[Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
I'm tempted to commit my autopilot changes to cvs. Here's what I have done so far. - I've implimented Roy's suggested PID algorithm. Compared to what we had, this algorithm is better behaved, is much more configurable, and much more tunable. It can be made to do a much better job of easing into large control inputs rather than slamming the controls full stop. It handles the integrator windup problem. And also impliments the D portion of the PID which we never had before. For what it's worth the new algorithm works on the change in error from the previous frame rather than the absolute error. - I have completely overhauled the autopilot config mechanism. The autopilot and it's various modes are now configured via an xml data file. There is a global generic one that all aircraft will inherit, but this can be easily overridden with an aircraft specific AP config in the aircraft-set.xml file. This has had a cascading effect on a lot of files (gui, input, controls, hud, etc.) that made reference to the HUD. - newauto.cxx and newauto.hxx are now axed. I will probably let them exist (but not be compiled) for a while in case there are any nuggets left in there that we still want to extract. - I've rewritten the autopilot config dialog box to match my new updates. - Here are the various modes that are currently implimented: Heading modes: - wing leveler - heading bug hold - true heading hold (the route manager manipulates the true heading) - Nav1 CDI hold Pitch/Altitude modes: - Pitch hold - AOA hold - Altitude hold - AGL hold (i.e. crude terrain following) - Nav1 GS hold Velocity modes: - Speed hold (by manipulating throttle) - Speed hold (by manipulating pitch) - You can tweak the autopilot config/gains on the fly via a roundabout mechanism. Open up the property browser and find the /autopilot/new-config/ tree. Find the particular PID controller you want to manipulate and make changes. Then select Reconfig Autopilot at the bottom of the Autopilot menu. Right now the autopilot config sliders don't work. What I haven't done. - I need to write up some documentation on the new PID algorithm, the meaning of the input parameters, and some basic strategies for tweaking the gains. - I haven't set up (or ported) any specific autopilot configurations for existing aircraft, other than the C172. - XML instruments that reference/control the autopilot will need to be updated. - I haven't addressed issues of FCS systems. That would be an interesting follow up of this project. We would probably need to put an abstraction layer in between the control inputs and the control surface output. For simple aircraft like the cub, these could be directly mapped, but for complex aircraft like an airbus, we could put a FCS in between. So if I do a commit now, there might be some temporary breakage and a slightly different subset of functionality, but I think this will be a good stepping stone from which we can then move forward towards addressing the remaining issues. Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? Thanks, Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
RE: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? Thanks, Curt. Does this make it any easier to bypass the FlightGear autopilot (and perhaps soon-to-exist) FCS system, so the FDM could provide this functionality, if desired - perhaps by simply not including an autopilot/FCS file or definition through your new method? This is very important to the JSBSim guys, to have that capability. Jon ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Jon Berndt wrote: Does this make it any easier to bypass the FlightGear autopilot (and perhaps soon-to-exist) FCS system, so the FDM could provide this functionality, if desired - perhaps by simply not including an autopilot/FCS file or definition through your new method? This is very important to the JSBSim guys, to have that capability. Not defining an autopilot for a particular aircraft (or defining a null autopilot) is trivial to do. If the autopilot is defined within JSBSim, how will it be manipulated from FlightGear (as far as activating/deactivating the different modules or adjusting the reference/target points.) What about things like route following (gps) or Nav CDI/GS holds? How does that get communicated to JSBSim? Regards, Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
RE: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
If the autopilot is defined within JSBSim, how will it be manipulated from FlightGear (as far as activating/deactivating the different modules or adjusting the reference/target points.) What about things like route following (gps) or Nav CDI/GS holds? How does that get communicated to JSBSim? Yes this is where it gets complicated. There are modes that are obviously relevant to mere flight dynamics, such as attitude hold, heading select, wings level, terrain following, etc. -- and even these use *sensor* inputs as opposed to actual FDM aircraft state data. The other modes that are tied more firmly to instrument/navigation/ILS etc. are of no interest to JSBSim. So, the answer might be to allow a split. Unless I am mistaken, it seems that ought not to be impossible. This question arises for several reasons, one of which is that I might want to model non-standard craft (I'll leave it at that for the moment). I want to control it in a specified way without worry that the flight will be affected in ways that I am unaware of -- that is, I'd like complete control (and *know* that I have complete control). Jon ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Jon Berndt wrote: Yes this is where it gets complicated. There are modes that are obviously relevant to mere flight dynamics, such