AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OF

QUADCOPTER UAV
Project Report

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of

Master of Technology
In
Control and Automation Engineering
(Instrumentation and Control Engineering)
By

MAYUR TANK
(13MICC22)

Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering

Institute of Technology
Nirma University,
Ahmedabad-382481
May 2015

AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OF
QUADCOPTER UAV
Major Project Report
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of
Master of Technology
In
Control and Automation Engineering
(Instrumentation and Control Engineering)
By

MAYUR TANK
(13MICC22)
Under the Guidance of
Prof. J.B. PATEL
Dr. JAYESH BARVE

Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering

Institute of Technology,Nirma University

Declaration
This is to certify that
1. The thesis comprises my original work towards the degree of Master of Technology in Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Nirma University and
has not been submitted elsewhere for a degree.

2. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used.

Mayur Tank
13micc22

ii
Undertaking of Originality of the Work

I, Mayur H. Tank, Roll.No.13MICC22, give undertaking that the Major Project

entitled Autonomous Control of Quadcopter UAV submitted by me, towards
the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology
in Instrumentation and Control Engineering (Control and Automation) of Nirma
University, Ahmedabad, is the original work carried out by me and I give assurance
that no attempt of plagiarism has been made. I understand that in the event of
any similarity found subsequently with any published work or any dissertation work
elsewhere it will result in severe disciplinary action.
Date:

Place: Ahmedabad

Signature of Student

Endorsed By
Signature of Guide

Prof. J.B. PATEL

Dr. Jayesh barve

iii

Certificate
This is to certify that the Major Project entitled Autonomous Control of
Quadcopter UAV submitted by Mr. Mayur Hasmukhbhai Tank (13MICC22)
towards the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Instrumentation and Control Engineering (Control and Automation) of
Nirma University, Ahmedabad is the record of work carried out by him under my
supervision and guidance. In my opinion the submitted work has reached a level
required for being accepted for examination. The results embodied in this major
project to the best of my knowledge havent been submitted to any other university
or institution for award of any degree or diploma.
Date:

Place: Ahmedabad

Guide

Guide

Prof. J.B. PATEL

Dr. Jayesh barve

(Asso. Professor,IC)

HOD

(Professor,IC)

Director

Programme Coordinator

Dr. P.N TEKWANI

Dr K Kotecha

Prof. J.B.Patel

Professor,EE

Director, IT, NU

Professor,IC

Department of EE

Ahemdabad

M.Tech IC IT-NU

IT-NU

Control and Automation

Ahemdabad

IT-NU Ahemdabad

iv

Acknowledgement
I have put sincere efforts in the development and completion of the project and
the report. However, this project would not have been possible without the assistance of several individuals and organizations. I would like to extend our sincere
thanks to them. I would like to thanks my project guides Prof J.B.Patel, Sr. associate professor and Dr. Jayesh Barve, professor, Instrumentation and Control
Department, Institute of Technology, Nirma University, who has help, stimulating
suggestions and hardware actual working encouragement me during the course of
my work. He never accepted less than my best efforts. His optimism, enthusiasm
and time managing skill were motivational for me, even during tough times in the
M.Tech. pursuit. Thank you sir, I could not have imagined having a better advisor
and mentor for my M.Tech. project.
I owe my most sincere gratitude to Dr. P. N. Tekwani, HOD, Electrical Engineering Department and Prof. J. B. Patel, the Program Coordinator, who gave me
the opportunity to work with them and give me untiring help during my difficult
moments. I am very grateful to Dr. K. Kotecha, the Director, institute of Technology without whose support my research and this dissertation would not have been
possible.
I thank Dr. Dipak Adhyaru, Section Head, Instrumentation and Control, Nirma
University, for extending all the support.
For their support and direction over the year, I would like to express my heartfelt
gratitude to all my professors Prof. H. K. Patel, Prof. Sandip Mehta, and Prof.
Ankit Sharma for their motivation. I would also like to give special mention to the
wonderful lab assistance members Mr. Jignesh and Mr. Ketan Patel for their never
ending and overwhelming support with the lab resources.

v
I would also like to thanks Maheshbhai for any kind of general help. They were
always willing to help me out. Last but not the least; I would like to thanks God
almighty, my parents, my family member and friends for their love, support and
excellent co-operation to build my moral during the work.

