./LICENSE.md "![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-BSD%202--Clause-blue.svg?style=flat-square)"

The VSCL Developmental Flight Test Instrumentation (DFTI) is an embedded software package that handles flight test data recording for Small UAS flight test. DFTI is a vehicle-agnostic package that can be easily attached to arbitrary SUAS, provided that the vehicle is large enough to carry the hardware.

This is Version 2 of DFTI, which replaces the Arduino-based Version 1 firmware. This latter version is kept in an archive branch arduino.

Hardware

DFTI is primarily developed for use with the BeagleBone Black single-board computer, but should work with any recent embedded Linux that supports interfacing over UART.

Sensors

DFTI is designed to record vehicle states for parameter and system identification and does so via dedicated sensors to obtain air data, inertial measurements, and control deflections. The current supported sensors are:

Air Data: Aeroprobe Micro Air Data Computer (RS-232)
INS: VectorNav VN-200 INS (UART/RS-232/SPI)
Control Surface Deflections: linear potentiometers via Arduino RIO*
Engine RPM: EagleTree Brushless RPM Sensor V2 via Arduino RIO

(* RIO = Remote Input/Output module)

Code exists to interface with MAVLink-based autopilots, but it is not production-ready, and is still very much a work in progress.

DFTI is designed to be modular, so support for additional sensors may be added easily.

License

DFTI is placed under the ./LICENSE.md "BSDv2 license".