S14: Tricopter
Contents
Grading Criteria
- How well is Software & Hardware Design described?
- How well can this report be used to reproduce this project?
- Code Quality
- Overall Report Quality:
- Software Block Diagrams
- Hardware Block Diagrams
- Schematic Quality
- Quality of technical challenges and solutions adopted.
Code name Cerberus
Abstract
The goal of this project is to produce a stable hovering tricopter. This craft will hover using three motors with three propellers, one of which is mounted on a swivelling piece that allows the raft to have more yaw control. The plan for this project is to use COTS parts for all but the flight controller which will be our software on an SJOne board. The flight controller is responsible for determining how fast each motor spins and the angle of the swivelling motor using inputted data from an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and possibly a magnetometer. The tricopter will elevate itself to a fixed height and using a barometer will stay stabilized at this height.
Objectives & Introduction
The objective of this project is to produce a Tricopter capable of rising to a given altitude, hovering in one position for at least 15 seconds, and then landing safely in the same position it took off from.
Maintaining stable flight is the key requirement for this project. Orientation is calculated using an accelerometer and gyroscope. The height above ground is determined using the output of an ultrasonic sensor.
Team Members & Responsibilities
- Carlos Fernandez-Martinez
- Shane Loretz
- Michael Schneider
Schedule
Show a simple table or figures that show your scheduled as planned before you started working on the project. Then in another table column, write down the actual schedule so that readers can see the planned vs. actual goals. The point of the schedule is for readers to assess how to pace themselves if they are doing a similar project.
| Week# | Date | Task | Actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10/8 | Task list | Completed? Problems Encountered? |
Parts List & Cost
Give a simple list of the cost of your project broken down by components. Do not write long stories here.
| Name | Quantity | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Turnigy Park480 | 3 | $61.47 |
| Hobby King 30A ESC | 3 | $30.45 |
| Corona 919MG Servo | 1 | $7.01 |
| Sunkee 10DOF | 1 | $20.00 |
| Hobbyking X900 | 1 | $32.16 |
| Prop 9047 | 3 | $9.48 |
| Truningy 5000mah | 1 | $27.85 |
| Cables / Connectors | N/A | $20.00 |
| SJSU One Board | 1 | $80.00 |
| Total | $292.00 |
Design & Implementation
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Hardware Design
Discuss your hardware design here. Show detailed schematics, and the interface here.
Hardware Interface
In this section, you can describe how your hardware communicates, such as which BUSes used. You can discuss your driver implementation here, such that the Software Design section is isolated to talk about high level workings rather than inner working of your project.
Software Design
Show your software design. For example, if you are designing an MP3 Player, show the tasks that you are using, and what they are doing at a high level. Do not show the details of the code. For example, do not show exact code, but you may show psuedocode and fragments of code. Keep in mind that you are showing DESIGN of your software, not the inner workings of it.
Orientation
Todo describe this component
Motor Control
The motor speeds are changed depending on the orientation. Motor speeds are increased and decreased to get back to an orientation of (0,0,0) (level flight)
| Motor 1 | Front left |
| Motor 2 | Front right |
| Motor 3 | back (with servo) |
Correcting Roll options
- Increase 1, decrease 2
- Decrease 1, increase 2
Correcting Yaw
- Rotate 3
Correcting Pitch
- Increase 1 and 2
- Decrease 1 and 2
Correcting height
- Increase all
- Decrease all
Fail safe
The fail safe kills all power to the motors by sending the lowest throttle position signal to the ESCs
Reasons fail safe activates
- X orientation exceeds 45 degrees
- Y orientation exceeds 45 degrees
- Height exceeds 18 inches
- Time is less than 5 seconds since bootup
- Time is greater than 30 seconds since bootup
Implementation
This section includes implementation, but again, not the details, just the high level. For example, you can list the steps it takes to communicate over a sensor, or the steps needed to write a page of memory onto SPI Flash. You can include sub-sections for each of your component implementation.
Testing & Technical Challenges
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Include sub-sections that list out a problem and solution, such as:
My Issue #1
Discuss the issue and resolution.
Conclusion
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Project Video
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Project Source Code
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References
Acknowledgement
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References Used
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Appendix
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