Deployment Update
The EA-DDDAS systems are being tested and steadily coming online. We successfully received Ka-doppler data, advanced the wind field through an online forecast system, and recorded the wind field to a MongoDB system operating in the field. This database is accessed in real-time by the trajectory optimization layer as well as the lattice planner. With a new set of forecasts being generated every three minutes, there's a lot of data to capture and index!
The Tempest/PixHawk platform has completed a successful flight test this morning and tested some key network and antenna tracker systems. If all goes well, tomorrow should be the first complete field test of the EA-DDDAS flight system. The recent tropical storm Bill that made landfall yesterday has spoiled a bit of the intereting wind shear pattern we are hoping to fly in. Fortunately, this calm will air will move on as the storm progress north towards Oklahoma. To give you an idea of the stillness, the radar reported a max East wind speed of 5 m/s at 100 meters altitude.
The next few days of testing should be pretty exciting: generating energy-aware trajectories using real-time wind field data and sending them to the aircraft to fly! Fingers are crossed for a favorable wind shear that we can play in.
More news to follow tomorrow after flight testing!