How do drone mild exhibits handle to place 1000’s of drones flying within the air with out them crashing into one another? How do robotic garden mowers stay so exact, working in their very own garden mowing lanes? It’s seemingly attributable to a robust expertise referred to as RTK — and the parents over at Drone Dojo have a brand new RTK course that might assist put you forward of the curve.
Drone Dojo, which is essentially thought-about the main on-line useful resource for DIY drone fans, simply launched a brand new course on RTK GPS. The course, titled “Inches-level Precision with RTK GPS,” will educate you tips on how to improve your drones (and different autonomous autos) and outfit them with RTK GPS expertise for centimeter-level accuracy whereas in flight.
What’s RTK GPS?
RTK GPS, or Actual-Time Kinematic GPS, is a expertise that makes use of two or extra GPS receivers to exactly decide the situation of an object. This makes it ultimate for purposes corresponding to precision agriculture, surveying, and search and rescue.
Drones are more and more getting used for these and different purposes, however their accuracy is proscribed by the accuracy of their GPS receivers. RTK GPS can considerably enhance the accuracy of drones, making them extra helpful for a wider vary of purposes.
For instance, RTK GPS can be utilized to create correct maps of agricultural fields, which may help farmers to optimize their crop yields. It can be used to survey development websites, making certain that they’re constructed to the right specs. And it may be used to seek for lacking individuals or objects, offering rescuers with a extra correct location to look.
However whereas it’s a lot better for exact positioning, it may be a little bit advanced to arrange on DIY drones.
If you happen to’re shopping for a ready-to-fly drone, then it’s costly. For instance, the DJI Phantom 4 RTK prices greater than 4x the unique Phantom 4. And DJI continues to roll out even newer, extra superior RTK drone, such because the DJI Matrice 350 RTK.
Whether or not you’re contemplating shopping for an costly, enterprise drone with RTK, otherwise you need to arrange your individual present drone with RTK, this course is crucial to higher understanding it.
What to know concerning the Drone Dojo RTK GPS course
The Drone Dojo RTK GPS course is taught by Caleb Berquist, a DIY drone professional and the founding father of Drone Dojo, which is an internet drone coaching web site that gives programs in a spread of matters together with “How one can construct a Raspberry Pi drone,” “How one can program a drone utilizing Python,” and a deep-dive, capstone-type course on “Precision Touchdown and Drone Supply.”
The Drone Dojo RTK GPS course covers the fundamentals of RTK GPS, in addition to the steps concerned in upgrading a drone to RTK. College students will learn to choose the best {hardware}, set up the software program, and configure the settings. The course contains a variety of hands-on workouts that can show you how to learn to improve your drone to RTK GPS.
And all of it extremely sensible. Whereas there’s some idea concerned, that’s simply sufficient to grasp the rules. It’s primarily a sensible course that exhibits you the steps to improve a robotic from regular GPS to RTK GPS.
Theoretical classes embrace:
- Regular vs RTK GPS
- F9P vs M8N U-Blox Chips
- Sorts of RTK Boards and antenna connector (and extra)
Sensible classes embrace:
- Organising RTK in your roobot
- Organising base stations
- Surveying within the location of your base station
The course work itself is about 2 hours lengthy and is on the market in video format, and is appropriate for inexperienced persons and skilled drone pilots alike. That mentioned, the precise time wanted to observe the movies straight by might be completely different relying on in case you are upgrading your {hardware} to RTK on their robots (so count on about 4 hours in the event you observe together with an precise robotic).
To take the course, college students will want an ArduPilot automobile, corresponding to a drone, rover, or boat.
And are there any stipulations? Berquist says the “How To Construct A Raspberry Pi Drone” course could be an excellent pre-requisite for folk looking for extra information on tips on how to construct a drone.
How a lot does the Drone Dojo RTK GPS course price?
The Drone Dojo RTK GPS course is on the market now for a month-to-month price of $27. If you happen to end the course inside a month, it’ll have price you simply $27 — or you’ll be able to proceed entry at that price. It’s a part of the brand new Drone Dojo month-to-month subscription mannequin launched in the beginning of the 12 months — which is essentially a monetary win for learnings.
Previous to this 12 months, programs ranged in worth from roughly $100 to $400. Whereas shopping for it as soon as granted you entry for all times, it was an enormous upfront cot. With Drone Dojo’s $27 Blue Belt Membership, you’ll be able to lurk into the course — or decide to the entire thing. However both method, your monetary dedication may have been simply $27 — relatively than the substantial many lots of.
Blue Belt Membership additionally will get you different advantages together with $30 off any drone or rover equipment, Discord entry and an entry in a month-to-month drawing, amongst different advantages.