Sam Hessenauer

Ryan Kral
Corbin Adelman

Project Charter
Project Overview
Thisprojecthelpstofurtherdevelopanewmethodforecologistsandbiologiststofindradio
collartrackersonanimalsitwasinitiallystartedbyEngineersforExploration.Wewillmake
modificationstotheGlobalPositioningSatellite(GPS)toincreaseitsaccuracyfrom
metergradeprecisiondowntocentimetergrade.Thisgivesbiologistsandecologistsbetter
animallocationmeasurementsforresearch.

Project Approach
InordertoincreasetheGPSprecisionofthesystem,wewillintegrateaRealTimeKinetic
(RTK)GPSmoduledevelopedbySwiftNavigation.RTKGPSrequiresanadditionalbase
stationforfunctionality,butresultsinhigheraccuracyandconsistency.Ourteamwillintegrate
theRTKGPShardwareintotheexistingquadcopter,makesoftwaremodificationstoensure
compatibility,andthenevaluatetheperformanceimprovementsbetweentheRTKGPSand
theexistingGPS.OurteammembersareCorbinAdelman,RyanKral,andSamHessenauer.
Forclasspapers,eachteammemberwillwriteseparatesectionsinitially,thenwewillreview
andeditthepapersasagroup.FortheRTKGPSwork,wewillmostcommonlyworktogether
insteponvariousmilestones.However,eachofushavedifferentspecialtiesandwillbe
assignedtodifferenttasksontheflyasweencounterproblems.

Milestones

DueDate

Responsible
People

GetuptospeedwiththePiksiRTKGPShardware.

4/21/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

GettheRTKGPSworkinginthefieldwithlaptops.

5/5/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Integratehardware/softwarewiththequadcopter.

5/19/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

EvaluateperformancebetweenGPSandRTKGPS.

5/26/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Documentresults.

6/2/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Note:Atthisstageinplanning,allmilestonesmustbecompletedinorderandcannot
effectivelybeparallelized.Thus,allteammembersareresponsibleforallmilestones.

Constraints, Risks, and Feasibility

IntegratingtheRTKGPSmoduleintotheradiocollartrackerprojectwillprovideinstant
improvementstothesystemoverall.However,thefollowingmainrisksmustbemanaged:
AccesstohardwareforboththeRTKGPSmoduleandthequadcopterdependon
helpfromEngineersforExplorationandschedulecompatibility
WeplantomodifyGPScodewhichalreadyexiststhereisariskthatthiscodeis
poorlywrittenorchallengingtocomprehend
Toavoidtheseissues,weplantoschedulemeetingtimesfarinadvance,andwillbeflexible
onbothweekdaysandweekends.Wewillalsogainaccesstothehardwareandsoftwareas
soonaspossiblesothattimemaybespentovercomingchallengingcodeorhardwareissues.

Group Management

Amajorroleinourgroupsmanagementisourabilitytospreadtheworkaccordingtoeachof
ourspecialties,andthechecksandbalancessystemthatwewillhavetomakesureeachof
usisputtinginadequateamountofworkandeffort.OurprojectmanagerisEricLo,butdueto
hisbusyschedulewewillbeworkingwithlowsupervision.Majordecisionsthatrequirelarge
partsoftheprojectwillbeansweredbyourprojectmanager,EricLo.Meanwhile,wewill
cometoareasonableconsensusforotherdecisions.
Ourmainformsofcommunicationtakeplacethroughagroupchat,googledrivefolder,email,
andaweeklymeetingbeforeclassontuesdays.Weplantohaveaweeklyevaluationto
contrastourefficiencyandprogressionpredictions.Dependingontheteammembers
schedules,someworkmaybeallocatedtodifferentteammembersuponavailability.
Weholdourselvesresponsibleforthedeliverablesandmilestones,inwhichweactateamin
thelevelofprofessionalismandeffortbeingbroughttothetable.Meanwhile,wewillalternate
weeksforthegroupstatusreportunderacommontemplate.