MAYUR TANK
(13MICC22)

vi

Abstract
Quadcopters UAV are a unique class of air vehicles because of they are simple
to model and control. In the recent years UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) having quadcopter configuration have been receiving increasing attention amongst the
global researchers due to its wide-range of applications such as surveillance in military, civilian and disaster management applications. The Altitude (or height) and
Attitude (roll, pitch and yaw angles) of the quadcopter can be controlled by manipulating voltages applied to these motors.
In general, quadcopters available as hobby kits are operated manually wherein the
flight-trajectory is controlled manually by providing thrust and angular movement
commands from the hand-held RF transmitter and receiver, which sends command
signals to quadcopter motor control board. However, this restricts the operations of
the quad-copter only to within visible range of the human operator.
In this project the research of the flight controller for autonomous flight trajectories based on predefine path to control automatically. In this thesis, we had
investigate autonomous flight operations for the quadcopter through the quadcopter
pixhawk control-system. Pixhawk is the fight controller R & D tool, which on one
side can be used to control the quad-copter altitude and attitude, and on the other
side provides facility for computer interface to receive fight commands and transfer
necessary data. It is proposed to investigate autonomously obtain various predefined fight trajectories e.g. hovering, linear, circular, rectangular, and some complex
trajectories etc. Along-side, it is also proposed to develop a suitable hardware as
a payload for certain application such as video imaging, weather data monitoring,
air speed control etc. This report documents the assembly of a quad rotor parts to
use it and software (Mission Planner) for measuring, monitoring and navigation as
a research platform for tackling autonomous fight. The flight trajectories are shown

vii
on MATLAB tool plotting with actual data of flights.
The flight trajectories are shown on MATLAB tool plotting with actual data of
flights.
A key part of the quad rotor are its navigation systems, which include both
hardware and software components. The hardware is a fusion of MEMS sensors like
accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers and a GPS unit. In actual ight &,
communication between the Ground Control Station (GCS) and the quadrotor plays
an important role by providing a manual over-ride in-case of failure of autonomous
systems. This is achieved using a point-to-point link.

CONTENTS

viii

Contents
1 INTRODUCTION

1.1

Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.2

State-of-the-Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3

Quadcopter System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 SYSTEM DESIGN

3 Quadcopter UAV

3.1

GPS u-Blox with Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.2

Gyroscope(ST Micro 16-bit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.3

Accelerometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.4

Megnetometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4 COMPONENT DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATION

15

4.1

Brushless DC Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2

ESCs (electronic speed controller) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.3

Flight Controller Pixhawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.4

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.5

Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.6

Propellers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.7

Radio Telemetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.8

Transmitter-Receivers PPM-Sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

MEASUREMENTS AND CALIBRATIONS

23

5.1

Radio Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5.2

ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) Measurement:

. . . . . . . . . . 26

5.3

Calibrating Gyroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

5.4

Calibrate Accelerometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

CONTENTS

ix

6 SIMULATION OF QUADCOPTER MODEL

29

32

AUTONOMOUS FLIGHTS
7.1

Takeoff

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7.2

Waypoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7.3

Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

7.4

Landing at different place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

7.5

Triangle Trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

7.6

Circle Trajectories analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

7.7

Battery Low when Taking Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

8 Conclusion and Work Done

40

9 Summary And Future Work

41

10 REFERENCE

42

LIST OF FIGURES

List of Figures
1

Schematic diagram of Quad-copter system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Direction of movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pixhawk controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gyroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Accelerometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Magnetometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

BLDC Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Electronic Speed Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Pixhawk Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

10

Li-PO Battery

11

Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

12

Propellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

13

3DR radio Telemtry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

14

Transmitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

15

Propellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

16

PWM Dutycycle Vs RPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

17

PWM Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

18

Aceelerometer Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

19

Same PID Gain for All Heights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

20

Tuned PID Gain for All Heights

21

Disturbance in Roll and Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

22

Ground Station Line Trajectory Desired Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

23

Simulation of Line Trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

24

Ground Station Triangle Desired Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

25

Simulation of Triangle Trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

26

10 Points, 20 Points and 30 Points Circles Trajectories . . . . . . . . 36

27

Simulation of 10 Points Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

LIST OF FIGURES

xi

28

Simulation of 20 Points Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

29

Simulation of 30 Points Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

30

Altitude of 30 Point Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

31

Battery Low Detection Aoutomatic Return to Launch . . . . . . . . . 39

32

Altitude of Circle when Battey Low-RTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

1 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Motivation

Quadrotors are four armed, four rotor propelled helicopter with inherently unstable and nonlinear dynamics. Though it is difficult to develop control system achieve
stability, the final system develop can be very agile and with the capability of unidirectional movement much more than other UAVs such as planes and helicopter (with
single rotor). In the UAV world Quad-rotors features one of the highest payload
capacities making it possible to load it with myriad of Sensors. Quad-rotors can be
utilized for both indoor and outdoor data collection such as surveillance, building
mapping etc.
All the points mentioned above are only valid if and only if we have utilized a
Controller with a very high performance, meaning the control loops need to be faster
(at least 4 times faster compared to other UAVs). Also there is an increase in the
number of actuators which demands even more number of secondary control loops.
Some problems are attributed to every form of UAV such as Sensor Data inaccuracies
developed due to Glitches, Resolution and Threshold etc. These problems can be
removed by using filters such as Complimentary and Kalman Filters. But even after
applying these measure there may be errors which are retained by the system, and
can be further reduced by utilizing as small order sensor as possible.
L. Meier and his team introducing a advance quadrotor Micro Arial Vehicle design, which is specially designed for research for advance autopilot computer vision
based fight control and autonomous fight using computer vision and GPS/INS based
version. Their contributions is the integration of a control board that is powerful
enough to handlel image processes and fight control processes onboard on a small

1.1 Motivation

scale quadrotor MAV.

