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[1.8.0-1.12.5] AtmosphereAutopilot 1.6.1


Boris-Barboris

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@Boris-Barboris, This is a brilliant idea for a mod. I played around with it earlier and I'm amazed at how much you managed to simulate. On the downside, I found it a bit cumbersome modify the default values. Are there a few values in particular that you recommend modifying if I want to make the controls more responsive? The defaults are excellent for a spaceplane, but severely limiting for an acrobatic or fighter jet style plane.

Overall this is an amazing mod! I sent some rep your way. I hope that you continue to develop it!

I just disable moderate button and you can go with high G and AoA

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@Crisk,

for pitch: max_v_construction: 2.0+, max AoA: 20, max G: 20, or even turn off G moderation, input deriv limit: 100 or more. Or turn off AoA moderation at all if you're sure, that craft is stable.

Control is by no means optimal, math was never intended to provide fastest control. In the end you may find FbW limiting your craft capabilities regardless of your tuning efforts.

The problem with turning off moderation is that you force FbW into rocket mode, as sideslip controller turns off without yaw AoA moderation. It's usefull on high altitudes, re-entry, VTOLS, but in regular flight I prefer messing only with pitch controller moderation.

Edited by Boris-Barboris
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  • 2 weeks later...
Latest build in dropbox link (OP post):
[LIST]
[*]Expanded state space to allow gimbaling speed. Panthers and vectors are now handeled without turning off "smoothness". All engines gimbals on vessel are synchronised.
[*]Primitive thrust controller, maintains speed setpoint. I included it in FbW GUI. Can be switched to PID control and manually tuned for problematic cases.
[*]Fighting "good fights" with sideslip noise. No victory in sight.
[/LIST]
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, cool story and new release time...

  • Interesting discovery: for all these years engine gimbals were applying changed torque with 1-frame delay (for comparison, control surfaces don't have delay). Thanks to Sarbian's elegant idea, AA now prevents this by moving all gimbal modules ahead of engines during load time.
  • I'm dropping support of "Stock modules bugfixes" mod, it's author's way of coding is too agressive and no longer has a way to easily turn off control surfaces and gimbaling changes. If you're using it, manually turn off CSurfPlus and GimbalPlus modules in the manager.
  • Last two weekends I had free time, so I was mathfixing model and other hidden bugs you probably didn't even notice. It's mostly about gimbaling speed incorporation in model, more correct lift regression code, symmetrical moderation code for angular velocities controllers. Generally speaking, FbW became a little bit more correct and precise.
  • I started to probe more high-level autopilots ground. Results are frightening. The cost of error on low level in modular cascaded system (like AA) is very high for high-level stuff. To fix those errors, I need certain math overhaul on particular systems, mostly regression-oriented ones. It basicaly means, that it's too early for me to move forward - foundation, while well-preforming in low-level FbW context, is still flawed. It would be wise to take a time and go slow, even if it means years.
  • But, some things are possible even now. I'm including in this new 1.2 release a test autopilot for you to play around with, wich i implemented during last couple of days: Mouse Director. It's a high-level declarative velocity autopilot, though it's still very young and undebugged. People, who struggle with keyboard controls, may appreciate it's functionality. And, personally, I find landings stupidly-easy with it. Video: https://youtu.be/9KyOvL3oB-E
Edited by Boris-Barboris
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very nice.   enhancement to include ability to control VTOL craft (such as KAX helicopters?)  I really want to start offering helicopter rescue missions in my contract pack, but so far, nothing out there is really good at holding a helicopter steady.

Edited by inigma
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FbW with moderation off might already be helpful for you, if you're looking for an alternative to SAS. If you're looking for more complex stuff, like hover control, it's not it my plans. Besides, there's a lot of released PID-based plugins that do vertical speed control. My field of interest is linear, classical flight.

Edited by Boris-Barboris
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Hey man, I just wanted to say that I've been looking for a plugin like this since the .19 days of KSP.

You.are.awesome.

 

Edit: are you planning on adding more functionality to the cruise control? Maybe like an vertical speed input or altitude input?

Edited by martinezfg11
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On 1.12.2015, 22:58:45, Boris-Barboris said:

I'm dropping support of "Stock modules bugfixes" mod, it's author's way of coding is too agressive and no longer has a way to easily turn off control surfaces and gimbaling changes. If you're using it, manually turn off CSurfPlus and GimbalPlus modules in the manager.

This should be stated more prominent in the OP imho.

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On 01/12/2015, 21:58:45, Boris-Barboris said:

Ok, cool story and new release time...