Project Development
Therearethreemaindevelopmentroles.ThefirstisaHardwareDevelopmentrole.Theyare
inchargeofmakingsurePiksiRTKGPSHardwareisinstalledandrunningcorrectlyand
providingaccuratedata.ThesecondistheSoftwareIntegrationrole.Theyareinchargeof
makingsurethedatacanbeadaptedandusedintothepreexistingsoftwareandmakingany
changesnecessarytodoso.Iftimepermits,aneasytouseUIwouldbethenext
responsibilityforthisrole.ThethirdistheEvaluationDevelopmentRole.Theyareincharge
oftesting,reporting,andcomparingoldGPSandthenewRTKGPS.Eachofuswillbeactive
inallthreerolesaswealldesiretolearneachpartandeachroleisdependentonthe
outcomeofthepriortobesuccessful.WewillneedaccesstotheBeagleboneblack,RTK
GPS,thequadcopter,andthesoftwarerepositoryfortheexistingGPScodingsowecan
createadapterclassesforthenewsoftware.Testingwillbeinitiallybedoneoncampusfields
andwewillwalkaroundwiththeRTKGPSandtestwithdesiredoutcomesandseeifour
resultsmatchintwodimension.Afterinitialtestingpasses,quadcopterintegrationwillbe
doneandwewilldosimilartestingwiththehelpofEric(whowillflythecopter).Eachofuswill
documentaswego,handwrittenoronacomputer,butalldocumentationwilleventuallybe
typedupforofficialrecordkeepingandeasiertracking.

Project Schedule
High Level Milestones

# Priority MilestoneDescription
1(low)
5(high)/
Class

DueDate

Responsible
People

Class

ProjectSpecificationDue

4/16/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Class

ProjectWebpageDue

4/21/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

1 5

ReadDocumentationandgetuptospeed
withthePiksiRTKGPShardware.

4/21/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

MilestoneReportDue

5/5/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

2 4

DemonstratethattheRTKGPShardware
workswithtwolaptopsinthefield.

5/5/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

MilestoneReportDue

5/19/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

3 5

IntegratetheRTKGPSinwiththeradiocollar 5/19/2015
trackerhardware/software.

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

4 4

Evaluatecomparativeperformancebetween
theexistingautopilotGPSandtheRTKGPS.

5/26/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

5 3

Documentourresults.

6/2/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Class

ProjectVideoViewing

6/8/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Class

FinalReportDue

6/11/2015

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

6 2

InvestigatelowcostRTKGPShardware.

Stretch
Goal

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

7 2

ComparethePiksihardwarewiththelowcost Stretch
solution.
Goal

Corbin,Ryan,Sam

Class

Class

Low Level Weekly Milestones

1.0(completeby4/21)ReadDocumentationandgetuptospeedwiththePiksiRTK
GPShardware.
Readtheuserguidesfromhere:
http://docs.swiftnav.com/wiki/Main_Page

WatchBeagleboneBlackandRTKGPSvideos
Gainaccesstoexistingcoderepository
2.0(completeby5/5)DemonstratethattheRTKGPShardwareworkswithtwo
laptopsinthefield.
MeetwithErictocollectPiksihardware
IdentifycommunicationtypetousefromPiksitobasestationandrover
(UART/USB)
ConnectPiksitotwoseparatelaptopsandcollectstationarydata
Collectdatawithonestationaryandonemovinglaptop
3.0(completeby5/19)IntegratetheRTKGPSinwiththeradiocollartracker
hardware/software.
ConnectthePiksihardwaretotheBeagleboneBlackratherthanaroverlaptop
CopyandmodifyexistingGPSsoftware
FullyintegrateRTKGPSinhardwareandsoftware
4.0(completeby5/26)Evaluatecomparativeperformancebetweentheexisting
autopilotGPSandtheRTKGPS.
CollecttestdatafromthecollartrackerusingoldGPS
CollecttestdatafromthecollartrackerusingRTKGPS
Compareandcontrasttheresultsusinggraphingscriptsandtools
5.0(completeby6/2)Documentourresults.
Updateourspecification
Migratecomparisondatatoafinalreport
6.0(timepermitting)InvestigatelowcostRTKGPShardware.
ReadaboutuBloxM8keepingcostandintegrationeaseinmind
SearchforadditionalRTKGPShardwareoptions
Purchasehardwareifitiscosteffective
7.0(timepermitting)ComparethePiksihardwarewiththelowcostsolutions.
Performaccuracytestingandcompareaccuracies,costs,andintegrationtimes