In addition, we further advance the state-of-the-art by autonomous flights all
modes including below chapters. The capabilities of the system are furthermore
demonstrated by vision only autonomous waypoint based fights. The fight accuracy
is compared to ground station waypoints.
Finally, all the hardware and software designs are made open-source. Now-adays multirotor UAVs especially quadrotors with state of the art controllers have
gained quite a huge interest from engineering community because of many reasons
like controlling all direction of movement in flying and hovering at certain points
like a helicopter.

1.2 State-of-the-Art

1.2

State-of-the-Art

This project report is extending previous work. It extends it by a more detailed

description and evaluation of the system, i.e. the analysis of the motors, propellers,
frame, controller, flight mode, ground stations etc. It shows full autonomy, onboard computer based GPS-Waypoint-navigation using visual GUI making software
mission planner on ground station and demonstrates the integrated vision-based obstacle avoiding system. It was manually takeoff and landing through MAV-proxy
server on LINUX based open source software.

1.3 Quadcopter System

1.3

Quadcopter System

A quadcopter is a special type of Helicopter. They have four arms that are
attached to the main body and on each arm there are motors with rotors. For
the quad-copter in this thesis the motors are excited by electronic speed controllers
(ESCs). PWM signals are generate from control board and it can run BLDC motor.
which is the brains and main parameter of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Quadcopters have features that make them ideal classes for autonomous fight because
they are much simpler with direction and construction than traditional helicopters
due to the elimination of the swash-plate and the tail rotor. The swash-plate in a
traditional helicopter is used to increase the thrust, to increase the thrust on a quadcopter the angular velocity of the motors are increased because the pitch of each
rotor is fixed. Furthermore the tail rotor is eliminated, so the traditional helicopters
are used to stabilize the helicopter about the yaw axis. On a quad-copter the yaw
rotation is prevented by using pairs of clockwise and counter-clockwise rotating
motors, since two rotors are counter rotating they cancel the torque created by each
other.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of Quad-copter system

1.3 Quadcopter System

Different combinations of thrusts (T) are used rotating and translating a quadcopter. The different actuations used by the quadcopter for flights are illustrated
in below Figure. The rotational combination of a quadcopters are ROLLl, PITCH
and YAW, which are also used in (X, Y, Z) translation.
A quad-copter can do a counter-clockwise rotation then increase the speed of
counter-clockwise rotating motors and decrease the speed of clockwise rotating motors. For clockwise direction rotation of Quad-copters are increasing speed of clockwise rotating motors and decrease the counter-clockwise motors speed then we can
get the yaw angle at clockwise direction.

Figure 2: Direction of movement

For vertical lift all four motors speed increasing continuously and get the Quadcopter vertical take-off. Same for the vertical landing decrease all motors speed
slowly then the landing the Quad-copter.
For right side move the Quad-copter then the one motor of them which is for right
side then increasing the speed of it continuously and get the Roll from right side.
Also from the same as roll left.

1.3 Quadcopter System

A pitch angle is done by the front motor speed increase and its moving forward
direction and same for back word direction the increase the speed of the back word
motor then its go back movement is done.

2 SYSTEM DESIGN

SYSTEM DESIGN

The Pixhawk controller is designed with high level Linux(python based) flight computer. The powerful board Pixhawk enables high-level tasks as planning onboard,
obstacle detection and visual localization. Position and Altitude estimation are lowlevel real time control as low-level controller (ARM7). For the autonomous vehicle
it should be compatible with high level Linux computer and low level real time
controller.
The stereo cameras are in pair is giving deep information about indoor and outdoor
to detect point of non obstacle environment and choose a point to the desired way
as the planning at ground station and create autonomous flight.
The planning of missions (depth in autonomous flight chapter) in Ground control
is way point to be giving commands in EEPROM to the controller and without
camera it can take the way points choose one by one and complete the task.

Figure 3: Pixhawk controller

In low level controller of Pixhawk for position control is input of visual localiza-

2 SYSTEM DESIGN

tion (image processing), Mission way points (set points) and commands on python
script. Inputs of these are to be make quadcopter autonomy. The quadcopter attitude control is with position estimates with synchronised. In system design the
synchronous is solved by IMU to be right position.
The position is control by position estimating with feedback of current and desired position of quadcopter. The autopilot has calculates the desired attitude and
controls attitude using onboard MEMS (Accelerometer, Gyro meter, Magnetometer,
Barometer) sensors.
The position and attitude controller is standard PID controller. Independly for
all four controllable parameter ROLL, PITCH, YAW and ALTITUDE. These four
PID controller done independently and get the desired attitude of the location for
autonomous flight.

