CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

1.1

WHAT IS A UAV?

UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. A UAV is an unpiloted aircraft that can be remote controlled or fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic automation systems. Most of the UAVs are currently being used in a number of military roles like reconnaissance and attack. Civil applications of UAVs are also growing rapidly. At present they are being used in applications such as fire fighting when a human observer would be at risk, police observation of civil disturbances and crime scenes, and reconnaissance support in natural disasters. UAVs are often preferred for missions that are too "dull, dirty, or dangerous" for manned aircraft. Over the years wide variety of UAV have been made with differences in shape, size, configuration, and characteristics. Most UAVs have a base station, which allows the operator to update the flight plan of the UAV. In almost all of the applications the UAV also sends back data such as video, snapshots, sensor readings, to the base station for further processing. To represent the fact that these complex systems include base stations and other elements besides the actual aircraft, the term Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is used. UAVs are generally classified in two categories, namely: 1. 2. Fixed wing aircrafts (airplanes) Rotorcraft UAVs (Conventional Helicopters)

1.2

IMPORTANCE OF HELICOPTERS & VTOL:

Fixed wing aircrafts lacks VTOL (vertical take-off and landing ability) hence require long runways for take-off and landing. On the other hand helicopters have advantages over conventional fixed-wing aircraft on surveillance and inspection tasks, since they possess VTOL capability which allows them to take-off and land in limited space and to hover above targets. Moreover, helicopters have the advantage of better manoeuvrability in limited space as compared to fixed wing aircrafts.

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM University.

Introduction

1.3

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH CONVENTIONAL

HELICOPTERS:
Along with these advantages helicopters possess certain disadvantages too. In helicopters forward and the backward movement is achieved by varying the pitch angle of the main rotor blade. This pitch angle is controlled by varying the angle of the swash plate incorporated in the main rotor assembly. The rotor size is huge and it stores a lot of kinetic energy during flight. As a result large amount of force is required to change the angle of this heavy rotating mass. All this ultimately leads to a lot of mechanical actuators and heavy assembly parts including gears, pistons and shafts resulting in a complex assembly. With increase in aircraft size and its lift capacity the rotor assembly keeps growing more and more complex. Another problem with conventional helicopters is the balance of the torque generated due to the main rotor. A tail rotor is incorporated to balance this torque. A separate control system is required to control the tail rotor so that it cancels out the torque induced by the main rotor at all speeds. If the tail rotor malfunctions, then the helicopter goes into a severe spin which is not controllable and ultimately results in a crash. Even with the incorporation of fly by wire systems and implementation of extensive sensors and robust control systems, the above stated problems regarding handling, safety and stability of modern day conventional helicopter still persist.

1.3.1 QUAD COPTER:

A Quad copter, also called a quad rotor assembly, is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by four static rotors. It is a dynamic hovercraft with four input forces and six degrees of freedom. Unlike regular helicopters that have variable pitch angle rotors, a Quad copter has four fixed-pitch angle rotors. The basic motions of a Quad copter are generated by varying the relative angular speeds of the four rotors, thereby changing the lift forces. The Quad copter tilts towards the direction of the slow spinning rotor, which produces acceleration along that direction. Therefore angular speed of the four rotors and the motion of the Quad copter are closely related. Spinning directions of the rotors are set to balance the moments and eliminate the need for a tail rotor. This principle is also used to produce the desired yaw motion.

3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM University.

Introduction

1.3.2 HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF QUAD COPTER:

Fig 1.1: Historical Tests on Quad Rotor Aircraft The Quad copter idea is not new; in fact the first Quad-rotor helicopter was built earlier than the cyclic/collective pitch helicopter we know today. One of the first was built in France by the brothers Louis and Jacques Brguet. It was called gyroplane nr 1 and consisted of four rotors in a square. The tests flights did not end up very well; the helicopter was simply too difficult to control for the pilot. Even though the concept of the Quad-rotor helicopter is simpler than the traditional cyclic/collective pitch helicopter; it was not further developed until the introduction of a control system to control the helicopter. Talking about quad-rotor paper work, there is a fair amount of published research with regards to quad-rotor aircraft. In fact, there are many patents for designs similar to ours. Among them are a few Four Propeller Helicopter designs and Quad Tilt rotor designs and various vertical lift aircrafts. In the world of higher education, there are a few members of academia who have published research on quad-rotor UAVs. Among them are Joseph F. Horn and Wei Guo of Pennsylvania State University (Modelling and Simulation for the Development of a QuadRotor UAV Capable of Indoor Flight), Ming Chen and Mihai Huzmezan of the University of British Columbia (A Simulation Model and H Loop Shaping Control of a Quad Rotor Unmanned Air Vehicle), and Eryk Brian Nice of Cornell University (Design of a Four Rotor Hovering Vehicle).
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Introduction

