Plane: updated release notes

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Release 3.5.0beta1, 9th January 2016
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The ArduPilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 3.5.0beta1 of APM:Plane. This is a major release with a lot of
changes so please read the notes carefully!
The biggest changes in this release are:
- switch to new EKF2 kalman filter for attitude and position estimation
- added support for parachutes
- added support for QuadPlanes
- support for 3 new flight boards, the QualComm Flight, the BHAT and
the PXFmini
- support for arming on moving platforms
New Kalman Filter
The 3.4 release series was the first where APM:Plane used a Kalman
Filter by default for attitude and position estimation. It works very
well, but Paul Riseborough has been working hard recently on a new
EKF variant which fixes many issues seen with the old estimator. The
key improvements are:
- support for separate filters on each IMU for multi-IMU boards
(such as the Pixhawk), giving a high degree of redundency
- much better handling of gyro drift estimation, especially on
startup
- much faster recovery from attitude estimation errors
After extensive testing of the new EKF code we decided to make it the
default for this release. You can still use the old EKF if you want to
by setting AHRS_EKF_TYPE to 1, although it is recommended that the new
EKF be used for all aircraft.
Parachute Support
This is the first release with support for parachute landings on
plane. The configuration and use of a parachute is the same as the
existing copter parachute support. See
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/parachute/
Note that parachute support is considered experimental in planes.
QuadPlane Support
This release includes support for hybrid plane/multi-rotors called
QuadPlanes. More details are available in this blog post:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/quadplane-support-in-apm-plane-3-5-0
Support for 3 new Flight Boards
The porting of ArduPilot to more flight boards continues, with support
for 3 new flight boards in this release. They are:
- the BHAT board
- the PXFmini
- the QualComm Flight
More information about the list of supported boards is available here:
http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/supported-autopilot-controller-boards/
Startup on a moving platform
One of the benefits of the new EKF2 estimator is that it allows for
rapid estimation of gyro offset without doing a gyro calibration on
startup. This makes it possible to startup and arm on a moving
platform by setting the INS_GYR_CAL parameter to zero (to disable gyro
calibration on boot). This should be a big help when flying off boats.
That is just a taste of all of the improvements in this release. In
total the release includes over 1500 patches. Some of the other more
significant changes include:
- RPM logging
- new waf build system
- new async accel calibrator
- SITL support for quadplanes
- improved land approach logic
- better rangefinder power control
- ADSB adapter support
- dataflash over mavlink support
- settable main loop rate
- hideable parameters
- improved crash detection logic
- added optional smooth speed weighting for landing
- improved logging for dual-GPS setups
- improvements to multiple RTK GPS drivers
- numerous HAL_Linux improvements
- improved logging of CAM messages
- added support for IMU heaters in HAL_Linux
- support for RCInput over UDP in HAL_Linux
- improved EKF startup checks for GPS accuracy
- added raw IMU logging for all platforms
- added BRD_CAN_ENABLE parameter
- support FlightGear visualisation in SITL
- configurable RGB LED brightness
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this release! The
development team is growing at a fast pace, with 57 people
contributing changes over this release cycle.
I'd like to make special mention of Tom Pittenger and Michael du
Breuil who have been doing extensive testing of the plane development
code, and also contributing a great deal of their own
improvements. Thanks!
Release 3.4.0, 24th September 2015
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