Questions regarding Starling 2 Max

[the_engineer]

Hey,

together with my team, I am currently working on a student project in cooperation with a local company called Witron.

The goal of the project is to develop a maintenance drone for a high-bay warehouse in in-house logistics. In the event of a fault, the drone should autonomously fly to the affected storage location, record video footage of the situation, and support maintenance personnel in identifying the cause of the problem more quickly.

We are currently evaluating suitable drone platforms for this application. Our main requirements are autonomous indoor flight, reliable navigation in narrow warehouse aisles, obstacle avoidance, and camera-based inspection.

One of the most important points for us is programmability. We would like to know whether it is possible to access and control your drone via Python or a comparable programming language, so that we can further develop and integrate it into our project setup.

Could you please answer us the following questions:

1. Is the drone suitable for such an application, or is there a drone better suited for this kind of application?
2. Is such indoor autonomous operation is feasible with the Starling 2 Max?
3. To what extent can this drone be programmed and extended for research or development purposes?
4. Is the drone programmable with Python or a similar programming language?
5. What charge time can be expected?
6. Is a docking station/ induction charging retrofit possible?
7. Is the drone capable of navigating in subpar lighting conditions?
8. What is the expected maximum flight time at maximum takeoff weight?
9. What are the operational temperature limits of the drone?
10. Does visual obstacle avoidance also work during remote controlled manual flight?
11. What is the expected delivery time for the system to Germany?

Thanks in advance
Kind Regards
Michael

[Alex Kushleyev]

Hi @the_engineer ,

Please see the responses to your questions below:

Is the drone suitable for such an application, or is there a drone better suited for this kind of application?

• Starling 2 Max can be equipped with two global shutter tracking cameras, two high resolution (IMX412) cameras and a TOF sensor, providing the most sensing that our platforms offer.

Is such indoor autonomous operation is feasible with the Starling 2 Max?

• dual-camera VIO can be used for indoor navigation (using our integration with Open Vins software)
• please note that we cannot guarantee performance in your environment and you would like to achieve reliable operation, you would need to become very familiar with the software components and test and address the issues that may come up in your environment
• depending on how narrow the aisles are, you may consider Starling 2 (not Starling 2 Max)

To what extent can this drone be programmed and extended for research or development purposes?

• majority of ModalAI software that runs on VOXL2 is open source : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/

Is the drone programmable with Python or a similar programming language?

• Voxl2 runs Ubuntu 18.04 OS and you can use any standard programming languages. Most of voxl2 apis for data access (camera, imu, etc) are in C/C++ which can be extended to python via bindings. ROS is also supported.

What charge time can be expected?

• Typical recommended charge rate for Li-Ion batteries is 1C, so about one hour, maybe a bit more. You are free to explore other battery vendors if you need faster charge times.

Is a docking station/ induction charging retrofit possible?

• we do not support this feature, but it should be possible with additional design. You would probably need to have your own power management board that allows seamlessly disconnecting the old battery (to be charged) and applying a DC power supply.

Is the drone capable of navigating in subpar lighting conditions?

• you would need to test in your specific environment and address any issues that come up. Lighting is not the only factor, but also amount of useful features, etc

What is the expected maximum flight time at maximum takeoff weight?

• see this thread : https://forum.modalai.com/topic/3732/starling-2-max-payload-capacity-and-flight-time-impact
• additional recommended payload up to 500g

What are the operational temperature limits of the drone?

• Starling 2 Max can operate in reasonable temperatures. However, you would need to monitor your CPU usage - if it hits 95C, automatic throttling will occur and the system may not be able to keep up with all the tasks. ESC is rated to run at least 100C (MCU temperature), so that should not be an issue for this particular drone, which is not significantly loaded in terms of motor power).

Does visual obstacle avoidance also work during remote controlled manual flight?

• please take a look at voxl-vision-hub, but remember that this will be a starting point and you will need to develop your own application based on your requirements and testing : https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-vision-hub/

What is the expected delivery time for the system to Germany?

• Expected to ship within 60 business days from San Diego, CA, as stated on our web site https://www.modalai.com/products/starling-2-max