12 Things You Should Know About UVS

Quanser's unmanned technology got a lot of attention this summer. Delegates at the ASEE Annual Conference, ACC 2010 and AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference had an opportunity to experience the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Lab and fly Quanser's Qball-X4, an unmanned aerial vehicle. Students and professors asked our engineers many great questions about applications, sensors, cameras and batteries. We captured the technical questions and summarized answers for you.

What is the payload of the Qball-X4? The Qball-X4 can carry up to a maximum of 400 g, but since more weight reduces flight time, we recommend payloads of 300 g or less. This is an important consideration when adding sensors to the Qball.

What kind of sensors come on the Qball-X4? The main sensors on the Qball-X4 are:

• 3-axis gyroscope
• 3-axis accelerometer
• 3-axis magnetometer
• Pressure sensor

These on-board sensors are used to primarily stabilize the vehicle. In addition, they can be used for obstacle avoidance missions.

What are the OptiTrack™ cameras for? The OptiTrack cameras are for tracking the position (XYZ) of the vehicles (multiple vehicles if desired) in the lab workspace. They function as indoor GPS but with much higher sampling rates (up to 100 fps) and much higher accuracy (on the order of 1 cm or less). The cameras are not strictly necessary to fly the Qball-X4, but are an integral component of the lab. These cameras are important for performing autonomous missions as they provide the position feedback (XYZ) that is not measurable by the Qball-X4’s on-board sensors directly.

Can I mount the OptiTrack cameras on the Qball-X4 or another vehicle? The cameras must be mounted in fixed positions in your lab space and calibrated. They should not be placed on the Qball-X4 or Qbot vehicles.

Can I use different cameras? Since the system is modular, it is easy to swap out the OptiTrack cameras for another localization system provided the new system is interfaceable to Simulink®. Quanser’s technology also supports VICON cameras.

What kind of batteries are used on the Qball-X4? How long can the Qball-X4 fly? We use two LiPo (Lithium Polymer) batteries on each Qball-X4, which allows up to 15 minutes of continuous flight. The full battery recharge for the next flight takes app. 45-60 min. Each Qball-X4 is supplied with a spare set of batteries and a recharger.

Can the UVS Lab be used to run multiple vehicles simultaneously and how do they communicate? Yes, the UVS Lab is designed to run multi-vehicle missions simultaneously. Since each vehicle is equipped with its own embedded Gumstix® and HiQ DAQ, multiple vehicles can be deployed using WiFi. Due to the nature of Simulink, a controller (Simulink model) can only be run on one target (Qball-X4) at any given time. Thus, to run multiple vehicles, multiple Simulink models have to be created and each model needs to be targeted to a specific vehicle. The on-board Gumstix computer is equipped with WiFi 802.11g and the QUARC software included with the UVS Lab allows to communicate wirelessly (TCP/IP or UDP) between vehicles.

Can I add my own sensors to the Qball-X4? What kind of I/O is available on the Qball-X4? The Qball-X4 DAQ, the HiQ, was designed with additional I/O ports so that other sensors can be easily integrated into the system. Some of the I/O available on the HiQ for use with other sensors are:

• 6 analog inputs
• 11 reconfigurable digital I/O
• 2 general purpose TTL serial ports

The pins are found on the HiQ daughterboard. Once a sensor is connected, these inputs can be read in Simulink using the QUARC HIL blocksets and Stream API. The main consideration for adding additional sensors is whether they:

• meet payload requirements
• meet the particular I/O voltage and current requirements.

Can I add a camera to the Qball-X4? Is the Qball-X4 capable of performing image processing? The on-board computer is a 600 mHz Gumstix Verdex with 128 MB of RAM. The computer is designed for low weight, low power consumption and small form factor. It does not have the processing capability to perform significant image processing (greater than 10 fps). The recommended solution for image processing is to use a wireless camera that can stream video to a more powerful ground station computer, which can process the video and stream back the results to the controller (i.e. Gumstix) over WiFi.

Can the on-board Gumstix be replaced with a more powerful embedded computer? The HiQ is designed to interface specifically with the Gumstix Verdex computer and the UVS Lab software QUARC supports only this model of Gumstix. As embedded computer technology evolves, it is likely this lab will support more powerful embedded computers.

Is the Qball-X4 an off-the-shelf helicopter or is it made by Quanser? The Qball-X4 is a helicopter designed and manufactured by Quanser. The HiQ, a high-end DAQ is also designed by Quanser and customized for UVS research.