3 QUADCOPTER UAV

Quadcopter UAV
An autonomous quadrotor is a four rotor helicopter that performs tasks that we

defined before with a high degree of autonomic, which is particularly desired path
in GPS with latitude and longitude. Modern quadcopters are autonomous within
the strict confines of their direct environment with help of navigation system. In
surrounding environment the six degree of freedom (rotational and translation) are
particularly exist with autonomous flights.
It has facing problem is just unpredicted variables such an environment air speed
disturbances. The exact position and coordinates of the next targets of application
and required path and objects must be specific with the trajectory. These can
vary unpredictably because of external disturbances such as wind speed variations,
vibrations etc.
Quad copters important research is to run in environment whether in air, space
with successfully capable to fly.
A ful autonomy quadcopter can do:
1. The information about the environmental conditions
2. It should be Work with extended time without human interface.
3. Without human interfacing the parts of the quadcopter can be move.
4. For the design point of view it can avoid to harm people, properties etc.
An autonomous quad copter suddenly changed their behaviour when the environmental conditions are changed. New methods to accomplished the task must be
consider.

3.1 GPS u-Blox with Compass

10

In the system we have is just manually controlling UAV, for research on board and
the board Pixhawk can do autonomous flight that I found and for autonomous flight
I found various modes is available in Mission Planner to make vehicle autonomy.

3.1

GPS u-Blox with Compass

Features and Specifications :

1. LEA with 6-H module
2. 5-6 Hz update rate
3. 23 x 23 x 3 mm antenna
4. SAW filter for LAN transmission
5. Less noise 3.3V variable
6. I2C Memory for configuration storage
7. Powered and fixed indicating LED
8. 25 x 25 x 4 mm ceramic patch antenna
9. Protecting case design bibitem .Exposed RX, TX, 5V and GND pad
10. 38 x 38 x 8.5 mm total size, 16.8 grams.

3.1 GPS u-Blox with Compass

11

Global Position System working(GPS): A GPS compass receives signal

from MAVlink ground station and transmit the GPS location to ground station. An
earth orbiting satellite based system that provides signals available anywhere on or
above the earth that can be used to determine precise time and the position of a
GPS receiver in three dimensions.
1. The time with message was transmitted through MAVlink
2. Satellite position locates in Google map at time of message transmission.
With the help of speed of light the receiver can uses the messages from receiver
to determine the transit time of each message and computes the distance to each
satellite. Every distances and satellites location defines with latitudes and longitudes
in the earth surface.
Anywhere on Earth to within a few meters the Global Positioning System allows
to pinpoint their location.

3.2 Gyroscope(ST Micro 16-bit)

3.2

12

Gyroscope(ST Micro 16-bit)

The L3GD20H is a low-power three-axis angular rate sensor. An angular rate gyroscope is a device that produces a positive-going analog output for counterclockwise
rotation around the sensitive axis considered. Sensitivity describes the gain of the
sensor and can be determined by applying a defined angular velocity to it. This
value changes very little over temperature and time.

Figure 4: Gyroscope

It includes a sensing element and an IC interface able to provide the measured

angular rate to the external world through digital interface (I2C/SPI).

3.3 Accelerometer

3.3

13

Accelerometer

The system can be configured to generate an Interrupt signal for free-fall motion
detection and Magnetic-field-detection. Thresholds and timing of Interruption generators are programmable by the end User

Figure 5: Accelerometer

Linear-Acceleration Sensor Technology

Sensitivities are describes the gain of the sensor and can be determined by applying 1 g acceleration to it. As the sensor can be measure DC accelerations this
can be done by easily pointing the axis of interest towards the center of the Earth
noting the output value, rotating the sensor by 180 degrees (pointing to the sky)
and noting the output value again once. By doing so, 1 g accelerations are applied
to the sensor. It subtracts from larger output value to smaller one, and dividing
the result by 2, leads to actual sensitivity of the sensor. This value changes very
little over temperature and time. The sensitivity tolerance describes the range of
sensitivities of a large population of sensors.

3.4 Megnetometer

3.4

14

Megnetometer

A magnetometer measures magnetic fields. Because the earth has a significant

magnetic field, the magnetometer can be used as a compass. As such it is useful to
determine absolute orientation in the NESW plane.

