JetsonHacks

Developing on NVIDIA® Jetson™ for AI on the Edge

DJI Matrice Part 4 – Guidance Attachment

The DJI Matrice 100 is a quadcopter for developers. The drone allows developers to customize the flight platform using the DJI SDK. Today we attach the Guidance visual sensing system to the airframe. Looky here:

Background

The DJI Guidance is a visual sensing system which consists of 5 sensor modules and a CPU to integrate the information from the sensors. Each sensor contains an ultrasonic distance sensor, as well as two cameras which provide both imagery and depth information. By integrating the sensor information, the Guidance system information can be sent to the DJI N1 Flight Controller in order to avoid obstacles and obstructions in the path of the Matrice.

Four of the five sensors are used to sense objects around the aircraft on the left side, right side, in front of the aircraft, and to the rear of the aircraft. The fifth sensor points downward, and is used to calculate the distance to the ground as well as provide some mapping functions.

The Guidance vision positioning system can be used to provide positioning information, and is effective at altitudes up to 65 feet (20 meters). Guidance is fully compatible with the DJI SDK and supports multiple interfaces for easy data export.

Supported data output includes:

  • Velocity Data
  • Obstacle Distance Data
  • IMU Data
  • Ultrasonic Data
  • Grey Scale Images
  • Depth Image

Installation Instructions

For the preceding video, two different videos provided by DJI were used for reference:

Matrice 100 Tutorials – Installation Demonstration

DJI Guidance Tutorial – Installing the Guidance System

Issues

In the JetsonHacks video, there was an issue installing the GPS system. There is a mast that is to mount the GPS sensor and antenna to the Matrice. Unfortunately the mast did not appear to provide a solid connection to its frame mounting bracket, something that the DJI Installation video did not address. While the mast mounting bracket was installed on the Matrice, some type of adhesive will be needed to attach the mast to the bracket linkage. Once the mast is secured, then double sided tape will be used to attach the GPS system to the mast.

Marching Forward

There are several remaining tasks on the hardware front. First, the GPS installation must be resolved. Second, the DJI Manifold must be added to the expansion bay that was mounted on the top of the frame. Currently one of the parts that is on order is a Zenmuse X3 camera and gimbal. Once the camera arrives, it too will need to be mounted on the Matrice.

Guidance Attachment to Matrice
Guidance Attachment to Matrice
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