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Plane: prepare for release of 3.0.3
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Andrew Tridgell committed May 18, 2014
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion ArduPlane/ArduPlane.pde
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/// -*- tab-width: 4; Mode: C++; c-basic-offset: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*-

#define THISFIRMWARE "ArduPlane V3.0.3-beta"
#define THISFIRMWARE "ArduPlane V3.0.3"
/*
Lead developer: Andrew Tridgell
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47 changes: 47 additions & 0 deletions ArduPlane/release-notes.txt
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Release 3.0.3, May 19th 2014
----------------------------

The ardupilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 3.0.3 of APM:Plane. This release contains some important bug
fixes for all supported boards.

The key bug fixes in this release are:

- fixed handling of filter divergance in the EKF filter
- fixed a glide slope calculation bug when entering AUTO mode

The EKF fixes are the main focus of this release. During testing of
APM:Plane with the AHRS_EKF_USE enabled it was found that under some
circumstances the EKF could diverge, resulting in loss of attitude
estimate. Unless the pilot quickly took control in MANUAL this could
result in the aircraft crashing.

The fix for this problem was in several parts. The main fix was to
prevent the divergance, but as a precuation against future bugs of
this type additional numerical checks were added to allow the EKF to
automatically reset in flight when the internal state shows
large gyro bias changes, which are the first sign of something going
wrong in the filter. If this happens again the EKF will automatically
disable itself for 10 seconds, allowing APM:Plane to fall back to the
old DCM code. The EKF will then reset itself using initial state based
on the DCM state. The aircraft will report the failure using the AHRS
health bit in the SYS_STATUS MAVLink message.

The default EKF tuning parameters were also updated based on a number
of user supplied flight logs to increase the robustness of the filter.

The second bug fixed in this release relates to the glide slope
calculation when the aircraft enters AUTO mode for the first time when
at an altitude above the altitude of the first waypoint in the
mission. The starting point for the glide slope was incorrectly
calculated using the home altitude, which resulted in the aircraft
descending below the first waypoint altitude before climbing again. In
some circumstances this could lead to a crash due to local terrain.

Many thanks to everyone who tested this release. Special thanks to
Dellarb for reporting the glide slope bug and to Paul Riseborough for
all his work on the EKF code over the last few weeks.

Happy flying!


Release 3.0.2, May 4th 2014
---------------------------

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