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B.S. ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING, BATCH 2008 Internal Advisor Fahad Ahmed Siddiqui Assistant Professor Electronics SSUET, Karachi External Advisor Maqbool Ahmed Siddiqui Manager Electronics SUPARCO, Karachi
Submitted by:
Muhammed Yousuf Asad Idrees Syed Ali Asghar Faraz Ahmed Faizan Ahmed Ali Farzan
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING SIR SYED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, KARACHI
JANUARY 2012
SIR SYED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING University Road, Karachi-75300, Pakistan TEL: 349488000-2, 34952363, 111-994-994 Fax: 4982393 http://www.ssuet.edu.pk The Faculty of Electronic Engineering
Project Approval
Project Title Internal Advisor External Advisor Academic Year Group Members: Muhammed Yousuf Asad Idrees Syed Ali Asghar Faraz Ahmed Faizan Ahmed Ali Farzan EE-2008-07 EE-2008-090 EE-2008-091 EE-2008-093 EE-2008-107 EE-2008-109 2008-2011 Hover Bot 1.0 Mr. FAHAD AHMED SIDDIQUI, Asst. Professor, SSUET
The Department of Electronic Engineering Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology has approved this Final Year Project. The Project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering. Approval Committee:
TABLE OF CONTENT
TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................................. 3 Figure Table .................................................................................................................... 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. 7 ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 10 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 SELECTION OF PROJECT .......................................................................... 10 Scope of Project ............................................................................................. 10 Synopsis ......................................................................................................... 10 Motivation ...................................................................................................... 12 Overview ........................................................................................................ 12 Significance of project ................................................................................... 12 Project Requirements ..................................................................................... 14 Methodology .................................................................................................. 14 Quad-rotors Movement and Control ............................................................. 15 SPEED CONTROL OF BRUSH LESS DC MOTORS ............................. 16
1.10.1 PPM.......................................................................................................... 16 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Electronic Speed Control (ESC) ................................................................. 17 PWM........................................................................................................... 17 AVR mainboard .......................................................................................... 18 Wireless Communication ........................................................................... 19 ZigBee ........................................................................................................ 19
CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND ............................................................................ 21 2.1 2.2 2.3 History ............................................................................................................ 21 Features: ......................................................................................................... 23 Comparisons & Feasibility ............................................................................. 24 Helicopter:............................................................................................... 24 Tri Copter: ............................................................................................... 25 Hex Copter: ............................................................................................. 25 Dragonfly ................................................................................................ 25 Quad Copter ............................................................................................ 26
3.1
CHAPTER FOUR: DESIGN & COMPONENTS ........................................................ 28 4.1 4.2 SYSTEM DESIGN ........................................................................................ 28 Motors and Electronic Speed Controller: ....................................................... 29 Servos:..................................................................................................... 29 Comparison of Brushed and Brushless DC Motors: ....................... 30 Electronic Speed Controller (ESC): ................................................. 31
4.2.1
Frame.............................................................................................................. 31 Battery and Charger ....................................................................................... 32 Battery: .................................................................................................... 32 Selection of Battery: ........................................................................ 32
4.4.1
Charger:................................................................................................... 33
Propellers:....................................................................................................... 33 Selection.................................................................................................. 34
PROP-ADAPTER .......................................................................................... 35 Electronics ...................................................................................................... 36 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Board: ............................................... 36 Gyroscope ............................................................................................... 37 Uses of Gyroscopes ......................................................................... 37
4.7.1 4.7.2
Material Selection .......................................................................................... 43 4.9.1 4.9.2 4.9.3 4.9.4 4.9.5 Nylon: ..................................................................................................... 43 Carbon Fiber: .......................................................................................... 43 Steel: ....................................................................................................... 44 Wood: ..................................................................................................... 44 Aluminum: .............................................................................................. 44
