World Leader in Professional UAV Autopilots
AUVSI's XPONENTIAL 2018 has come to a close. This show is certainly the most important UAV and drone trade show of the year. All others are at best a distant second place and at worst not even worth walking. There were 670 exhibitors at this year's show, which is almost identical to the past two …
Flex is your enemy. It's important that your drone's airframe is rigid. The motors on a drone are very powerful with very fast response times. An airframe that isn't stiff enough will allow its arms to flex, which in turn changes the orientation of the motors. This makes control more difficult and it will increase …
It’s a little under one week before the start of AUVSI's Xponential trade show. The booth is in two crates somewhere between here and Denver, the hotels and flights were booked long ago; and now we're just trying to fill the last slots in our meeting schedules. Before we know it, we'll be landing in …
Too often, we see UAV and Drone manufacturers that, when the time comes to test their product, assume that because they’ve done a bunch of flying everything is fine. Unfortunately, there are many assumptions built into how a drone manufacturer operates their drones that their customers may not share. Their customers often won’t operate their …
The term DGPS is misused quite a bit in the UAV industry. DGPS, which stands for differential GPS, refers to any system that provides corrections to a GPS receiver based on a second GPS receiver at a known location. The GPS receiver providing the corrections is called the “reference station” and the GPS receiver using …
There is an odd museum just off the autobahn between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Normally, museums have a curated feel about them; this one feels more like a bunch of stuff. There's a Stuka dive bomber sitting next to a giant pipe organ. There is this bizarre frankencar named Brutus, created by dropping a massive 46-liter …
The Singapore International Airshow, or SIA, has just come to a close. SIA is held every other year and is the main airshow in Asia, similar to the Paris and Farnborough airshows. It consists of a large static display area where you will see a wide variety of aircraft, both military and civilian, on display; …
Watch the temperature. All sensors sense what you want plus temperature. This means you should be careful to avoid any sudden change in temperature. While your autopilot will adjust for changes in temperature, accuracy will decrease while the temperature is changing. For example, if you have air vents that allow increased air flow as the …
Your compass is junk. Well, maybe not complete junk, but it is one of the most delicate sensors on your drone and is prone to interference. It is important to keep compasses away from any potential interfering magnetic fields. Cables carrying large currents and motors are prime sources of magnetic fields. Also, be careful about …
A door to door salesperson dropped by MicroPilot the other day. This a very rare event at MicroPilot, and not just because the drop-in sales business is dead. It's also because at MicroPilot, we want to be able to fly outside our building, so we are in the middle of nowhere - or at least …
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