How do drone gentle 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 doubtless as a result of a strong expertise referred to as RTK — and the parents over at Drone Dojo have a brand new RTK course that would assist put you forward of the curve.
Drone Dojo, which is essentially 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 educate you learn how to improve your drones (and different autonomous automobiles) 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 placement of an object. This makes it ultimate for purposes similar 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 also help farmers to optimize their crop yields. It will also be used to survey development websites, guaranteeing that they’re constructed to the proper specs. And it may be used to seek for lacking individuals or objects, offering rescuers with a extra correct location to go looking.
However whereas it’s a lot better for exact positioning, it may be somewhat advanced to arrange on DIY drones.
When 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 wish to arrange your individual current drone with RTK, this course is important 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 knowledgeable and the founding father of Drone Dojo, which is a web based drone coaching web site that provides programs in a spread of subjects together with “The right way to construct a Raspberry Pi drone,” “The right way 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 correct {hardware}, set up the software program, and configure the settings. The course contains plenty of hands-on workout routines that may assist you discover ways to improve your drone to RTK GPS.
And all of it extremely sensible. Whereas there may be some concept 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 embody:
- Regular vs RTK GPS
- F9P vs M8N U-Blox Chips
- Forms of RTK Boards and antenna connector (and extra)
Sensible classes embody:
- 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 out there in video format, and is appropriate for learners and skilled drone pilots alike. That mentioned, the precise time wanted to observe the movies straight by means of will likely be completely different relying on if you’re upgrading your {hardware} to RTK on their robots (so count on about 4 hours for those who comply with together with an precise robotic).
To take the course, college students will want an ArduPilot automobile, similar to a drone, rover, or boat.
And are there any conditions? Berquist says the “How To Construct A Raspberry Pi Drone” course could be pre-requisite for people searching for extra data on learn how to construct a drone.
How a lot does the Drone Dojo RTK GPS course price?
The Drone Dojo RTK GPS course is out there now for a month-to-month payment of $27. When you 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 originally of the yr — which is essentially 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 could have been simply $27 — reasonably than the substantial many a whole lot.
Blue Belt Membership additionally will get you different advantages together with $30 off any drone or rover package, Discord entry and an entry in a month-to-month drawing, amongst different advantages.
