FORUM8 UAV Controller

Purpose:
The FORUM8 UAV Controller application is an interface between the Virtual Reality (VR) software UC-win/Road, running on PC, and the actual UAV.
Its purpose is to allow the user to take aerial pictures/videos in a very simple way. It is made for a wide range of users, from users with few flying experience who wish to take pictures or videos without the burden of controlling the UAV with a remote controller, to experienced flyers who wish to automate the whole process in order to improve efficiency.

How it works ?
The application performs mainly two tasks:
- Monitoring: the application reads the UAV's data (position, status...) and sends them back to UC-win/Road to update in real time the location UAV's model in the VR environment.
- Control: the application sends a complete flight mission created in the VR environment to be executed in a fully autonomous way. Other commands such as the ones related to the camera control can be used at any time.

Flight Mission & VR:
Within the Virtual Reality environment of UC-win/Road, the user creates a 3D path as a series of points (waypoints) connected by lines that will serve as a guiding lines for the UAV to follow. Upon any of the waypoints, the user can add actions to perform when the waypoint is reached (take picture, start recording a video, stop the video recording, change the camera orientation…). The combination of the 3D path and actions defines a flight mission that specifies what the UAV should do from take-off to landing.

Once the flight mission is defined, the user can start the mission execution simply by pressing a button in the graphical user interface. The mission will be uploaded automatically to the UAV, which will then take off, fly along the predefined 3D path, perform the required actions and land at the last waypoint.
After landing, the user can download the pictures and video taken during the flight simply by pressing a button in the GUI, so the pictures and videos will be available on the PC.

Future developments:
Although the FORUM8 UAV Controller was initially developed with the DJI Phantom 3 Professional UAV as it supports autonomous flight functionalities and offers remarkable flight stability, we plan to extend the support to other UAV platforms offering similar autonomous flight capabilities.

Currently supported UAV’s:
DJI Phantom 2 (Ph2) Vision, Phantom 2 Vision+, Phantom 3 Standard, Phantom 3 Advanced, Phantom 3 4K, Phantom 3 Professional, Phantom 4 and DJI Inspire 1.