Reese

Look ma, no hands!

June 26, 2015

Now that the EA-DDDAS framework has been put through the paces, we're planning two days of flight testing that allow the system operate fully autonomously. This means that the high-level planner and trajectory optimization layer will be left to their own devices to communicate, generate energy-aware trajectories, and send seamlessly...

radar planner

Successful System Test!

June 23, 2015

We've flown a full system test with data flow originating from the dual-doppler radar synthesis, feeding the energy-aware path planner resulting in plans sent accordingly to the PixHawk autopilot on-board the Tempest aircraft. Several different radar and atmospheric planner configurations were tested today to see how the aircraft performance varied...

Tempest landing

End of Week 1

June 21, 2015

Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been very busy here in Lubbock. We've run into a bunch of unforseen challenges along the way, but it wouldn't be an engineering field deployment if everything went perfectly the first time! Since our first week of the deployment has come to...

Radar connectivity testing

Deployment Update

June 17, 2015

The EA-DDDAS systems are being tested and steadily coming online. We successfully received Ka-doppler data, advanced the wind field through an online forecast system, and recorded the wind field to a MongoDB system operating in the field. This database is accessed in real-time by the trajectory optimization layer as well...

FAA grants RECUV COA for Texas and Oklahoma panhandles for severe weather research

May 28, 2015

RECUV has received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to start flying the Tempest UAS over parts of Texas and Oklahoma this spring in the heart of Tornado Alley to conduct weather research. The new “southern COA” complements the 48,000-square-mile “northern COA” previously granted by the FAA that covers portions...

MAVlink 1.0 Waypoint Protocol

MAVLink Protocol: Waypoints

May 25, 2015

During the EA-DDDAS deployment this summer we'll be flying a Tempest with a PixHawk autopilot on-board. The PixHawk uses the well-known MAVLink protocol released by Lorenz Meier over at ETH Zürich. The protocol was designed to be language and (mostly) hardware agnostic which is great for portability but this means...

A stitched two-segment guidance trajectory in Google Earth

Introducing the Trajectory Optimization Layer

May 14, 2015

The Trajectory Optimization Layer (TOL) is a middleware component of the EA-DDDAS aircraft control system. It resides below the extended time-horizon path planner and above the aircraft path following controller. It's primary responsibility is generating energy-aware optimal flight trajectories in real-time using measured data of the wind environment. By harnessing...

Skywalker

Welcome to RECUV Field Notes

April 10, 2015

This is where we will be providing the latest news and updates on our EA-DDDAS field deployments this June in Lubbock, TX. Check back closer to June for news!