hardware overview autopilot control board- serves as common platform for other components and has...

Hardware Overview

• Autopilot Control Board- Serves as common platform for other components and has autopilot code and flight plans

• Battery- Powers the board and servos as well as motor• Modem/Antenna- Facilitate communications• Ground Control Station- Used to control UAV midflight• GPS- Used for altitude and navigating to waypoints• IR Sensors- Determines control movements• Motor and Controller- Manages the motor functioning• Servos- Adjust control surfaces

Autopilot Control Board (Tiny)

• The main control board is the Tiny v2.11 is the brain of the UAV and controls:• Servos (via Pulse-pulse-modulation)• Infrared sensors• GPS• Any applicable payload (CAM)

• The autopilot board design is released by and updated by the Paparazzi development team

Battery

• 2100mAh 11.1V Li-Poly battery• 6.1 – 18 VDC autopilot input voltage

Datalink Radio(Modem & Antenna)

• Autopilot – Groundstation communication• Serial channel

GPS Receiver

• Receiver & Antenna built into autopilot• uBlox LEA-4 serial receiver – 4Hz update

GPS configuration

• Proprietary control software

IR Sensors

• One x-y sensor + one z sensor• Each axis is a thermopile pair• Differential output from each pair

IR Sensor Modification

• Driven by 3.3V instead of 5V• Changes amplifier gain• Replace biasing resistors for unity gain

Motor & Controller

• Brushless motor and electronic speed control

Servos

• Hitec HS-55 servos

Payload

• We never officially implemented a payload, though this would not require extensive work

• Ostensibly, we would have added a camera to feed back images or video over the modem

• Due to data transmission rate limitations (9600 baudrate) any video taken would be of very low quality, though images could certainly be sent at a decent frequency

• Payload would likely be placed on the side of the modem transmitter beneath and partially embedded in a wing

Hardware Preparation

Custom Cables

Software Setup

• Paparazzi software requires Debian based Linux distribution• We used Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” for all

our testing

• Can build source locally or install prebuilt binary package

Install Bootloader

• Bootloader must be flashed to a new board before it can be programmed• Allows Tiny to be programmed via USB• Flashed via custom serial cable

• This procedure only needs to be done once per board

Program GPS Receiver

• Install GPS Tunnel Program to Tiny• Allows direct communication to GPS Receiver

• Program GPS using U-BLOX software• Uses custom serial cable• Software runs on Windows

Programming Autopilot

• Tiny is programmed directly from the Paparazzi software

• Configuration files are modified and tuned as required for a given configuration

• Direct USB connection to Tiny