F-14 Foamie with auto stabilization

Description

One of my lecturers showed me a model airplane he build from scratch using nothing but styrofoam, duct tape, hot glue, a bit of wood and some R/C stuff.

I also wanted to build something like that but place also a bit more of electronics inside.
So I decided to go for an F-14 ;) The plans on how to cut those planes can be found online.
The first step was to read in the PWM signals from the R/C receiver which turned out to be more difficult than expected as they overlap. I implemented an delta mix for the Elevons. I used 2x1-Axis accelerometers to implement some auto stabilization as I had never have flown an model airplane before ;) I had a lot of problems with vibrations which appeared as massive noise at the output of the accelerometers but I was able to filter that out using a Lowpass filter.

This project is the first step towards a bit more complex UAV and the intention was to gather knowledge about how to build up a (very unstable) plane and how to fly it.

First flight

POV

stabilization:

LEDs (very important!)

Delta Mix (later done by the Sender itself)

Discussions

Camel wrote 09/23/2014 at 03:39

Is there any gain scheduling for the P controller? If not, it's really worth looking into. The control surfaces require smaller inputs are higher airspeeds, so making the gain inversely proportional to airspeed or 3D speed if you don't have a pitot ( speed_3d = sqrt(ground_speed^2 + vert_speed^2) ) really helps with stability. I've only just implemented this into my flight controller and it makes a HUGE difference.

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Thomas wrote 11/02/2014 at 13:34

No there is no such thing, just P. The point is that I do not measure airspeed so this is just a small help as I am a total noob in RC flying. For me it was kind of a proof of concept if I make it fly or not :D

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JP wrote 09/11/2014 at 23:11

Or maybe you should consider doing a F22 with thrust vectoring. :)

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James wrote 09/04/2014 at 00:37

Love it!! I used to be an F-14 Avionics tech in the Navy. I love all things Tomcat. Just seeing that shape in the air brings me joy... Good stuff!

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Adam Fabio wrote 07/03/2014 at 05:49

Awesome! The F-14 was designed just about a mile from where I live, and I work with many former Grummanites - so that plane is special for me. (It doesn't hurt that it's a great plane too!) Can you upload or link your plans and electronics information? This looks like it would be a great project to build!

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Thomas wrote 07/03/2014 at 16:42

hi!
check http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=769451 for the plans.
About the electronics. For me it was a challenge to build my own deltamix etc. If you are new to this I would suggest just to use an ordinary R/C system which includes this functionality. If you want also to do it on your own then let me know, I can give you the source codes (don't except high quality code :p)

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Adam Fabio wrote 07/23/2014 at 05:38

I definitely would be interested in that code - and don't worry, if it works for you, it's worth posting.

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PointyOintment wrote 07/01/2014 at 01:18

*F-14 (It just annoys me when people omit the hyphen)

Cool project, though. I'm interested to see how the UAV part of it goes, and the stabilization too.

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Thomas wrote 07/01/2014 at 09:45

I changed it to F-14 ;)

stabilization was quite easy in a first approach. I simply implemented a P-controller which was taking desired position (from R/C) minus actual position, multiply by some factor and give it to the delta mix. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8IlIoOpW4Q

The next step would be to measure the behaviour and come up with a PID controller but as I have crashed the plane a few month ago I'm currently too lazy to try that ;)

I think that I will start another project for the UAV story, something bigger. Maybe even a zeppelin or something more static to gain knowledge about radio and UAV stuff. Then in the third iteration I can combine this knowledge and build the real thing ;) But this might need some time.

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F-14 Foamie with auto stabilization

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F-14 Foamie with auto stabilization

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