Predator Drone Project

[Chrono101]

Predator Drone Project
A Product of ChronoShift Industries

Background Information:

The Predator Mk.II Drone is latest UAV from ChronoShift Industries. The Predator is the culmination of several years of research into Anti-Gravity Technology, Plasma Thrusters, Adaptable Hunter-Killer AI, and Advanced Modular Weapon Systems (AMWS).

The Predator is an aerial-class attack drone. It can perform aerial attack, point defense, and hunter-seeker sweeps completely autonomously. Using the advanced Anti-Gravity Stabilization System, the drone can find and maintain any desired altitude easily and quickly. It can also maintain proper attitude and keep it self level at all times, ready to fire on a moment's notice. Once a proper attack altitude has been reached, the drone quickly aligns itself with its target and begins pursuit. It keeps a steady distance to the target, which varies depending on what weapons PODS (Portable Ordinance Delivery System) are used.

Construction

The overall design of the Drone involves several plates and an armoured Hull, with two stubs near the rear that house the PODS connections. It stays airborne thanks to 5 hoverballs and 3 GPS receivers. The GPS receivers, being in separate corners of the bot, help keep it level (since each hoverball group is controlled by its nearby GPS reciever). There are no fussy Rangers, nor is there any math involved in trying to calculate the height of a certain map.

Six thrusters (2 on the sides and 1 in the front in back) help the drone position itself and chase targets. It can move all directions, turn, and strafe.

The wing stubs will soon have ports for connecting the Weapons PODS to, which will use a standardized protocol, allowing for a myriad of weapons to be used.

The entire drone will be controlled by a set of 6 E2 chips (the current prototype uses 3), with each chip dedicated to a certain function of the bot. This provides some redundancy and removes a single point of failure for the bot.

Coding:

The entire bot runs by itself, as in it generally receives no input from a human operator (although it can be over-ridden by a ground controller). On boot-up, the drone hovers about 25 feet from the ground, waiting for orders. Once you press a key to tell it to go into attack mode, the drone heads for its attack altitude, and once there chases down the target to destroy. Once the target is gone, the drone can either hover at-altitude, waiting for hostiles, or it can return to standby, waiting for orders from the operator.

Predator Drone Field Test 1 Video
Predator Drone: Field Test 1

Eventually the drone will have advanced Threat Detection and Target Acquisition Features. It will be able to differentiate between friends and foes, and will be able to prioritize certain targetsover your average NPC.

Here's the code I've got so far for the three E2 chips (Propulsion, Targeting, and Control), feel free to critique it. I'm sure I'm going to need to optimize it later.

Control E2:

@name P-D Drone Control System (v.1)
@inputs Keypad0 Keypad1 Keypad2 Keypad3
@outputs State
@persist 
@trigger all

timer("control", 10)

if(clk("control")){
    #State0 is PowerOff
    if(Keypad0 == 1){
        Keypad1 = 0
        Keypad2 = 0
        Keypad3 = 0
        State = 0   
    }
    #State1 is Standby
    if(Keypad1 == 1){
        Keypad0 = 0
        Keypad2 = 0
        Keypad3 = 0
        State = 1   
    }
    #State2 is Hold
    if(Keypad2 == 1){
        Keypad0 = 0
        Keypad1 = 0
        Keypad3 = 0
        State = 2   
    }
    #State3 is Search and Destroy
    if(Keypad3 == 1){
        Keypad0 = 0
        Keypad1 = 0
        Keypad2 = 0
        State = 3   
    }
    
}

Targeting E2:

@name P-D Drone Targeting Subsystem (v.1)
@inputs BS1Dist BS1Bear BS1Elev
@outputs TargetDist TargetBear TargetElev
@persist 
@trigger all

#This subsystem will eventually be able to intelligently identify targets
#Right now it just passes the data along from the target finder and beacon sensor,
#and simply outputs it to the propulsion subsystem for manuevering

#Start
timer("control",10)

if(clk("control")){TargetDist=BS1Dist, TargetBear=BS1Bear, TargetElev=BS1Elev}

Propulsion E2:

