A question about the Optical Flow Smart Camera

Lynxmotion UAVs / Drones
1

Hi,

For an unmanned aerial vehicle project at Oklahoma State University, we need an optical flow sensor that can give us optical flow estimates at high frequency with rotation and elevation variation compensated. Your optical flow sensor look very similar to what we need except for the sonar system that can only measures the altitude up to 15 feet. Since our UAV flies at higher altitudes, is there any chance we can buy a modified version of this sensor which works with higher altitudes? By the way, can we have this sensor working with a beaglebone rather than PX4?

Thanks.

2

Hi daslab2014,

Welcome to the RobotShop forum.

The PX4FLOW is made by 3DRobotics for their PX4 (PixHawk) flight controller.
There might be ways to change the sonar to another MaxBotix unit but we cannot really know.

Here is what’s on board:

The PX4FLOW board itself is using 3 different connection, two of them are UART and another look to be i2c.
Of course, a USB as well for the board to be programmed (I suspect).

They also claim that the board is not supported yet by Ardupilot firmware.

Here are more information about it:

We do not have another board like that, it might be a good option for you.
Usually Sonar are used at low altitude.

Let us know, we always like to see projects …!

3

Thanks for your response. Since our issue is to replace the sonar system (which works only up to an altitude of 5 m) with another altitude measuring device and we don’t know how, is there any reference you might know that can help us?

4

There are not really higher range ultrasonic sensors out there.
You can get more range but will never be able to use such sensor for high altitude.
We’ll be releasing a new sensor (RB-Led-XX) within the coming weeks which can measure up to 20m, though these have not been tested with UAVs specifically.
Usually the use of a Barometer (pressure sensor) is more common in altitude measurement.