Figure 6: Magnetometer

This allows better performance for dynamic orientation calculation in Attitude

and heading reference systems which base on IMUs. They are based on anisotropic
magnetoresistive (AMR) Permalloy technology sensors, which have superior accuracy and response time characteristics, while consuming significantly less power
than alternative technologies. The MEMSIC magnetometers are ideal for electronic
compass, GPS navigation and magnetic field detection applications.

4 COMPONENT DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATION

15

COMPONENT DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATION

4.1

Brushless DC Motor

Mostly all motors on quad-copters are out-runners in construction. The rotating part
is on the outside, and not the inside as opposed to the in-runner motors. Because
of this layout this type of motors can generating much more torque than simple
motors. Highly torque is required for quad-copters, since it balances by changing
the revolutions of the motors. The higher its torque the faster it can change the
speed of your propellers. Highly torques also means it doesnt need a gearbox, and
save a lot of mass. Out-runners are not very practical for brushed commutation, as
it would require lots of wires and additional contacts. Hence most of the out-runners
are brushless DC.

Figure 7: BLDC Motor

They features are highly-ended magnets, high quality bearings, Poles, custom
motor mount and all are precision balanced for smooth running conditions, these

4.2 ESCs (electronic speed controller)

16

motors are engineered specifically for multi-rotor use. The serial numbers integrates
the propeller adapter into the motor housing for problem free propeller attaching and
centring. Both slot and standard propellers can be utilized, so no more damaging
propellers from over to trying to secure its two pieces propeller adapters to the shaft.
The numbers have a built in aluminium mount for quick and easy installation on
multi-rotor frame. The Multi-Star kit comes with two propellers one CCW and one
CW and is ideal for a 3 cell set-up for a 450 size Quad.

4.2

ESCs (electronic speed controller)

An electronic speed control or ESC is an electronic circuit with the purpose to

vary an electric motors speed, its direction and possibly also to act as a dynamic
brake. ESCs are often used on electrically powered radio controlled models, with the
variety most often used for brushless motors essentially providing an electronicallygenerated three phase electric power low voltage source of energy for the motor.

Figure 8: Electronic Speed Controller

An ESC can be a stand-alone unit which plugs into the receivers throttle control
channel or incorporated into the receiver itself, as is the case in most toy-grade R/C
vehicles. Some R/C manufacturers that install proprietary hobby-grade electronics

4.3 Flight Controller Pixhawk

17

in their entry-level vehicles, vessels or aircraft use onboard electronics that combine
the two on a single circuit board.

4.3

Flight Controller Pixhawk

An advanced autopilot system, the PIXHAWK, designed by the PX4 open-sourcehardware project and manufacturing by 3D Robotics. It has feature with advanced
ardupilot processors and sensosr technologies from STM and a Nutt-X RealTimeOS,
delivering incredibling performaning, flexibiliting, and reliability for controlled an
Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle.

1. Gyro Stabilize: The ability to easily keeping the copter stable mode and level
under the pilots control. Loiter mode is very good mode in this ardupilot for
Gyro sensor.
2. Self-maintaining: The ability to let it go of the pitch and roll stick on the
transmitter and have the copter stay level. It is self maintain for position
detect with GPS location when any disturbance is apply on copter.
3. Core-free: The pilot can control the copter through the transmitter with
poining at the home/orignal location as we define before in ground station.
4. Altitude-Hold: The ability for hovering at certain distance from the ground
without having to manually adjust throttle from transmitter.
(a) Position-hold: The ability to hovering at a specific location, so it has
great facility for position hold at certain level.
(b) Return-home: The ability to automatically return to the launch point
where the system took off.

4.3 Flight Controller Pixhawk

18

(c) Way-point-navigation: The ability for a specific points on map that copter
will follow the way points with the help from GPS.

Figure 9: Pixhawk Module

The benefits of the Pixhawk system include integrated multithreading, a Unix/Linuxlike programming environment, completely new autopilot functions such as scripting
of missions and flight behavior, and a custom PX4 driver layer ensuring tight timing
across all processes. These advanced capabilities ensure that there are no limitations
to your autonomous vehicle. Pixhawk allows existing APM and PX4 operators to
seamlessly transition to this system and lowers the barriers to entry for new users
to participate in the exciting world of autonomous vehicles.

4.4 Battery

4.4

19

Battery

A lithium-polymer battery is a rechargeable battery of lithium-ion technology in a

bundle of cells format. Li-Pos come in a soft pack which makes them lighter but
also lack rigid.
The name lithium-polymer (Li-Po) is more widespread users of radio-controlledmodels, where it may indicate a single cell or a battery pack with cells connected in
series or parallel.