Furthermore, on a much larger, industrial scale, there is currently a project in development named the Bell Boeing Quad Tilt Rotor. It is a large-scale, government-sponsored, quad-rotor aircraft currently in development as a joint venture between Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Integrated Defence Systems. The project is the largest-scale of all the existing projects, and with a capacity of upwards of 150 passengers, far exceeds the size and span of any other similar project.

Fig 1.2: Proposed design of the Bell Boeing Quad Tilt Rotor Aircraft Today the Quad-rotor helicopter configuration is found mostly in radio controlled toy helicopters. One of the most known manufactures is RC-toys with the model Dragon flyer. An attempt to search for similar projects in the market did not yield many results. Aside from a few overachieving hobbyists, there exist only a few commercially available products which take advantage of similar quad-rotor flight. Amongst these are the Silver lit X-UFO and the Dragon flyer.

1.4. PROPOSED SOLUTION:

Naturally the desire of stability and control is always there and as a result new concepts and improvements in the original design continue to emerge. The problem of torque balance and stability was partially resolved by a new concept in helicopter industry introduced as the
5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM University.

Introduction

Quad copter. This concept was based on implementing four rotors on four positions equidistant from the centre.

Fig 1.3: Proposed design of our Quad copter.

1.5 COMPLEXITY INVOLVED AND ASSUMPTIONS MADE:

The main problems encountered while designing Quad copter in this project include determining the lift and drag coefficients for the propellers being used. Due to lack of data, from the supplier of rotors, and lack of equipment we had to adopt practical means to cater for these deficiencies. Furthermore, since this project is a unique one of its kind in the university so facilities for its testing were not available. As a result all testing and evaluation of the components used and of all prototypes was carried out on custom designed test rigs and facilities. Procurement of components was another challenging task in this project. But all possible means were used to get the required components.

1.6 SCOPE OF THIS PROJECT:

This project is divided into two parts. The first part of the project is to design low cost UAV using commercially available parts. The designed vehicle should be feasible for testing variety of aircraft controllers designed using different technologies. As the vehicle is going to be used as a testing platform, it should be durable and at the same time easily repairable. It should also have enough flight time so that some meaningful information can be deduced from the data collected in each test. Controlling an aircraft is a very difficult task but the level
6 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM University.

Introduction

of difficulty can be reduced, to some extent, by choosing an appropriate design. Therefore, selection of the design must be done carefully. In the design selection process the factors such as testing facility, safety of the operators, and life span of the components required, transportation of the vehicle must also be taken into consideration. There has been very little work on Atmega168 based controllers especially for applications such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Most of the UAV systems use DSP/microprocessor and FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) as their processing units. The second part of this project will cover the designing and developing of a complete control system for a UAV based on Atmega168 technology. This system will utilize ADCS (Analogue to Digital Converters) along with microcontrollers for the acquisition module and the actuator control signal module and it will utilize PID (proportional integral and derivative) control in the stabilization controller.

1.7 APPLICATIONS AND ADVANTAGES:

1. The quad copter would do everything that a conventional helicopter does but with abilities to lift more payload, simpler construction and safer operation.

2. The UAV version can be used for surveillance tasks like: a. monitoring a crowd or any activity b. Acquiring aerial views of disaster hit areas c. Military and search operations

3. The future prospect of the Quad-copter is the development of a small model hovercraft which can be used for inspection where no human can go.

4. The Quad-copter could be used to supply aerial electricity cables, into mines after accidents or into unsafe buildings.

5. The Quad-copter may be used for future TV surveillance from above by replacing the use of a full size helicopters and camera cranes.

7 Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRM University.