5.2 5.3
Figure Table
Figure 1: Movements for flying objects........................................................................ 15 Figure 2: HoverBot Maneuvering ................................................................................. 16 Figure 3: PPM wave for 3 Phase BRUSH LESS DC MOTORS.................................. 17 Figure 4: PWM Period & Duty (on-Time) ................................................................... 18 Figure 5 : PWM Duty Cycle Variation ......................................................................... 18 Figure 6: AVR MAIN BOARD SCHEMATIC ............................................................ 19 Figure 7 DeBothezats quad-rotor Design, .................................................................... 21 Figure 8 :Oeminchen No.2 Quad-rotor Design, 1922................................................... 22 Figure 9: Convertawings Model A quad-rotor Design, 1956 .................................... 23 Figure 10: System Block Diagram ................................................................................ 28 Figure 11: Brushless DC motor .................................................................................... 29 Figure 12: ESC.............................................................................................................. 31 Figure 13: 4000mA LiPo Battery ................................................................................. 33 Figure 14: Propellers ..................................................................................................... 34 Figure 15: 9x3.6 Dual-Blade Prop ................................................................................ 35 Figure 16: 7x3.5 Tri-Blade Prop ................................................................................... 35 Figure 17: Propeller Adapters ....................................................................................... 36 Figure 18: Gyroscope Dimensions................................................................................ 37 Figure 19: Accelerometer Board ................................................................................... 38 Figure 20: Atmel Meg 32.............................................................................................. 39 Figure 21: XBee module ............................................................................................... 42 Figure 22: FLOW CHART FOR THE HOVER BOT 1.0 PROGRAMMING ............ 46
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of ALLAH the most merciful; the one and only supreme power, the one whose will makes everything possible, and the one without whose will the simplest is impossible.
We are thankful to ALMIGHTY ALLAH for giving us the courage and strength to successfully complete our project, under the title Hover BOT 1.0.
We would like to thank our Family members for their prayers, guidance, support and care. Without their moral and financial support it would not have been possible for us to achieve this milestone.
We express our indebtedness and heartfelt gratitude to Mr.Fahad Ahmed Siddiqui, under whose able and sincere advice and guidance we have become successful in completing this project.
We also wish our gratitude to all the staff in the university. And last but not the least we acknowledge the efforts of our teachers who have been our source of inspiration throughout the university years and have shared their knowledge and skills with us.
To all these people and many more, we have failed to mention we extended our sincere thanks.
Group Members
ABSTRACT
HoverBot 1.0 is an Un-Manned Aerial and Ground Vehicle. It is a Hover Bot 1.0 on Wheels controlled wirelessly by a Game Controller connected to a Laptop which sends and receives signals to and from HoverBot 1.0 and displays Monitory data on a GUI. HoverBot 1.0 is carefully designed to maintain a balance between Robustness, Weight, Speed, Stability and Looks. Each arm of HoverBot 1.0 is 1 ft. in length and has a width of 1 cm. The four arms, made of Aluminum join together underneath the circuit holding area which is Balsa Wood, which is strong yet very light in weight. The battery holder is a cut out plastic piece sandwiched in a Styrofoam shock absorber. The wheels are mounted under the arms and are equidistant from the center. The heart of HoverBot 1.0, its mainboard lies on top of the Balsa Wood circuit holder which consists of an Atmega 32 (AVR) Microcontroller which controls both, the Hover Bot 1.0 and the Wheels underneath it. The AVR mainboard also consists of 2 very important Components. 1. XBEE Wireless Receiver 2. Inertial Measurement Unit The XBEE Wireless Communications Module is easy to interface with a computer as compared to other RF Communications Modules. It is interfaced through the serial port on our laptop. The Inertial Measurement unit is an extremely important component of HoverBot 1.0. It provides data about the orientation of HoverBot 1.0 in air. This data is analog and is received by the AVR through its ADCs. The AVR has 4 PWM generators which is its most important application in this project. The PWM signals are sent to ESCs which convert them into PPM signals that control the speed of the Brush Less DC Motors. Mounted under the battery holding Styrofoam is a wireless Camera that provides real time footage of the field. The ESCs also have a special feature of noise rejection. Any data other than the required PWM signal is rejected by the ESC. HoverBot 1.0 has an Auto-Pilot feature which is achieved solely by programming, no use of GPS is done for the calculation of distance, learning the path, or staying within the range of XBEE module. HoverBot 1.0 can be used in military operations such as Recon and Surveillance. It has a payload capacity of 0.5 to 0.8 Kg. It can also be used as a weapon. It can carry rigged explosives to enemy barricades and trenches and detonate, minimizing the risk for
friendly soldiers. Ground mobility enables HoverBot 1.0 to preserve battery, not every destination requires an aerial route
1.3 Synopsis
fixed rotors designed in a square, symmetric configuration, with the front and back rotors rotating counter-clockwise and the side rotors clockwise. Quad-rotors were
conceptualized by Dr. George de Bothezat and Ivan Jerome in the 1920s. Early designs never achieved a hovering height greater than five meters. Few applicable uses arose for the quad-rotor over the years.