Figure 10: Li-PO Battery

4.5

Frame

For the best performance to fly Quad-copter there is a perfect symmetrical of system
design for accurate the fly. For this symmetrical design there is only one possibly to
install the controller, motors, props, ESCs etc. So the thinking about it should be
+ or X design of arm to be configure. So finally for better and simplicity we choose
the + structure of it to design.
For this the main things to see for whole system there is a fitting of each component very carefully installed. Must think about vibration there is not used steel
body screw to this because of the vibration its need re-screw of it so perfectly configuration of each arm weight and all things must properly fitted with some rubber

4.5 Frame

20

Figure 11: Frame

technology to be used for insulator with frame and components. Finally for the
testing purpose the 450mm diameter frame installed in this configure.

4.6

4.6

Propellers

21

Propellers

Basically propellers are two types clock wise and anti-clockwise.. Propellers are
classified by length and pitch. For example 104.7 propellers are 10 inch long and
have a pitch of 4.7.

Figure 12: Propellers

4.7

Radio Telemetry

The 3DR Radio is the module communicate between PC and copter. It can send
and receive data through MAV link. It is use MAVlink Package firmware which is
open source software to run on it.
The main features of the 3DR Radio are listed below :
1. Receiver sensitivity to -121 dBm
2. Transmit power up to 20dBm (100mW)
3. MAVLink protocol framing and status reporting
4. Can be used with a bi-directional amplifier for even more range

4.8 Transmitter-Receivers PPM-Sum

22

Figure 13: 3DR radio Telemtry

4.8

Transmitter-Receivers PPM-Sum

It is feasible to use a single satellite receiver to act as a PPM-Sum receiver with

PX4 and Pixhawk. Simply pre-bind the transmitter Satellite to transmit using
a conventional 8 channels receiver with satellite attached. Then connect the tiny
receiver to the connector on either the PX4IO or Pixhawk.

Figure 14: Transmitter

MEASUREMENTS AND CALIBRATIONS

23

MEASUREMENTS AND CALIBRATIONS

Motors RPM
For control of BLDC motor with the best efficiency, we must know the rotor
position at all times. For achieving this, there are two modes to operate. One is
called the sensor mode, where the information read back from the motor is the one
come from Hall Effect sensors.
The other one is the sensor-less mode, where the Back Electromotive Force (BEMF)
signal information is the one read back from the motor. In sensor-less mode, in order to be able to read the BEMF information, the phase switching has to include a
dead time during which no current flows in one of the motor windings. During this
dead-time phase, it is possible to detect the BEMF zero-crossing event on this non
powered winding.

Figure 15: Propellers

Calibration is all about confidence in the measurement results we are getting.

Calibration assures that measurements are accurate within the specification limits
to be operating.

MEASUREMENTS AND CALIBRATIONS

Value

Voltage

24

Table 1: Motors Behaviour

PWM Du- Motor1
Motor2

Motor3

Motor4

tyCycle
10

0.213

4.26

20

0.42

8.40

30

0.65

13.00

40

0.84

16.80

50

1.01

20.20

60

1.23

24.6

70

1.42

28.40

80

1.64

32.80

90

1.83

36.6

100

2.08

41.60

110

2.21

44.20

120

2.42

48.40

130

2.63

52.60

140

2.84

56.80

150

2.97

59.40

2810

3730

3060

3670

160

3.17

63.40

5663

6615

6060

6635

170

3.37

67.40

7381

8100

7697

8157

180

3.57

71.40

8383

8877

8601

8964

190

3.78

75.60

8973

9319

9130

9416

200

3.98

79.60

9328

9573

9453

9683

210

4.18

83.60

9573

9742

9659

9855

220

4.38

87.60

9724

9854

9804

9960

230

4.58

91.60

9936

9963

9973

10081

240

4.78

95.60

10254

10216

10265

10340

250

4.99

99.8

10260

10225

10277

10350

5.1

Radio Calibration

Channels

5.1

25

Table 2: Radio caliberation

Minimum
Center

Maximum

CH1(Roll)

1161

1523

1911

CH2(Pitch)

1243

1552

1886

CH3(Throttle)

1219

1655

1900

CH4(Yaw)

1153

1559

1929

Radio Calibration

At each value we give an exact attitude of quadcopter for desired set point. Normal
value around 1100 to1900 and disconnected channels are near closed to 1500.

5.2

ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) Measurement:

5.2

26

ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) Measurement:

Calibrating ESCs lets them know what zero and full throttle is on a particular
radio transmitter.

Figure 16: PWM Dutycycle Vs RPM

Figure 17: PWM Signals

Its needed for all your ESCs to spin the motors equally. Here using radio
transmitter to be calibrating it minimum and maximum value to spin the motor
at each PWM signals.