as attitude hold, heading select, wings level, terrain following, etc. -- and even these use *sensor* inputs as opposed to actual FDM aircraft state data. The other modes that are tied more firmly to instrument/navigation/ILS etc. are of no interest to JSBSim. So, the answer might be to allow a split. Unless I am mistaken, it seems that ought not to be impossible. I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't be straightforward and doable. This question arises for several reasons, one of which is that I might want to model non-standard craft (I'll leave it at that for the moment). I want to control it in a specified way without worry that the flight will be affected in ways that I am unaware of -- that is, I'd like complete control (and *know* that I have complete control). I think it would be totally up to the aircraft designer how they want to impliment the FG autopilot vs the JSBSim autopilot or some mix of the two. The FG side is completely reconfigurable on a per-aircraft basis. Regards, Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
David Culp wrote: Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? It looks great, and I think the sooner it gets commited the better, so we'll have plenty of time to work with it before 0.9.4. I already have a wish list :) mach hold, and vertical speed hold. Ok, it's been at least an hour and no one has objected. :-) I will try to follow up with some documentation this weekend still. Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? It looks great, and I think the sooner it gets commited the better, so we'll have plenty of time to work with it before 0.9.4. I already have a wish list :) mach hold, and vertical speed hold. Dave -- David Culp davidculp2[at]comcast.net ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
RE: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Curtis L. Olson writes: Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 2:40 PM To: FlightGear developers discussions Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update. Curtis L. Olson Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 1:32 PM To: FlightGear developers discussions Subject: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update. Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? Ok, it's been at least an hour and no one has objected. :-) Hmm... 1 hour 08 minutes on a weekend Was any discussion really wanted :-) Cheers Norman ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Norman Vine wrote: Hmm... 1 hour 08 minutes on a weekend Was any discussion really wanted :-) Being a volunteer and doing this on weekends and evenings, I've got to move quickly when I do get the chance. I've been working hard on this and trying to factor in comments and suggestions made over the last week or two. I was just giving people a last chance speak now or forever hold your peace. :-) Regards, Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Curtis L. Olson [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Ok, it's been at least an hour and no one has objected. :-) Ah! Oh! Should've been checking my email! ;-) I will try to follow up with some documentation this weekend still. Even very rudimentary unedited notes would help. Thinking about trying to get the 747 running again in the next day or so. If you got anything at all please forward or post to the list. Thanks, Jim ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
On Saturday 31 January 2004 20:00, Curtis L. Olson wrote: Norman Vine wrote: Hmm... 1 hour 08 minutes on a weekend Was any discussion really wanted :-) Being a volunteer and doing this on weekends and evenings, I've got to move quickly when I do get the chance. I've been working hard on this and trying to factor in comments and suggestions made over the last week or two. I was just giving people a last chance speak now or forever hold your peace. :-) Regards, Curt. Aye, go for it :) LeeE ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Curtis L. Olson wrote: David Culp wrote: Comments? Any objections to committing my updates? It looks great, and I think the sooner it gets commited the better, so we'll have plenty of time to work with it before 0.9.4. I already have a wish list :) mach hold, and vertical speed hold. Ok, it's been at least an hour and no one has objected. :-) I will try to follow up with some documentation this weekend still. Small glitch at run time : route = 0D7673D8 Failed to load autopilot configuration: fgfsbase/Aircraft/Generic/generic-autopilot.xml CVS Updated and no generic-autopilot.xml -Fred ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update.
Frederic Bouvier wrote: Small glitch at run time : route = 0D7673D8 Failed to load autopilot configuration: fgfsbase/Aircraft/Generic/generic-autopilot.xml CVS Updated and no generic-autopilot.xml Gaahhh! I swear I added that file. Ok, it's there now. Sorry about that. Curt. -- Curtis Olson Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
[Flightgear-devel] Autopilot update
Hi Curt, Wanted to make sure I was familiar with all the functions in the autopilot code before making a lot of changes. So to that end I did some work on the gui interface to the waypoint stuff and checked out the waypoint following to make sure it is still working. Description of changes: These changes add to the Add Waypoint dialog so that you can see the entire list in the pui dialog that you are adding to. Also made some minor changes so that the autopilot is now activated (toward first waypoint target heading) when a waypoint is added. Tar file of changed modules (current with CVS as of 03-03-2002 13:18): http://www.spiderbark.com/fgfs/autogui-20020303.tar.gz Best, Jim ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
