For the last few years we have been developing the worthingtonsharpe.com 3D computer input device and one of the applications we are keen to explore is robotics control.
You can see from the attached photograph that the device looks a bit like a computer mouse. However, the upper part pitches, rolls, and moves vertically, and there is yaw control through the bar slung underneath. This offer 4-axis joystick features for manual control. The lower part contains a high-end mouse sensor to allow precision pointer control.
We expect to have a small batch ready for field trials in the next few months, and are looking for people to loan the device in order to test it with their UAV system. If you think you can help then I’d love to hear from you.
There are more details on the Worthington Sharpe website (worthingtonsharpe.com), and a Youtube animation (youtube.com/watch?v=2j-6cAzrrso) explaining the features.
Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you need further details.
This seems like a great opportunity for someone who is into controllers to try something new.
I have just sent you a message via your contact page. 
Recently we have seen, explore and face many issues related to controlling system. It will be a worth trying this.
Thanks for your interest.
We’ve got the latest mechanical parts for the prototype put together and are getting the latest revision of the PCBs made. The last version was nearly spot-on so, once we’ve the next prototype put together we can hopefully follow up straight away with manufacture of the field-trials batch.
Cheers,
Sam
Give us update when you can, this look like a nice controller.
We’ve compiled a short video showing the Wing prototype along with a few seconds footage of it being used to fly a quadcopter UAV throught the DJI ground control software. youtube.com/watch?v=N9sCseUxrL0
We’ve now got most of the parts back for the batch of trial units and will start to assemble them soon. We can’t wait to get them out to people to see what they think.
Nice…
What have you use for proper control between the NAZA and the Controller ?
Thanks Eric,
It was all pretty straightforward - The Wing controller plugs into the laptop USB port and Windows thinks it has a standard mouse and 4-axis joystick. We can then interface directly with the DJI Ground Station which picks up the joystick input. The ground station software then sends the joystick input through the DJI 2.4GHz datalinkto the NAZA. There was bit of lag (seemingly due to the datalink bandwidth) when directly controlling the aircraft, but I’ve read that a better transmitter would sort that out). We had a backup transmitter on hand in case we lost the laptop.
The autopilots are getting so good that manual piloting isn’t really needed in a lot of applications. The next step is for us to get a camera and gimbal on the aircraft so we can just point and click to fly around the map and use the joystick functions to point the camera. I’m not sure whether to stick with DJI for this or move over to an Arducopter in order to allow more customisation.
Sam
We’re supposed to be collecting a quadcopter next week. We had planned to get a small RTF aircraft but ended up going for a 16" rotor quadcopter. In the meantime, we have been testing with the Heli-X5 simulator. Here is a video.
At the same time we have been looking at options for manipulator arms. I think we could map the position of the end effector to a target controlled by the Wing’s mouse function that is visible on the camera screen. The Wing’s joystick functions would simultaneously allow the orientation of the end effector to be adjusted. This combination of absolute and relative control should offer a great deal of potential.
The trouble is, we don’t have a robotic arm and while we would love to get one and start experimenting we are struggling with resources, particularly when we have already got the UAV to mess about with.
Could anyone help us with the robotics side of things? We could loan you a Wing to work with.
Cheers,
Sam