5.3 Calibrating Gyroscope

5.3

27

Calibrating Gyroscope

Gyroscopes are usually factory tested and calibrated in terms of zero-rate level and
sensitivity. However, after the gyroscope is assembled on the PCB, due to the stress,
the zero-rate level and sensitivity may change slightly from the factory trimmed
values.
The L3GD20H has a full scale of 245/500/2000 dps and is capable of measuring
rates with a user selectable bandwidth. At the voltage of calibration is 3 v.but in
my system gyroscope calibrated at the range below:
[-42 124 145]

5.4 Calibrate Accelerometer

5.4

28

Calibrate Accelerometer

Accelerometer calibration procedure requires measurement for 6 vehicle orientations

(level, on back, on left side, on right side, nose up, nose down). Its necessary to
estimate accelerometer offset and scale for each axis. The results are automatically
written to the parameters file.

Figure 18: Aceelerometer Calibration

6 SIMULATION OF QUADCOPTER MODEL

29

SIMULATION OF QUADCOPTER MODEL

The basic dynamical model of the quadcopter is available on PETER CROKE

blogs. This model is usage for more research for responding that how actual quadcopter system behaves. Different control methods has been researched, including
PID controllers, back stepping control, LQR controllers and nonlinear Controllers
with nested saturation. Control methods require accurate information from the position and attitude measurements performed with a gyroscope, an accelerometer,
and other measuring devices, such as GPS, and sonar and laser sensors.
One of these models the PETER CROKE RVCtool made quadcopter PID controller. This model presents the basics of quadcopter research and development in
the area. In this model the basically PD controller to be used for controlling aspect
and it is show the different heights responses.
With Same GAIN the response at different heights :

Figure 19: Same PID Gain for All Heights

6 SIMULATION OF QUADCOPTER MODEL

30

Observation : On above process, the same value of PID is very good for set
point 5 m to 50 m so above the level of set point it is take time to being stable at
define set point. Here is the one example to say that the same gain value is late
response at different-different heights.
Tuned PID Manually for Different Heights :

Figure 20: Tuned PID Gain for All Heights

Observation : For the different height it is manually tune PID value for fast
response of set points. So the conclusion is that for this response fast the new
(tuning PID) is need to achieve set point.

6 SIMULATION OF QUADCOPTER MODEL

31

Disturbance in Roll and PITCH at 20 sec step time :

Figure 21: Disturbance in Roll and Pitch

Observation : In actual quadcopter is fling at specific set point but mostly the
wind speed is not constant. It is vary with speed. Here in modelling show the
simulation response of system with wind disturbance. The disturbance is rejected
with the PID gain. No more oscillation on our system and take fast response to
reach specific set point.

AUTONOMOUS FLIGHTS

32

AUTONOMOUS FLIGHTS
Each of the commands below is either a Navigation command or a Do command.

Navigation commands (i.e. Takeoff and Waypoint) affect the location of the vehicle
while Do commands (i.e. Do-Set-Servo and Do-Cam-Trigg-Dist) are for auxiliary
functions and do not affect the vehicles position. During a mission at most one
Navigation command and one Do command can be running at one time. The Do
commands will be run in order as soon as the proceeding navigation command before
them starts.

7.1

Takeoff

The vehicle will climb straight up from its current location to the altitude specified (in meters). This should be the first command of nearly all missions. If the
mission is begun while the copter is already flying, the vehicle will climb straight
up to the specified altitude, if the vehicle is already above the specified altitude the
takeoff command will be ignored and the mission will move onto the next command
immediately.

7.2

Waypoint

The vehicle will climb straight up from its current location to the altitude specified (in meters). This should be the first command of nearly all missions. If the
mission is begun while the copter is already flying, the vehicle will climb straight
up to the specified altitude, if the vehicle is already above the specified altitude the

7.3 Land

33

takeoff command will be ignored and the mission will move onto the next command
immediately.

7.3

Land

Vehicle will land at its current location or at the lat/lon coordinates provided.
This is the mission equivalent of the LAND flight mode.
Lat, Lon the latitude and longitude targets. If left as zero it will land at the
current location.

7.4 Landing at different place

7.4

34

Landing at different place

Simple in line trajectory, the UAV flys 5 meter altitude and going the predefine
path in ground station then land on define point.

Figure 22: Ground Station Line Trajectory Desired Path

The simulation analysis in MATLAB of this trajectory is about the controller is

not valid gain to capture the desired path that already in controller. The control
algorithm has no sufficient gain for the altitude define.

Figure 23: Simulation of Line Trajectory

7.5 Triangle Trajectory

7.5

35

Triangle Trajectory

The way-points are defined in Ground station of GPS map with 5 meter altitude
runs with triangle trajectries.

Figure 24: Ground Station Triangle Desired Path

For the path defined Some place the UAV disturbed from wind so it will slightly
move from the desired path. But the auto-path in pixhawk controller is come back
to its desired path after disturbance. So for the PID controller in pixhawk is take
too much time to take its set-point.