@name P-D Drone Propulsion Subsystem (v.3)
@inputs GPSZRL GPSZRR GPSZF TargetDist TargetBear TargetElev State
@outputs HovRL HovRR HovF HovMode FLThrust FRThrust RLThrust RRThrust RearThrust FrontThrust GroundDist 
@persist 
@trigger all

# This is the propulsion subsystem for the Predator drone
# It controls the drone's altitude and attitude (orientation)
# It also aligns itself with and chases the target (passed from targeting subsystem)

#Declare Constants, Start Timers
timer("control",10)
AltConst = 700 #Altitude Constant: this changes per map, currently set to gm_construct
Fudge = 5 #Fudge Factor: this is our fudge number, it allows for some error in altitude/attitude
EngageDist = 750 #Engagement Distance: this is how close we want the drone to get to its target
ThrustMult = 10 #Thrust Multiplier: this is how much to multiply positional thrusters by
#Start the control timer
if(clk("control")){
    #PowerOff State
    if(State == 0){
        HovMode = 0
        FRThrust = 0
        FLThrust = 0
        RLThrust = 0
        RRThrust = 0 
        RearThrust = 0 
        FrontThrust = 0
    }
    #Standby State
    if(State == 1){
        AltConst = 25
        HovMode = 1
        #rear left Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRL < AltConst - Fudge){HovRL = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRL > AltConst + Fudge){HovRL = -1}
        else{HovRL = 0}
        #rear right Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRR < AltConst - Fudge){HovRR = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRR > AltConst + Fudge){HovRR = -1}
        else{HovRR = 0}
        #front Hoverballs
        if(GPSZF < AltConst - Fudge){HovF = 1}
        elseif(GPSZF > AltConst + Fudge){HovF = -1}
        else{HovF = 0}
    }
    #Hold State
    if(State == 2){
        AltConst = 750
        HovMode = 1
        #rear left Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRL < AltConst - Fudge){HovRL = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRL > AltConst + Fudge){HovRL = -1}
        else{HovRL = 0}
        #rear right Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRR < AltConst - Fudge){HovRR = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRR > AltConst + Fudge){HovRR = -1}
        else{HovRR = 0}
        #front Hoverballs
        if(GPSZF < AltConst - Fudge){HovF = 1}
        elseif(GPSZF > AltConst + Fudge){HovF = -1}
        else{HovF = 0}
    }
    #Search and Destroy State
    if(State == 3){
        HovMode = 1
        #begin altitude/attitude control
        #rear left Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRL < AltConst - Fudge){HovRL = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRL > AltConst + Fudge){HovRL = -1}
        else{HovRL = 0}
        #rear right Hoverballs
        if(GPSZRR < AltConst - Fudge){HovRR = 1}
        elseif(GPSZRR > AltConst + Fudge){HovRR = -1}
        else{HovRR = 0}
        #front Hoverballs
        if(GPSZF < AltConst - Fudge){HovF = 1}
        elseif(GPSZF > AltConst + Fudge){HovF = -1}
        else{HovF = 0}
        #begin target tracking & chasing
        #only begin once we reach altitude
        if(HovF == 0 & HovRL == 0 & HovRR == 0){
            #align drone with target
            # 0 to -180 is left side, 0 to 180 is right side
            if(TargetBear < 0 - Fudge){
                FRThrust = ThrustMult
                FLThrust = -ThrustMult
                RLThrust = ThrustMult
                RRThrust = -ThrustMult
            }
            elseif(TargetBear > 0 + Fudge){
                FRThrust = -ThrustMult
                FLThrust = ThrustMult
                RLThrust = -ThrustMult
                RRThrust = ThrustMult
            }
            #if we are lined up we don't want to move
            else{
                FRThrust = 0
                FLThrust = 0
                RLThrust = 0
                RRThrust = 0
            }
            #calculate ground distance to target, yea trigeometry!
            GroundDist = sin(TargetElev) * TargetDist
            if(GroundDist > EngageDist + 35 ){
                RearThrust = ThrustMult 
                FrontThrust = 0
            }
            elseif(GroundDist < EngageDist - 35 & GroundDist != 0){
                FrontThrust = ThrustMult * (1/2)
                RearThrust = 0
            }
            #if we are close enough we don't want to move
            else{
            RearThrust = 0  
            FrontThrust = 0
                }
        
        }
        #if we are not at altitude we don't want to engage positional thrusters
        else{
            FRThrust = 0
            FLThrust = 0
            RLThrust = 0
            RRThrust = 0 
            RearThrust = 0 
            FrontThrust = 0
        }
    
    
    }
}

I'll be posting more as I progress on this project, and hopefully we will get to see some drone-on-drone combat soon.

