Myo controlled Quadcopter (with Android device as relay)

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all,

My name is Victor and I've recently received my Myo development kit (an armband that measures orientation and muscle movements, and transmits that via bluetooth). I've watched a demo video using it to control a Parrot AR.Drone2.0 and would like to do something similar. However, the Parrot drone is quite expensive and too big for my use, and I want to see what I can do beyond the provided SDK:

So here is my project:

I'm looking into building a quadcopter that can be controlled by bluetooth (not wifi) coming from an Android phone, which receives the inputs from the Myo. The reason why an Android phone is used as a relay is because I want to do some processing with the inputs from the Myo, and use the phone as a backup controller in case they Myo is not available.

I was talking to a person who knows a lot about quadcopters but has been using the more conventional RF controller, and we agree that I'm essentially trying to replace the flight controller with an Arduino setup. Neither of us has experience in making a flight controller using Arduino so I decided to seek help here. There is one very detailed thread by @baselsw talking about his BlueCopter project:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=184503.0
and I'm trying to base mine on his.

This is the list of parts I think I'd need:

The quadcopter part (roughly costs $200)

1x MHQ2 3d printed frame, with all the nuts and bots
4x ESC's
1x power distribution board for supplying power to everything
4x Motors+propellers
1x Battery+charger

The flight controller part (hope to make it below $50)

1x Arduino Leonardo (http://www.dx.com/p/diy-eduino-leonardo-module-blue-black-213956)
1x sensor shield (http://www.dx.com/p/arduino-sensor-shield-v4-0-66849)
1x bluetooth module (http://www.dx.com/p/jy-mcu-arduino-bluetooth-wireless-serial-port-module-104299)
1x IMU module (GY-85 6DOF 9DOF IMU Sensor Module for Arduino - Free shipping - DealExtreme)

I haven't made any purchase yet but from what I've read these should all work together with the available code. If there is any incompatibility issues or missing parts or better options please feel free to let me know.

My bigger question is would this be a feasible setup? I'm trying to lower the cost and use the Parrot drone as a baseline of that.

I'd also be grateful if anyone can point me to more resources for this (code, guides).

Thanks a lot for your help!

-victor

2

This looks like quite the undertaking :slight_smile:

You may want to check out MultiWii's website for info on constructing a multicopter and for sketches/libraries.

As for lowering the cost of the drone... I doubt it. Maybe you could find a kit or something on ebay but a from-scratch build sounds expensive. Really expensive.
There are some multiwii kits that use an ATmega-based all-in-one board that you may want to look into.

As for Bluetooth an the Myo... Thalmic has very little information on developer usage w/ arduino (as of yet, from what I've seen). Hopefully, more documentation will be released. (Then again, Arduino and Bluetooth is something I'm still trying to figure out).

Hope this helps!

3

Thanks legowave440.

Yeah I eventually heard about MultiWii and there are some projects replacing the conventional RF control with Bluetooth. Apparently in the later versions of MultiWii there is an option of using the Bluetooth signal via the RCSerial setting. Given that a MultiWii board already has all those sensors built-in I'll go for that instead... and it's roughly $30.

There are indeed some "mini-copter" kits using the MultiWii but I'm looking for something more customizable (e.g., brushless motors, sturdier frame), and those "high-end" kits are usually more than $300. Plus I've already ordered some parts... perhaps later on when I'm more familiar with the MultiWii I'll get one of those little ones for fun.

I think to directly pair a Myo to Arduino might not be feasible as there has to be some Myo libraries interpreting the signals (hence the SDKs for varies platforms). A possible compromise might be to use a computer or mobile device as the relay.

-victor

4

Sounds good!

Maybe you could go from
Myo====>Computer (running Python program?)====>Quadcopter

Although it's probably best to get the quad flying first :slight_smile: