Date: September 29th, 2016
Location: Newstead, UCD
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or Drones developed rapidly recently and drawn attentions from mass public. To help students get a close contact with drone technologies, last month in UCD, Dr Eleni Mangina arranged a workshop for graduate students. PhD student Even O'Keeffe and I made presentations during the workshop. Almost 20 students attended.
In the beginning, Dr Eleni Mangina introduced the history and current applications of UAVs.
After that, Even O'Keeffe explained the legal requirement for UAVs application in Ireland. He also shared his experience in drone-related software developing.
Then, I showed them the steps of building a DIY drone. Introduction to each component and tips for model selection also included.
In the last, students get a chance to have a close look at different drones and ask questions.
Contact
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
Date: July 6th, 2016
Location: Boyne Viaduct Bridge
Completed by： Jonathan Byrne, Siyuan Chen
Background
Boyne Viaduct Bridge is located in Drogheda, about 50 km north of Dublin city center. The viaduct is 30 meters high, comprises twelve stone arches on the south side, and a further three arches on the north. It was designed by the Irishcivil engineer Sir John Benjamin Macneill, constructed in 1855, and refurbished in 2015.
Google Map
In the early morning, Jonathan and I inspected the south side with two flights.
Aerial Images
3D Reconstruction
3D reconstruction process was based on 287 aerial images and 321 ground images. Python Based platform VisualSFM[1], Commercial platform PhotoScanPro[2], and open source platform Meshlab[3].
Aerial Video
In the last, let us enjoy a short aerial video.
Contact
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
[1] VisualSFM was created by Changchang Wu at the University of Washington Seattle.
[2] PhotoScanPro, developed by Agisoft, is a stand-alone software product that performs photogrammetric processing of digital images and generates 3D spatial data.
[3] MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes.
In last month, I started to build a new DIY drone. Some details will be attached below.
Drone Building
This drone we using an old Tarot 650 carbon fiber frame, 4 x kv800 rotors，4 x 12-inch propellers (4 x 15-inch propellers), 4 x 30-A ESCs, Pixhawk flight controller with 3DR GPS module, Turnigy 9xr pro radio controller with FrySKY XJT module, X8R SBUS receiver, and 3DR telemeter.
Drone Setting
APM Planner was used fro flight controller setting. RC was programmed by eepskye.
After basic setting and sensors calibration, I went out for several times flight test. Here I can write a book named 'Drone accidents'. The first time, before took off, one propeller was loose and shoot off. The second time, it spinning on the ground and flipped over. The third time, it can take off, but direct crashed on a tree (One leg was gone). The fourth time crashed on a wall (Another leg was gone). The fifth time..... (Sorry, too many times, it is hard to recall all of them.)
Every accident made the drone settings improved a little but made the physical structure damaged a lot. I do not want it to be totally destroyed before the successfully take off. So, after several days' hard repairing, I designed a few indoor test methods.
Indoor Test
Four pipes were mounted on each arm to keep a safe distance for propellers. Steel core cord went through those pipes to restrict drone’s movement. In the video, you can see the drone flight just like an angry wasp. It was lucky I bought strong enough cords.
PID Tuning
To adjust the PID parameters for flight control. Two tables were used to fix the vertical movement of the drone. After several times test, with the help from Even, the PID curves are looks much better.
Outdoor Test
After got a satisfied setting, we did an outdoor test. Finally, it successfully took off and followed with a safe landing. : D
Contact
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
In last three months, lots of exciting things happened in Ireland about drones. Here, I will make a short record for those activities.
Drone Explore Ireland
From April 1st to 3rd, Drone Explore Ireland was holding in Dublin RDS. It was a carnival for drone lover. Different companies brought their most advanced products to the exhibition. Such as UAV platforms, camera, and sensors. Besides some manufacturing companies, aerial service companies also attracted people. Aerial survey, filmmaking, on-site inspection, and rescue are hot topics.
Other than products exhibition, I also enjoyed the drone racing and presentation parts. The officer from IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) made a presentation on new restriction about UAV application and registration in Ireland. Our postdoctoral researcher Jonathan Byrne introduced the current achievements from UCD urban modeling group.
My Secondment in Arup
I started my secondment in Arup from April. In the following month, I made a presentation topic on UAV application. Almost 40 people attended from Dublin branch and others were joined by Skype from other cities.
Aerial Survey for Boland's Mills
Boland's Mill is located on the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin, Ireland on Ringsend Road between the inner basin of Grand Canal Dock and Barrow Street. It is currently undergoing a €150 million reconstruction to become Boland's Quay, accommodating new residences, commercial, retail, and civic spaces. [1, 2]
Before the structures are torn down, UCD urban modelling group cooperated with Arup made an aerial survey to 3D reconstruct the historical building.
3D Model [3]
[1] http://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/green-light-for-150m-boland-s-mill-development-1.2271477 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boland%27s_Mill [3] Made by Jonathan Byrne from UCD urban modelling group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKa4S5-qBsQ
Contact
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
In my blog, I will introduce some handy tools or software which make my life easer. Those blogs will have the tag tool&skills. As I am using Markdown1 and StackEdit2 to deal with my blog publication. Here, I will first make a simple introduction about this two tools and some tricks.
About Markdown
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats3. If you use Git a lot, you must know that it is used to format readme files.
Markdown Syntax:
Original Code will shows likethis.
Result will shows like this.
Headers
Following by different numbers of ‘#’ you can get different level’s header.
# H1## H2### H3
H1
H2
H3
Alternatively, for H1 and H2, an underline-ish style:
Alt-H1
======Alt-H2
------
Alt-H1
Alt-H2
Emphasis
Emphasis, aka italics, with *asterisks* or _underscores_.
Strong emphasis, aka bold, with **asterisks** or __underscores__.
Combined emphasis with **asterisks and _underscores_**.
Strikethrough uses two tildes. ~~Scratch this.~~
Emphasis, aka italics, with asterisks or underscores.
Strong emphasis, aka bold, with asterisks or underscores.
Combined emphasis with asterisks and underscores.
Strikethrough uses two tildes. Scratch this.
Links
This is [an example](http://trussitn.eu/siyuan-chen/) inline link.
[](http://trussitn.eu/siyuan-chen/)
Footnotes
You can create footnotes like this[^footnote].
[^footnote]: Here is the *text* ofthe **footnote**.
You can specify column alignment with one or two colons:
| Item | Value | Qty |
| :------- | ----: | :---: |
| A | $1 | 4 |
| B | $2 | 5 |
| C | $3 | 6 |
Item
Value
Qty
A
$1
4
B
$2
5
C
$3
6
Table of contents
You can insert a table of contents using the marker [TOC] to auto insert the table of contents:
[TOC]
[TOC]
Math Expressions
You can use LaTeX5 syntax for mathematical expressions:
The *Gamma function* satisfying $\Gamma(n) = (n-1)!\quad\forall n\in\mathbb N$ is via the Euler integral
$$
\Gamma(z) = \int_0^\infty t^{z-1}e^{-t}dt\,.
$$
The Gamma function satisfying is via the Euler integral
Note: You can find more information about LaTeX mathematical expressions here.
UML diagrams
You can also render sequence diagrams like this:
```sequence
Alice->Bob: HelloBob, how are you?
Note right ofBob: Bob thinks
Bob-->Alice: I am good thanks!```
StackEdit is a browser editor. All your documents are automatically saved locally and are accessible offline!. It can binding to your Google Drive or Dropbox account to synchronization your work to the cloud. It also provided a one key publication function to push your work to Blog account.
Create a document
The document panel is accessible using the button in the navigation bar. You can create a new document by clicking New document in the document panel.
Delete a document
You can delete the current document by clicking Delete document in the document panel.
Export a document
You can save the current document to a file by clicking Export to disk from the menu panel.
Tip: Check out the Publish a document section for a description of the different output formats.
Synchronization
StackEdit can be combined with Google Drive and Dropbox to have your documents saved in the Cloud. The synchronization mechanism takes care of uploading your modifications or downloading the latest version of your documents.
Publication
Once you are happy with your document, you can publish it on different websites directly from StackEdit. As for now, StackEdit can publish on Blogger, Dropbox, Gist, GitHub, Google Drive, Tumblr, WordPress and on any SSH server.
Contact
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland
siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. ↩
StackEdit is a full-featured, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites. ↩
Hi, I am Siyuan Chen. Welcome to my blog. I’m trying to write my first blog with Markdown 1 and StackEdit 2. I hope those ‘handy’ tools will working well.
In this blog, I will write something about my work and life. This is an active way to improve my writing skills. You are very welcome to point out the mistakes in this blog to help me improve my English.
About Me
My Education
Right now, I am a Ph.D. student at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. I got my Master degree from U.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace. And my Bachelor degree from China in Mechanical Engineering.
My Hometown
My hometown Yueyang is a small city in the central of China. It is a ‘small’ city with 5.4 million people 3. Yes, I double checked the number. 5.4 million, even more than the people in Ireland( 4.6 million 4), is the size of a ‘small’ city in China. The most famous attraction in our city is the Yueyang Tower. We are also famous for our spicy food, Hunan Cuisine.
Yueyang Tower, was first built in 1,700 years ago 5
Hunan Spicy Food 6
My Interest
I like fishing, cooking, and cycling. Of course, as a Chinese, I also like to play PingPang (Table tennis). In UCD, I joined the Rifle Club and got my first gold medal in the novice group.
About My Project
The name of Project ESR 14 is Reduction of uncertainty through regularized, automated road inspection. Put simply, we are trying to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) 7 in road inspection. Compared to conventional inspection method, using UAVs for road inspection could be cheaper, safer and more efficient. There are several research topics we will focus on.
Siyuan Chen
School of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
University College Dublin, Ireland siyuan.chen@ucd.ie
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. ↩
StackEdit is a full-featured, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites. ↩
![][Hunan_cuisine](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1000/20120923/8c89a59109d011c932dd0c.jpg)
![][](http://smartsensys.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/UAV_bridge11.jpg)
