[(IMU Data Packet)]:::outputSquare

    %% IMU Data Processing
    IMUDataPacket --> IMUDataProcessor[IMU Data Processor]:::circular
    %%IMUDataProcessor --> ProcessedData[(Processed Data Packet)]:::outputSquare
    IMUDataProcessor --> Speed[(Speed)]:::outputSquare
    IMUDataProcessor --> Altitude[(Altitude)]:::outputSquare
    
    Speed -->  ProcessedData[(Processed Data Packet)]:::outputSquare
    Altitude -->  ProcessedData[(Processed Data Packet)]:::outputSquare
    
     ProcessedData[(Processed Data Packet)]:::outputSquare --> Update

    %% Logging Mechanism
    Logger --> LogFunction[log]:::bubble
    Update --> LogData[(Logged Data Packet)]:::outputSquare
    LogData --> LogFunction

    %% Airbrake Control Methods with Parentheses Displayed
    Update --> ExtendAirbrakes[extend_airbrakes]:::bubble
    Update --> RetractAirbrakes[retract_airbrakes]:::bubble

    %% Servo Connections
    RetractAirbrakes --> Servo((Servo)):::circular 
    ExtendAirbrakes --> Servo
    Airbrakes --> Servo

Type	Color	Examples
Entry point	`#ac6600`	Main.py
Classes	`#44007e`	Airbrakes Context, State, Logger, IMU, IMU Data Processor, Servo, Coast, Standby, Freefall, Landed, Motor Burn
Methods	`#164b6c`	update(), log(), extend_airbrakes(), retract_airbrakes()
Outputs	`#044728`	IMU Data Packet, Processed Data Packet, Logged Data Packet

Launch Data

This is our interest launch flight data, altitude over time. The different colors of the line are different states the rocket goes through:

Stand By - when the rocket is on the rail on the ground
Motor Burn - when the motor is burning and the rocket is accelerating
Coast - when the motor has burned out and the rocket is coasting, this is when air brakes will be deployed
Free Fall - when the rocket is falling back to the ground after apogee, this is when the air brakes will be retracted
Landed - when the rocket has landed on the ground

File Structure

We have put great effort into keeping the file structure of this project organized and concise. Try to be intentional on where you place new files or directories.

AirbrakesV2/
├── airbrakes/
|   ├── hardware/
│   │   ├── [files related to the connection of the pi with hardware ...]
|   ├── mock/
│   │   ├── [files related to the connection of mock (or simulated) hardware ...]
|   ├── data_handling/
│   │   ├── [files related to the processing of data ...]
│   ├── [files which control the airbrakes at a high level ...]
├── tests/  [used for testing all the code]
│   ├── ...
├── logs/  [log files made by the logger]
│   ├── ...
├── scripts/  [small files to test individual components like the servo]
│   ├── ...
├── main.py [main file used to run on the rocket]
├── constants.py [file for constants used in the project]
├── pyproject.toml [configuration file for the project]
├── README.md

Local Setup

This project uses Python 3.12. Using an older version may not work since we use newer language features

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/NCSU-High-Powered-Rocketry-Club/AirbrakesV2.git
cd AirbrakesV2

Set up a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv

# For Linux
source .venv/bin/activate
# For Windows
.\.venv\Scripts\activate

Install the required dependencies:

pip install .[dev]

There are libraries that only fully work when running on the Pi (gpiozero, mscl), so if you're having trouble importing them locally, program the best you can and test your changes on the pi.

Local Usage

Running Mock Launches

Testing our code can be difficult, so we've developed a way to run mock launches based on previous flight data--the rocket pretends, in real-time, that it's flying through a previous launch.

To run a mock launch, make sure to first specify the path to the CSV file for the previous launch's data in constants.py and then run:

python3 main.py m

Running Tests

Our CI pipeline uses pytest to run tests. You can run the tests locally to ensure that your changes are working as expected.

To run the tests, run this command from the project root directory:

pytest

If you make a change to the code, please make sure to update or add the necessary tests.

Running the Linter

Our CI also tries to maintain code quality by running a linter. We use Ruff.

To run the linter, and fix any issues it finds, run:

ruff check . --fix --unsafe-fixes

To format the code, run:

ruff format .

Pi Usage

Connecting to the Pi (SSH)

In order to connect to the Pi, you need first to set up a mobile hotspot with the name HPRC, password tacholycos, and 2.4 GHz band. Next, turn on the Pi and it will automatically connect to your hotspot. Once it's connected, find the Pi's IP Address, and in your terminal run:

ssh pi@[IP.ADDRESS]
# Its password is raspberry
cd AirbrakesV2/

Install and start the pigpio daemon on the Raspberry Pi:

Every time the pi boots up, you must run this in order for the servo to work. We have already added this command to run on startup, but you may want to confirm that it is running, e.g. by using htop.

sudo pigpiod

Running Test Scripts

During development, you may want to run individual scripts to test components. For example, to test the servo, run:

# Make sure you are in the root directory,
python3 -m scripts.run_servo

Running Mock Launches

If you want to connect to the servo so you can see the air brakes extension in realtime, run

python3 main.py m rs

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. You are free to copy, distribute, and modify the software, provided that the original license notice is included in all copies or substantial portions of the software. See LICENSE for more.