Ground Control Station (GCS) Update

We've been getting a lot of interest in our Wing GCS, the Ground Control Station for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones), so I thought it was time for an update.

The system was launched at Skytech back in April 2015 and and we're now getting ready for Skytech 2016 on 27th and 28th January at the Business Design Centre in London. 

The latest build, shown in the photograph below, was for a customer in Crete.

The Latest Wing GCS

Every Ground Control Station is custom built, and we develop and refine the design each time we build one. Most of the changes have been internal: improving the aluminium frame, strengthening the screen supports, and modifying the laptop mount. The more noticeable changes included a better keyboard, twin aerial mounts and a larger capacity battery. There were also some customer-specific requests such as fitting the Piksi Real Time Kinematics (RTK) device from  Swift Navigation for centimetre level accuracy.

If you can make to Skytech, please drop by. It would be great to meet new people at the event and to see some of the people who have helped us to get the Wing GCS to this point.

ROV Control

ROV control typically involves the manipulation of one or two joysticks and range of other input systems. The Wing's joystick functions naturally lend themselves to control of the thrusters in the same way as a standard joystick. 

Some people have concerns over the unfamiliar mouse-like form, but in practice it feels just as intuitive to use as a standard joystick.

Pitch Control

Roll Control

Yaw Control

The Z-height can be used as a rate adjustment to temporarily increase the sensitivity of the thruster speed for finer control.

Things get particularly interesting with the mouse movements. Controlling an ROV with a mouse is not something you see very often and the advantages might not be immediately apparent.

Human-machine input often works best when the type of input matches the type of response required: A foot pedal works well for controlling a car speed where the further you press the pedal, the faster the car goes. A joystick however is not very good for cursor control as you have to move the joystick to accelerate the cursor and then wait for it to get to you target.

The manipulator arm arguably is more similar to the second of these categories You want the arm to move to a point in space, the speed at which it get there is less of a concern.

There are some systems available that use what is essentially a miniature version of the manipulator arm and this directly translates to the arm position. It's just what is needed in a lot of situations but can be tiring to use for long periods and is expensive.

An alternative approach is to map the manipulator arm to track a target defined by the Wing's mouse cursor. All the operator needs to do is to move the cursor to the target location while the arm's control system adjusts the arm until there is a position match. This is just in two dimensions of course, but the scroll wheel provides control of the reach.

Wing cursor target control for ROV manipulator arm

Wing for Sale

We've now got the web shop live. They are built-to-order so delivery is quoted at 4-weeks but we can probably get one out to you faster if you need us to.

Tasty

Staff development

Attracting and retaining the best possible employees is critical to the success of any company and Worthington Sharpe is no different. Here are some photographs of our two newest recruits busy at work.

This is Fergus, listening carefully to instructions on his first
day at work.

Dougal, on the left is in charge of quality control. Anything
that does not meet the strict requirements is knocked to the floor.
Meanwhile Fergus is busy organising the tools and equipment in
a manner befitting an operating theatre. "Tidy desk, tidy mind"
as you'll often hear him muttering to himself.

We offer flexible working but do expect our staff to work

overtime if required. To make the long hours easier to endure

we provide comfortable (if somewhat cramped) sleeping quarters.

The slightly terrified expressions that you see here have nothing

at all to do with the working conditions at Worthington Sharpe.

Minimal Input for Maximum Output

Sometimes people are initially surprised that with today's touch screens, gesture recognition and virtual reality, we have developed something that is, well, a bit like a mouse. However, despite it's rather humble nature, the computer mouse is extremely well suited to fast, accurate input and all-day use.

It reminds me of an quote from the game developer John Romero that I read in a gamesindustry.biz article some time ago and that I think goes far beyond just gaming:

Really the best optimal design for games is minimal input for maximum output - that's the way that games work best. When you watch people playing with a mouse and keyboard, you see them barely moving their fingers and hands but on screen you see crazy movement and all kinds of stuff.

Perhaps his predictions about virtual reality might not turn out to be totally accurate, but I certainly follow his way of thinking with the "minimal input for maximum output".

The Wing with CAD software

We've finally managed to get the Wing working with 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs.

It has been tested in PTC Creo 2 , Creo 3, and Autodesk Inventor, and it should work with most 3D design software applications.

When I've got few spare minutes I'll get some demo videos uploaded.

Wing Ground Control Station Launch at Skytech 2015

We unveiled the Wing GCS in London last week at the Skytech exhibition. While we were pretty sure we were onto something, the reaction from the UAV industry left us in no doubt.

We had the demonstration unit on display running the Heli-X simulator so people could see how well the Wing performed for flying a multi-rotor UAV.

Here are a few photographs from the event:

Janet jumping out from behind the banner

Flying a quadcopter in Heli-X using the Wing GCS

The Wing GCS ready for use

The Wing GCS in use

Sam explaining the details

And here are the posters we had on display:

Poster 1

Poster 2

Poster 3

Poster 4

Ground Control Station (GCS)

You can leave the protein pills and helmet to Major Tom, we're sticking with Ground Control.

Despite all the advances in Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over the last few years, the control hasn't changed a great deal. Large aircraft such as the Reaper are controlled by pilots sitting in full-size cockpit mock-ups. Meanwhile smaller aircraft seem to be falling into two camps: either they are still controlled by the twin-sticks that we have seen with model aircraft for years; or they are following the obsession over the smart phone.

We think another approach is needed where the pilot or operator can both plan and edit a mission and manually control the aircraft or camera. We've been busy designing an Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Ground Control Station (GCS) around the Wing to meet this need.

UAV control was a major impetus behind the development of the Wing right from the start and now that we've finished the design, we've had a chance to work on the rest of the system. Essentially, what we're trying to do is to integrate the mission planning, flight control, and data analysis into a single unit. It's a work in progress and so far looks like this:

We wanted something for people who want to focus on the job rather than piloting the aircraft. We took the Wing and added a docked-laptop, keyboard, sunlight-readable screen, second joystick and two-way telemetry system. This means everything necessary is in one integrated system, so that you can arrive on site, plan the mission, manually fly the aircraft if required, adjust the camera and analyze the data as it comes in.

I'll leave this post where I started it. - Back to Bowie.