Hello all,
This is an initial beta release of my ScriptMFD Autopilot suite. It was developed under Orbiter 2016 on Linux. If folks could give it a try with their different vessels and OS and give me their feedback it would be much appreciated. If I can get it polished up enough I'll release it on Orbiter Hangar.
Autopilot ScriptMFD by Thunder Chicken revision 2.
January 27, 2024
Installation
1. Extract zip file to Orbiter directory
2. In Orbiter Launchpad, under Modules, activate ScriptMFD
Operation
There are four main autopilot functions:
1. SPD - Airspeed autopilot.
This autopilot will manage the main engine throttles in order to maintain a target airspeed.
This autopilot automatically coordinates the atmospheric flight of vessels with rudder control surfaces. It will yaw the vessel left/right to align the z-axis with the relative wind.
This autopilot will manage the elevator control surfaces to maintain a certain vertical airspeed to climb or descend to a set altitude target
4. HDG - Heading autopilot
This autopilot will manage the aileron control surfaces to bank vessel to a particular heading target. The NAV and WPT heading autopilots calculate the bearing to a given VOR or waypoint marker. This calculation continuously updates the bearing between the vessel and the waypoint and will fly the vessel along the great circle route to the waypoint.
* The heading target (in degrees) can be set manually using:
+1/-1 buttons for single degrees
+10/-10 buttons for tens of degrees
Notes
These autopilots are intended for used for vessels in atmospheric flight on Earth that have defined elevator, rudder, and aileron control surfaces and a main engine defined. The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control gains have been tuned for fighter-type aircraft with realistic aerodynamic models, vessel mass, and primary moments of inertia (PMI). It works for Delta-Glider variants below about Mach 2, but the DG is rather massive and so it tends to overshoot in pitch and roll somewhat.
Revisions
Revision 0 - 01152024 initial beta release
Revision 1 - 01182024 bug fixes for issues #1 and #2 and read/write of autopilot states to scenario files enabled for Orbiter 240117 and later.
Revision 2 -01272024 bug fix for issue #3, incrementing of airspeed, and added autopilot status panel to menu screen. Tweaked proportional gain for heading autopilot so chonky DeltaGlider doesn't overshoot in roll so much.
Bugs / Issue List
Enjoy! Post to this thread with any concerns.
Thunder Chicken
This is an initial beta release of my ScriptMFD Autopilot suite. It was developed under Orbiter 2016 on Linux. If folks could give it a try with their different vessels and OS and give me their feedback it would be much appreciated. If I can get it polished up enough I'll release it on Orbiter Hangar.
Autopilot ScriptMFD by Thunder Chicken revision 2.
January 27, 2024
Installation
1. Extract zip file to Orbiter directory
2. In Orbiter Launchpad, under Modules, activate ScriptMFD
Operation
There are four main autopilot functions:
1. SPD - Airspeed autopilot.
This autopilot will manage the main engine throttles in order to maintain a target airspeed.
- The target airspeed (in m/s) can be set manually using:
- +C/-C buttons to increase/decrease in 100 m/s increments
- +10/-10 buttons to increase/decrease in 10 m/s increments
- +1/-1 buttons to increase/decrease in 1 m/s increments
- Enable the target airspeed autopilot by clicking Engage (ENG) button.
- Current airspeed hold can be engaged by clicking Hold (HOL) button.
- Disable the airspeed autopilot by clicking Release (REL) button.
- Return to the main menu by clicking Menu (MNU) button.
This autopilot automatically coordinates the atmospheric flight of vessels with rudder control surfaces. It will yaw the vessel left/right to align the z-axis with the relative wind.
- Enable the coordinate autopilot by clicking Engage (ENG) button.
- Disable the coordinate autopilot by clicking Release (REL) button.
- Return to the main menu by clicking Menu (MNU) button.
This autopilot will manage the elevator control surfaces to maintain a certain vertical airspeed to climb or descend to a set altitude target
- The target altitude (in m) can be set manually using:
- +.1/-.1 buttons for hundreds of meters
- +1/-1 buttons for thousands of meters
- +10/-10 buttons for tens of thousands of meters.
- Enable the target altitude autopilot by clicking Engage (ENG) button.
- Current altitude hold can be engaged by clicking Hold (HOL) button.
- Disable the altitude autopilot by clicking Release (REL) button.
- Return to the main menu by clicking Menu (MNU) button.
4. HDG - Heading autopilot
This autopilot will manage the aileron control surfaces to bank vessel to a particular heading target. The NAV and WPT heading autopilots calculate the bearing to a given VOR or waypoint marker. This calculation continuously updates the bearing between the vessel and the waypoint and will fly the vessel along the great circle route to the waypoint.
* The heading target (in degrees) can be set manually using:
+1/-1 buttons for single degrees
+10/-10 buttons for tens of degrees
- Enable the target heading autopilot by clicking Engage (ENG) button.
- Current heading hold can be engaged by clicking Hold (HOL) button.
- Disable the heading autopilot by clicking Release (REL) button.
- NAV will set heading to VOR input in the NAV1 radio in the COM/NAV stack
- WPT allows user to set heading by selecting through a list of waypoints extracted from the Cities.mkr and Islands.mkr markers using UP/DN buttons.
- Return to the main menu by clicking Menu (MNU) button.
Notes
These autopilots are intended for used for vessels in atmospheric flight on Earth that have defined elevator, rudder, and aileron control surfaces and a main engine defined. The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control gains have been tuned for fighter-type aircraft with realistic aerodynamic models, vessel mass, and primary moments of inertia (PMI). It works for Delta-Glider variants below about Mach 2, but the DG is rather massive and so it tends to overshoot in pitch and roll somewhat.
Revisions
Revision 0 - 01152024 initial beta release
Revision 1 - 01182024 bug fixes for issues #1 and #2 and read/write of autopilot states to scenario files enabled for Orbiter 240117 and later.
Revision 2 -01272024 bug fix for issue #3, incrementing of airspeed, and added autopilot status panel to menu screen. Tweaked proportional gain for heading autopilot so chonky DeltaGlider doesn't overshoot in roll so much.
Bugs / Issue List
Marker files are different in OpenOrbiter 240105 and Orbiter 2016.[Fixed Revision 1]Pressing HOL in HDG mode crashes Orbiter when stationary.[Fixed Revision 1]Autopilot flight control settings seem to remain at last commanded position when autopilot released.[Fixed Revision 2]
- Allow different autopilot functions to be opened on different MFD displays.
Allow incrementing of airspeed in same manner as altitude. [Added Revision 2]- Find quicker/easier way to select marker waypoints.
Enjoy! Post to this thread with any concerns.
Thunder Chicken
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