Figure 25: Simulation of Triangle Trajectory

7.6 Circle Trajectories analysis

7.6

36

Circle Trajectories analysis

The defined trajectories in Ground Station are 3 circles with 10 meter altitude.
The analysis results of these predefine paths are below:

Figure 26: 10 Points, 20 Points and 30 Points Circles Trajectories

Simulation of 10 Points Circle

Figure 27: Simulation of 10 Points Circle

7.6 Circle Trajectories analysis

37

Simulation of 20 Points Circle It is clear to see that the points taken more
the accuracy getting for the same circle with same altitude and radius. So this is
the good to take more points more accurate.

Figure 28: Simulation of 20 Points Circle

7.6 Circle Trajectories analysis

38

Simulation of 30 Points Circle This tragectory is more acturete than 20 and

10 points circles.

Figure 29: Simulation of 30 Points Circle

Figure 30: Altitude of 30 Point Circle

7.7 Battery Low when Taking Flight

7.7

39

Battery Low when Taking Flight

When the UAV flying with 10 meter altitude suddenly battery was low. This
Failsafe trajectory is captured and it was coming on RTL mode.

Figure 31: Battery Low Detection Aoutomatic Return to Launch

Figure 32: Altitude of Circle when Battey Low-RTL

8 CONCLUSION AND WORK DONE

40

Conclusion and Work Done

The work done on this project is with actual hardware system and MATLAB Simulation study. The hardware part of the system is measurement and calibration
of components. The measurement of motors RPM are measured with tachometer.
This experiment is shown that the all motors characteristic are all about same. All
components are installed on 3DR-frame and calibrate Gyro, accelerometer, GPS and
telemetry communications.
Simulation of quadcopter model (made by PETER CROKE) on MATLAB is
studied and learn the basic part of system. This modelling has PID controller to
controlling Attitude and Altitude of the system. Simulation of system with different
altitudes such as 5m, 10m, 50m, 100m etc were taken. The different-different height
of system is given late response to take set point.
On the second experiment with tuned parameter of PID gains is given fast response to take set point with same altitude such as 5m, 10m, 50m, 100m etc.
The wind is varying any time so in simulation of wind speed is given Roll and
Pitch rates. On third experiment, the system is disturbed at a set point. The
simulation graph is conclude that tuning PID at different set point is giving well
and fast response to the system.

9 SUMMARY AND FUTURE WORK

41

Summary And Future Work

On hardware part, autonomous flights will take. The logged data from this flight

are analysed and study about it.

On the simulation, all gain values will be tuned at all height range. These PID
values will be adapt and run it on specific set point.

10 REFERENCE

10

42

REFERENCE

1. Onboard IMU and Monocular Vision based control for mavs in unknown inand outdoor environments. In: Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011 IEEE
International Conference on, pp(2011).Achtelik, M. Achtelik M. Weiss S Siegwart R.
2. Robust-autonomous-navigation in gps-denied environments. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010 IEEE International Conference on, pp. DOI ROBOT
Bachrach A. de Winter
3. Autonomous MAV fight in indoor environments using single image perspective
cues. Robotics and Automation IEEE International Conference on pp.Bills C.
Chen J. Saxena A.
4. Vision based mav navigation in unknown and unstructured environments.
Robotics and Automation IEEE International Conference on, Blosch M. Weiss
S. Scaramuzza, D. Siegwart R.
5. Autonomous detection of safe landing areas for an uav from monocular images. Intelligent Robots and Systems, International Conference on, . Bosch S.
Lacroix S. Caballero F.
6. Full control of a quadrotor. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems, Bouabdallah,
S., Siegwart, R.
7. An integrated uav navigation system based on aerial image matching. Aerospace
Conference Conte, G., Doherty, P.
8. An open-source pose estimation system for microair vehicles. In: Robotics
and Automation (ICRA) Dryanovski, I. Morris, W. Xiao, J.
9. Autonomous quadrotor fight using a vision system and accommodating frames
misalignment. Industrial Embedded Systems Ducard, G., DAndrea, R.

10 REFERENCE

43

10. Vision based position control for mavs using one single circular landmark.
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems Eberli, D., Scaramuzza, D., Weiss,
S., Siegwart, R.
11. www.robotshop.com/media/files/pdf/datasheet-pixhawk.pdfArducopter
12. Mission planner: http://ardupilot.com/downloads/?did=82
13. https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Wireless/Zigbee/XBee-Datasheet.pdf
14. http://www.pololu.com/file/0J563/L3GD20.pdf
15. http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1841032.pdf
16. http://www.invensense.com/mems/gyro/documents/PS-MPU-6000A-00v3.4.pdf
17. http://www.meas-spec.com/downloads/MS5611-01BA03.pdf
18. https://github.com/
19. http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/what-is-a-multicopter-and-how-does-it-work/
20. http://pixhawk.org/
21. http://www.qgroundcontrol.org/
22. https://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Mission
23. http://3drobotics.com/
24. http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/initial-setup/esc-motor/