How much does the UVS Lab cost? Can I buy just the Qball-X4 or do I need to purchase the entire setup? For pricing, please contact our Academic Solutions Advisors at info@quanser.com. You have an option to purchase Qball-X4 or Qbot (unmanned ground vehicle) separately or as a turn-key lab. You can also purchase multiple unmanned vehicles for your lab.

For details on the UVS Lab components, please refer to the Product Information Sheet.

For a UVS Lab demonstration, please contact Sunny Ray at sunny.ray@quanser.com

Career Day Reveals Surprising Teen Perspectives on Science

Canadian teens do not think of science as 'cool'. According to Angus Reid Vision Critical survey, only one in three Canadian teens aged 16 - 18 is interested in taking a science course at the post-secondary level. Although teens perceive people working in science-related professions as intelligent and serious, only 4% would describe them as 'cool'.

To change this impression and show kids the exciting side of science - and engineering - we work closely with Let's Talk Science, the Canadian charitable organization focused on bringing science programs to schools.

On Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010, my colleague Patrick and I attended the Annual Career Day in St. Augustine Catholic High School to help grade 10 students find the right path for them early in their high school studies. We talked about what engineers do and how their work impacts products people use: from food and clothes to iPods and phones. As an example of an engineering project, we demonstrated Quanser's Rotary Inverted Pendulum and explained real-life applications of the experiment. What was the most fascinating part? Students' reaction and expression when the pendulum balanced itself! :-)

Students asked about their course selections and their career goals. Interestingly enough, there was a noticeable number of high school students looking to pursue an engineering education... So maybe they will see our Inverted Pendulum again, in the engineering lab at their college or university.

Patrick Barnard, R&D Engineer at Quanser captivates a group of high school students as he demonstrates the principles of the Rotary Inverted Pendulum.

Unmanned Systems Technology Captivated Educators at ASEE's Global Colloquium

Is the new generation of engineers trained to solve grand challenges and advance innovation? As both a supplier to the academic community and employer of newly minted engineers, Quanser demonstrated at the ASEE Global Colloquium in Singapore how cutting-edge, industry-relevant technology can influence engineering education and help nurture students into highly intuitive engineers.

The workshop titled "Innovative Tools for Preparing Effective Global Engineers" attracted many conference delegates. They had a unique opportunity to experience a live demo of Quanser's Unmanned Vehicle Systems Lab - an example of innovative technology already being utilized by Concordia University, Canada; Louisiana Tech University, USA and University of Regina, Canada.

The delegates also had a chance to win an iPad. The lucky winner is Mr. Yeo Chor Lee from the Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. Congratulations!

Cameron Fulford, one of Quanser's Engineering Managers explains the benefits of this indoor Unmanned Vehicle Systems Lab that he helped to develop.

The Qball, Quanser's unmanned aerial vehicle was demonstrated in flight at the workshop. Delegates could take a closer look at the device on display at Quanser's table.

A Rapid Control Prototyping Laboratory for UVS presented at Unmanned Systems Canada Conference

On November 2 - 5, 2010 Unmanned Systems Canada will be holding its 8th internationally renowned Annual Conference in Montreal, Quebec, to present Canadian and international innovations in the field of unmanned vehicle systems (UVS) technologies.

Unmanned Vehicle Systems are growing in popularity across a broad spectrum of applications including military, search and rescue, environmental, and others. Likewise, UVS research is growing and there is an increasing demand for hardware platforms on which to test UVS algorithms and controllers. At the Unmanned Systems Canada Conference, a Quanser engineer will present a paper on the fully-integrated, indoor UVS laboratory. In his paper, titled "A Rapid Control Prototyping Laboratory for UVS", Cameron Fulford, Manager for Systems & Control will explain how this extensible and flexible research platform can be used for a variety of UVS research topics including collaborative control, flight dynamics and control, fault detection and redundancy management, vehicle guidance and navigation, formation control, obstacle avoidance, autonomous and supervisory control, and sensor filtering and fusion. Cameron will also present a complete hardware and software description of the UVS laboratory, along with experimental results of fully autonomous UAV and UGV experiments.

