Difference between revisions of "S15: Quadcopter - It flies"

Revision as of 07:05, 25 May 2015

Grading Criteria

SpartansQUAD

Abstract

As efforts to make the world a safer place, advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technology have skyrocketed. It is now possible for soldiers to remain out of the war zone and still be effective. The concept of UAVs has now ventured from the military platform to one that can be utilized by civilians. Drone technologies are currently under development which will enable law enforcement agencies to monitor public areas without having to put any actual officer lives at danger. Furthermore, drones are the assistant to the workhorse of the future. Not only will drone be used for surveillance in the future, they will be used more extensively in other fields such as film production. Drones will be the cameramen of the future. Their capabilities of being able to move in the third axis will enable drones to aid disaster search and rescue operations.

This report documents the build process of our quadcopter aptly named The SpartansQUAD. The build process, from the software development to the physical building of the quadcopter frame will be discussed in detail. The purpose of this report is to give any reader a very detailed understanding of our concepts and vision for this project.

Objectives & Introduction

The objective of The SpartansQUAD is to interface various components with SJSU’s College of Engineering SJ One Board and use it as a flight controller to sustain stable hovering. The quadcopter is to be controlled via a 6-channel transmitter and receiver combination which will also be interfaced with the SJ One Board.

Team Members & Responsibilities

• Jashan Singh - Lead Engineer

• Onyema Ude - Lead Engineer

Schedule

Parts List & Cost

Design & Implementation

The various designs incorporated in makings of The SpartansQUAD vehicle were implemented with cost, efficiency, and sustainability in mind so that it would be easy to replicate or improve various aspects of the system.

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.

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

The main challenges that arose from the creation of The SpartansQUAD mostly dealt with low level understanding of the system. For instance, understanding the workings of PID control systems before testing would have helped a lot. Since quadcopters solely rely on this concept, it is critical to have a full understanding of the parameters that are involved. In our case, testing was done with a high level understanding of the concept, so there was some uncertainties during testing. Being comfortable with the parameters, units, and even theory of PID control while transitioning into the testing phase of the project will definitely increase productivity and control of the system.

Challenges

Conclusion

Overall, we tried to keep minimalistic tenor throughout this project so it would be easier to fix or build upon existing system modules. Mechanical and electrical modules; for instance, played a huge role within the construction of The SpartansQUAD, and issues that arose within each module remained separate which made them easier to handle. The best way to describe the development process of this project would be to use the waterfall model, since each stage depends on the completion of previous tasks. It is important to note that having a detailed schedule and allotting specific time blocks throughout the week are two phases of planning that will ultimately contribute directly to the success, or failure, of the project development process. We learned that planning plays a larger role than most may think, so it is critical that each team member hold one another accountable for different parts of the project and deadlines are met or eventually accounted for when issues arise.

As a whole, execution of this project increased our knowledge of each of the following:

• PID control theory
• Project management
• Time/priority management
• Quadcopter rotorcrafts/vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOL)
• RC Signal Processing
• Sensor interfacing
• Control system configuration

Project Video

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Project Source Code

• Sourceforge Source Code Link

Project Pictures

• [1]

References

Acknowledgement

Any acknowledgement that you may wish to provide can be included here.

References Used

List any references used in project.

Appendix

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