First USV Test - Jack Pender, Blog #5



Introduction:

On the 18th of March we held our first field test at Killurin Bridge in Wexford. We met there at 10 am, with a plan of finishing up at 2 pm, giving us plenty of time to test each aspect of the project we have been working on. It was great to see the USV on the water for the first time, and it helped to visualise it in the setting that its use is intended for.

Testing:

The main tests for this first field test were to trial the driving functionality; Manual Drive, Microbit Drive and Cloud Drive. Using the controller, the drive of the USV was successful and it was great to finally see its speed and mobility on the water. With the Manual Drive, controlled by Patryck, going according to plan, this allowed us to test the Microbit Drive, which would be controlled by Adam. Using two Microbits to control the direction and thruster power, Adam completed a successful drive of the USV. This was great to see as it meant that the control of the USV could be friendly to everyone, rather than having to use a somewhat complex controller.



As the first two drive test had been successful it was decided to attempt a Cloud Drive. This was to be done using a Microbit and Ubidots, controlled by Erinn and Kevin. Unfortunately, this test wasn’t successful, but it is still early days for this part of the project. The suspected issue is that the USV was out of the transmission range for the Microbit. This is a problem that can be looked into for the next field test.

Drone Flight:

My part in this field test was to have an initial flight of the Tello drone and get more to grips with handling it should Manual Flight be necessary in future field tests. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in this, and the drone proved very difficult to handle. However, the reason for this is a simple one. While the Tello is a good and inexpensive way to get into the world of drones, this poses its own issue. The stabilisation functionality of the Tello is quite basic, in order to cut costs, one would imagine. It uses the ground below to stabilise itself, picking out a specific unique point to hover over. This is where the issue arises. While hovering over a piece of land that is the same colour, in my case the concrete that I was standing one, or the water of the river, the Tello can become confused, unable to pick out a spot that it can hover over. Over water it can be worse, as even if it does pick out a spot, this spot will move as the water flows. A solution to this may be to have the drone stabilise over the person in danger in the water, but that also provides the issue of how it stabilises without anyone in the water. This is something that can be looked into for future iterations.

Not a photo of the actual drone

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