[Paper Clip]

I have no idea why this thread hasn't been commented on yet!

The modern drones, especially the Predator with missiles are amazing. Really awesome project! I think the Predators are more like a plane than a hovercraft though, no?

And you need to add two fireable missiles for the predator.

I really like how you used the old-school thrusters

Maybe add a control seat as well, as a real predator would have.

[Whodunnit]

im not a fan of hoverballs.

[DolToX]

It looks more like a prototype than a real drone. And I do not talk about the appearance of the drone.
You use the hover balls, without a drone without hover balls moves and reacts in a much more realistic.

Your drone is very slow and does not react as a combat drone. A drone fighter must be small, move quickly and follow a target with greater fluidity and precision.

If this is your first drone, I understand that this is not very easy to do.

[mjmr89]

Good start so far. But as people said, to be more realistic (and lose the easysauce), try replacing the hoverballs with an applyForce system or, if you would prefer a bit more oldschool, use thrusters to keep it up and stable.

Also, I'd work on tuning your bearing thrusters, there is considerable wobble there. Look into a PD system (PID without the Integral part) for both bearing and pitch/roll for stabilization.

Now lets hope this doesn't get deleted...

[Chrono101]

Yeah, you guys are pretty much right on all points there. Although I've done work with robotics and other embedded systems before, this is my first time trying something like this in Gmod, and this is the first week I've tried the Wiremod. The model in the videos is actually the second prototype (the first was a flying shipping container!), but the 4th revision. I'm on the 7th revision right now, and I've been working on fine tuning the maneuvering thrusters.

I didn't really want to put a PID loop in the main propulsion, since it doesn't have to be *that* precise. Instead I added a "Fudge" factor into there, so the drone has an acceptable amount of room to "fudge the numbers".

As for it being slow, it's because I am trying to fine-tune the system as a whole (that and Hunters don't go all that fast). It can go much, much faster just by changing the ThrustMult variable. It changes all instances in the code, and the drone responds as such.

I will probably replace the hoverballs with thrusters or vector-thrusters eventually, which would also allow the drone to flip itself back over (which it can't do right now) if it ever gets stuck on its back.

This drone takes a lot of inspiration from the real-life MQ-9 Reaper, which doesn't really move all that fast (it's a propeller-driven drone). The Reaper relies more on the precision and speed of its munitions to engage and destroy targets.

[ame=http://www.xfire.com/video/1107e8/]Predator Test: Following Me[/ame]

Here's a vid showing that the drone can track and follow faster targets pretty well, and I got a few more videos on my profile (sorry if they're kinda loud).

[Syranide]

Nice work with separating the different "modules" into separate E2s rather than the usual all-in-one approach

[Lyinginbedmon]

Well with the new ops features even Cronus will need more than one chip (I've been messing around with a few things on that note)

Judging from the poweroff sequence it's probably going to need either a partially-nocollided chassis or a continual application of hovering force to keep the chassis from spazzing out.

[MacerXGP]

First, eeew, hoverballs. Second, it's really quite slow.

You may also want to fine-tune it's chassis, as it is looking a bit shabby.

A good drone will orbit an area at considerable distance until told to attack, when it either speeds into the area and engages, or fires a standoff weapon.

An autoturret mounted somewhere would help your drone quite a bit.

[Lyinginbedmon]

A good drone will orbit an area at considerable distance until told to attack, when it either speeds into the area and engages, or fires a standoff weapon.

An autoturret mounted somewhere would help your drone quite a bit.

Perhaps an armament along the lines of the Starcraft battlecruiser unit, a bunch of small to moderate arms spread around the hull and a big central gun.