The UVS lab consists of one or more unmanned vehicles including open-architecture quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), a camera-based localization system, a ground station PC, and real-time control software integrated with MATLAB™ Simulink. Each unmanned vehicle contains a small-scale embedded computer with wireless communications and data acquisition board (DAQ) capable of hosting autonomous control algorithms. All vehicle controllers are designed using MATLAB™ Simulink on the ground station PC, which are then downloaded wirelessly and executed remotely on-board the vehicles once launched. Users can monitor and record sensor/vehicle feedback and update controller commands and parameters on-the-fly via the ground station.

Join us on Friday, November 5, 2010 at 11 AM at Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel and Convention Centre in Montreal, Canada. Please contact us at info@quanser.com for more details.

New Peripherals to Power your Plants and Deliver Reliable Results

No matter what plant you use for teaching and research, control peripherals are important components that effect funcion and performance of the whole workstation. Quanser designed and developed a wide range of such components - power amplifiers and data acquisition boards - that allow you to easily interface between your physical plant and the control software to achieve desired results.

Quanser's Data Acquisition Solutions
Based on requirements of your system, you can select between PCI, PCI Express or USB technology:
QPID and QPIDe are versitile and powerful PCI /PCI Express boards ideal for rapid control prototyping. With a wide range of inputs and outputs you can easily connect and control a variety of devices instrumented with analog and digital sensors, using one board. Ultra-low I/O conversion times and simultaneous sampling of each I/O type make these boards suitable for complex control configurations used for research and teaching advanced control concepts with devices such as Quanser's HD^2 high definition haptic device or 3 DOF Gyroscope. QPID and QPIDe are supported by the Quanser HIL SDK, which provides API for C, C++, ActiveX, .NET, LabVIEW and MATLAB.

Q2-USB and Q8-USB represent Quanser's ground-breaking USB data acquisition technology, offering portable and affordable solution for real-time measurement and control. The wide range of inputs and outputs allows to connect and controla number of devices instrumented with analog and digital sensors, using one board. deterministic, close-loop control rates up to 2kHZ make Q2- and Q8-USB ideal solutions for teaching control concepts with systems such as Quanser's modular rotary workstation. Q2-USB and Q8-USB are supported by the Quanser HIL SDK, which provides API for C, C++, ActiveX, .NET, LabVIEW and MATLAB.

Quanser's Amplifiers
The new generation of Quanser's universal power modules - VoltPAQ line - is designed to achieve high performance with Hardware-In-The-Loop implementations. VoltPAQ linear voltage-controlled amplifiers come in 3 variations with either 1, 2 or 4 outputs and therefeore are suitable for experiments with one degeree of freedom, such as rotary Self-Erecting Inverted Pendulum; 2 degrees of freedom, such as 2 DOF Rotary Gantry or multiple degrees of freedom, such as 3 DOF Hover. All three VoltPAQ variations are compact and lightweight, saving space in your lab.

The AMPAQ amplifiers are designed for systems where precise current control is essential for the performance of the system. These high resolution linear current amplifiers eliminate dead-band and reduce noise issues common in PWM amplifiers. AMPAQs are available as models with 2 or 4 analog outputs and are ideal for complex control configurations, for teaching and research in areas such as haptics.

To create more dependable real-time platform, combine Quanser's data acquisition solutions and amplifiers with QUARC control software to drive Quanser's system or other motors and actuators. Contact us at info@quanser.com for more details and to discuss your needs.

ASEE Acknowledges Quanser's Long-time Commitment to Engineering Education

For over two decades Quanser has been passionately committed to developing of systems for advanced control education and research. Our core business is focused on engineering lab tools to help captivate students and develop better, more creative engineers. Our passion for engineering education extends to activities beyond our core business: from workshops and presentations to K-12 students to judging and sponsoring engineering competitions such as FIRST Robotics and Student Seismic Design Competition.

Naturally, we felt honored when the American Society for Engineering Education acknowledged our commitment to engineering education by adding Quanser to the list of credible ASEE's Premier Corporate Partners. Other ASEE partners include large multi-national organizations, such as Autodesk, Dassault Systems, HP, IBM, Lockheed Martin, The MathWorks, NCEES and National Instruments. We are flattered to join ASEE and these organizations to continue to make a difference in engineering education.

Thanks to the partnership ASEE, we are able to leverage events such as ASEE Annual Conference and Global Colloquium on Engineering Education to meet with you, engineering educators, students, professionals and other enthusiasts to learn about your needs and challenges you face in your work. The discussions and exchange of ideas help us stay on top of the latest developments in engineering so that we can create efficient and engaging tools for your lab.