I'm a student working on a project that involves programming a quadcopter to visually follow a ground target. We may try to use a smartphone or similar as an on-board guidance computer, but for the moment the idea is to do the image processing and guidance calculations on a laptop and then transmit the guidance commands back to the quadcopter. so the idea is that we need to transmit images/video to a computer and then transmit commands back to the quadcopter. We already have a quadcopter, so the part I'm asking about is the camera- my lab engineer has asked me to try to find a suitable camera that would use a WiFi connection. I'm having a little trouble figuring out what might be suitable-can anyone give me some ideas? We can lift about 400 grams, and the price ceiling is a few hundred dollars, I think. High resolution is important, and image stabilization would help. Of course, we need to be able to access the video stream (or relatively rapidly shot still photos) in real time. Thanks a lot
I can't help with the entire request, but can note that regular 2.4 GHZ WiFi will often mess with the copters own guidance system - most R/C controllers are in the same band. For this reason, companies like DJI use a two different frequencies - one for the camera and photo/video stream and one for the quad control. Of course, you may not be using an R/C controller at all - so this may not apply. Most of the popular cameras are capable of transmitting a stream of video - and this is usually done via an analog connection and a different freq. Examples include the Mobius ($80) or GoPro models ($180-$350+)...outfitted with an "FPV" kit. Very high def downlink of video may require something fancier like the Lightbridge: http://www.dji.com/product/dji-lightbridge Hopefully, some of this will get you headed in the right direction. If this is all experimental and going to occur within a small area (range), you may have more options. Many of the cams like GoPro and Blackvue sport, etc. can be accessed via wireless built-in and stream to a tablet or computer which is close in range. You still have to make sure you don't have more than one 2.4 GHZ control system on board...or they may clash.
