TeraBee Evo Tower User manual
Quick guide for UAV collision
avoidance: lateral, above and below
Technical support: [email protected]
Sales and commercial support: [email protected]
Introduction
The objective of this Quick guide is to explain how to implement full drone collision
avoidance using Terabee sensors in Pixhawk platforms with Ardupilot autopilot (copter).
Our solutions can be configured to provide 360° lateral collision protection as well as
obstacle detection above and below the drone. This can be particularly useful for drone
navigation indoors or in confined spaces such as in tunnels, sewage systems or under
bridges.
In order to implement automated collision avoidance with our sensors, they need to use
the Ardupilot stack. Please refer to Ardupilot Wiki for updates and more detailed
information, https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-simple-object-avoidance.html
Section 1 explains how to use Terabee’s standard Tower array to connect to Pixhawk
platforms, and the parameters needed to activate the Ardupilot control avoidance law.
Section 2 explains how to build your own collision avoidance array.
TeraRanger Tower Evo 60m enables peripheral collision detection using the collision
avoidance law from Ardupilot. The following link shows how to connect this sensor to
Pixhawk:
https://www.terabee.com/connection-to-pixhawk-autopilots-teraranger-tower-evo/
Evo Tower
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The altimeter and ceiling detect is achieved thanks to our EVO sensor family (Evo 60m,
40m, 15m, 3m). The following link shows how to connect these sensors to Pixhawk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8i9hRYtyQ&t=165s
Evo Sensor Family
Section 1: Using Evo Tower and individual
sensors for collision avoidance
Schematics
This schematic figure shows the needed wiring between Terabee sensors and Pixhawk
platform (we have taken as example Pixhawk 4)
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01630, St Genis-Pouilly, France (next to CERN)
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The following images show the Pin-to-pin connection between Terabee sensors and
Pixhawk 4.
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Parameters
The following parameters enable the collision avoidance for Single Object Avoidance law
from Ardupilot, https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-simple-object-avoidance.html
For more information related to other control laws from Ardupilot, please refer to the Wiki
pages from Ardupilot.
Ardupilot Parameters
Tower Evo
PRX_ORIENT
0
PRX_TYPE
6
SERIAL(X)_BAUD
921
SERIAL(X)_PROTOCOL
11
Ardupilot Parameters
Evo 60m (1)
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RNGFND1_ADDR
49
RNGFND1_MAX_CM
6000
RNGFND1_MIN_CM
50
RNGFND1_ORIENT
25 (Looking Down / Altimeter)
RNGFND1_TYPE
14
Ardupilot Parameters
Evo 60m (2)
RNGFND2_ADDR
50 (Follow Procedure for Changing I2C
address)
RNGFND2_MAX_CM
6000
RNGFND2_MIN_CM
50
RNGFND2_ORIENT
24 (Looking Up / Ceiling detection)
RNGFND2_TYPE
14
Section 2: Build a custom array for collision
avoidance
You can build your own sensor array without the yellow Tower frame provided by Terabee.
The Hub Evo option is the easiest option to use multiple sensors simultaneously. It enables
you to connect up to eight TeraRanger Evo distance sensors, to synchronize distance
measurements from each sensor, triggering these in a sequence which avoids crosstalk.
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01630, St Genis-Pouilly, France (next to CERN)
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You can do your own array for collision avoidance with the following components. Example
for six Evo 60m sensors
Terabee Hub EVO X 1
Terabee Evo60m X 6 (HUB backboard option) (You can choose between Evo Mini, 3m,
15m, 40m and 60m)
Flat flex cables X 1 (pack of 8 cables) Choose your desired length.
These items can be ordered on the Terabee website.
ATTENTION:
The Hub Evo has eight numbers on it which specify the order of the sensor readings. It is
VERY important that the Hub Evo is configured with the sensor numbered 1 pointing
forward. All the consecutive sensor numbers are in a clockwise order.
In addition to consecutive order of sensors, the control law from Aurdupilot has preset
sensor angles. This means that sensors have to be placed on one of the following positions:
0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, 315.
If the sensors are not positioned in one of those positions, the control algorithm defined by
Ardupilot can create damages or total destruction of the drone.
For more information about the Ardupilot control law visit the following link and wiki pages
related to it https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-simple-object-avoidance.html
The name TERABEE® and the Bee logo® are registered trademarks in the following countries: China, European Union,
France, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States.
Terabee reserves the right to make changes, corrections, modifications or improvements to this document, and the products
and services described herein at any time, without notice.
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