How do drone gentle reveals handle to place hundreds 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 possible attributable to a robust know-how 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 basically thought of the main on-line useful resource for DIY drone fanatics, simply launched a brand new course on RTK GPS. The course, titled “Inches-level Precision with RTK GPS,” will train you tips on how to improve your drones (and different autonomous autos) and outfit them with RTK GPS know-how for centimeter-level accuracy whereas in flight.
What’s RTK GPS?
RTK GPS, or Actual-Time Kinematic GPS, is a know-how that makes use of two or extra GPS receivers to exactly decide the situation of an object. This makes it best for functions comparable to precision agriculture, surveying, and search and rescue.
Drones are more and more getting used for these and different functions, 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 functions.
For instance, RTK GPS can be utilized to create correct maps of agricultural fields, which will help farmers to optimize their crop yields. It may also 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 just a little complicated to arrange on DIY drones.
Should you’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 personal present drone with RTK, this course is essential 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 skilled and the founding father of Drone Dojo, which is a web based drone coaching web site that provides programs in a spread of matters together with “Tips on how to construct a Raspberry Pi drone,” “Tips on how to 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 discover ways to choose the best {hardware}, set up the software program, and configure the settings. The course contains various hands-on workouts that can show you how to discover ways to improve your drone to RTK GPS.
And all of it extremely sensible. Whereas there’s some concept concerned, that’s simply sufficient to know the ideas. It’s primarily a sensible course that reveals 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
- Forms of RTK Boards and antenna connector (and extra)
Sensible classes embrace:
- Establishing RTK in your roobot
- Establishing base stations
- Surveying within the location of your base station
The course work itself is about 2 hours lengthy and is obtainable in video format, and is appropriate for rookies and skilled drone pilots alike. That mentioned, the precise time wanted to observe the movies straight by way of might be completely different relying on if you’re upgrading your {hardware} to RTK on their robots (so count on about 4 hours in the event you comply with together with an precise robotic).
To take the course, college students will want an ArduPilot car, comparable to a drone, rover, or boat.
And are there any conditions? Berquist says the “How To Construct A Raspberry Pi Drone” course could be a great pre-requisite for people looking for extra data 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 obtainable now for a month-to-month price of $27. Should you end the course inside a month, it’ll have price you simply $27 — or you’ll be able to proceed entry at that fee. It’s a part of the brand new Drone Dojo month-to-month subscription mannequin launched initially of the yr — which is basically a monetary win for learnings.
Previous to this yr, 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 means, your monetary dedication can have been simply $27 — relatively than the substantial many tons 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.