  • Interesting discovery: for all these years engine gimbals were applying changed torque with 1-frame delay (for comparison, control surfaces don't have delay). Thanks to Sarbian's elegant idea, AA now prevents this by moving all gimbal modules ahead of engines during load time.
  • I'm dropping support of "Stock modules bugfixes" mod, it's author's way of coding is too agressive and no longer has a way to easily turn off control surfaces and gimbaling changes. If you're using it, manually turn off CSurfPlus and GimbalPlus modules in the manager.
  • Last two weekends I had free time, so I was mathfixing model and other hidden bugs you probably didn't even notice. It's mostly about gimbaling speed incorporation in model, more correct lift regression code, symmetrical moderation code for angular velocities controllers. Generally speaking, FbW became a little bit more correct and precise.
  • I started to probe more high-level autopilots ground. Results are frightening. The cost of error on low level in modular cascaded system (like AA) is very high for high-level stuff. To fix those errors, I need certain math overhaul on particular systems, mostly regression-oriented ones. It basicaly means, that it's too early for me to move forward - foundation, while well-preforming in low-level FbW context, is still flawed. It would be wise to take a time and go slow, even if it means years.
  • But, some things are possible even now. I'm including in this new 1.2 release a test autopilot for you to play around with, wich i implemented during last couple of days: Mouse Director. It's a high-level declarative velocity autopilot, though it's still very young and undebugged. People, who struggle with keyboard controls, may appreciate it's functionality. And, personally, I find landings stupidly-easy with it. Video: https://youtu.be/9KyOvL3oB-E

Boris, I overlooked your update due to the forum switch. This continues to be one of the coolest mods out there!

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21 hours ago, RaendyLeBeau said:

wow video promises a lot !! great work! 'm looking forward to it now. when is the first release to come out about ?

cheers

It's already usable, download and fly. If you want to know, when it will be feature-complete, polished and released - it's too difficult to give an estimate. Exams are coming, after that graduate semester. But I would like to finish the ride till the summer of 2016.

Edited by Boris-Barboris
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B9 was updated...

Spoiler

km_gimbal.jpg


B9 mod and a some others popular rocket-related ones use sarbian's km_Gimbal extensively, so I added an adapter for it.
Update gimbal mod itself (version 3.0.6.0 and later) from https://ksp.sarbian.com/jenkins/job/km_Gimbal/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/.
Update AA from dropbox link in OP post (the latest master branch build one).
 

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Btw, since we talked about setting values and it's also a topic in this thread (which I maybe should have looked into closer):

Maybe adding manual profiles (saving moderation state, values, etc) could be nice? I imagine being able to switch modes on the - literal - fly might make the different modes more intuitive to use. Something like a setting each for e.g. start, travel, supercruise or combat.

Just in case you're out of ideas what to add to the mod at some point. ;)

Edited by Temeter
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4 hours ago, A_name said:

Hey, any chance you can put this on CKAN?

It is a bad practice to publish work in progress mod to wide audience on the resource, wich is not forcing people to carefully read changelogs and updates. For example, if you're using dropbox build right now, i changed the extention of saved settings from .cfg to .txt, the only .cfg file for this mod now is csurf_sync.cfg, others can be deleted. While not knowing something like this will not crash the game or AA, some other changes may crash your plane with no survivors.

 

7 hours ago, Temeter said:

Maybe adding manual profiles (saving moderation state, values, etc) could be nice?

Yes, that's part of the plan, as well as GUI overhaul. Right now, as you can see, it's a very raw peace of engineering. But that should come later, in January.

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  • 1 month later...

v1.3 is out, accumulated changes:

  • km_Gimbal version 3.0.6.0 and later support.
  • various math, model and control fixes.
  • using .txt for internal data instead of .cfg serialization to not confuse MM's cache.
  • regression refactoring and improved reliability.
  • "craft settings" window for user-friendly tuning. Basic profile support in the same window. Keep in mind, that AA was saving settings per design basis from very first release, so it's mostly for quickly setting up new craft to your likings.

No truly new features, sorry, lack of time and motivation.

I'm satisfied with reliability and file structure now, and GUI is not so frightening with new settings window, so I pushed it to kerbalstuff, maybe it will even get to CKAN (I left the checkbox on), dunno.

Edited by Boris-Barboris
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14 hours ago, Boris-Barboris said:

No truly new features, sorry, lack of time and motivation.

Too bad, but thanks for your great work anyway! I use it on a regular basis, and your mod gets my heavy SSTO to Orbit and Back safely.

Flying would be very very annoying without you :)

 

14 hours ago, Boris-Barboris said:

I'm satisfied with reliability and file structure now, and GUI is not so frightening with new settings window, so I pushed it to kerbalstuff, maybe it will even get to CKAN (I left the checkbox on), dunno.

Yay :)

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