Recently, they have become a very popular consumer product as a remote control (RC) helicopter. The quad-rotor is such a proficient RC helicopter due to the fixed rotor design, which consequently reduces the chance of failure in comparison with the actuating rotor design of single rotor RC helicopters. In addition, having four motors versus one motor allows for an increased potential thrust. Therefore the quadrotor has impressive maneuvering capabilities that make it a great indoor and/or outdoor RC helicopter. The advantages to developing an autonomous miniature quadrotor are numerous and make it a worthy research topic. In addition, having four motors versus one motor allows for an increased potential thrust. Therefore the quadrotor has impressive maneuvering capabilities that make it a great indoor and/or outdoor RC helicopter. The advantages to developing an autonomous miniature quadrotor are numerous and make it a worthy research topic.
Developing an autonomous miniature quad-rotor yielded many difficulties. Initially there was research into different types of motors, propellers, batteries and control schemes in an effort to develop task specifications to accomplish flight. The motors and propellers must produce enough thrust to lift all the components into flight and maneuver. The batteries need to have a large enough capacity to allow for sufficient flight time. Algorithm for the dynamic control equations used to correct the attitude of the quad-rotor and create steady level flight has to be formulated. At the same time, components for movement position must be chosen and implemented into a circuit. Also, frame must be constructed to hold the motors and all the electronic components. Once the final construction of the quad-rotor has been completed, a program to use the algorithms will be created to allow the computer to fly the quadrotor. Thus, there are many facets in constructing a quad-rotor producing many challenges in integrating all the components.
The goal is to design a miniaturized autonomous quad-rotor capable of taking off from a landed position, maneuvering to a point determined by a programming, so it 11
can hover, and land at its take off point. The team designed a quad-rotor based on the RC helicopter configurations, except the provided quad-rotors thrust capabilities needed improvement as well as the battery operating time to accomplish the goals. Algorithms were developed to map the dynamics of the miniature quad-rotor to implement them in a program capable of flying the helicopter.
1.4 Motivation
We were motivated to select HoverBot for our Final Year Project from a Discovery Channel program Future Weapons and by the concept of a Remote Controlled Drone in a computer game called Frontlines - Fuels of War by THQ in which the drone was used for reconnaissance missions and it could also sneak into terrorist bunkers/barricades/hideouts and detonate itself
1.5 Overview
HoverBot is a machine that could fly and move on the ground for reconnaissance mission controlled from a remote location. The design of the HoverBot will be that of a Quad-Copter. A Quad Copter on wheels.
Secondly, the use of four rotors allows each individual rotor to have a smaller diameter than the equivalent helicopter rotor, for a given vehicle size, allowing them to store less kinetic energy during flight. This reduces the damage caused should the rotors hit any objects.
A quad copter also has many advantages over an airplane these are The most important is that it can hover whereas a conventional aircraft cant do so. An aircraft requires a runway to land and take-off whereas a Hover Bot 1.0 can do VTOL.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are crafts capable of flight without an onboard pilot. They can be controlled remotely by an operator, or can be controlled autonomously via pre-programmed flight paths. Written programs have the craft turn on, lift off, hover, translate, and land, or any other combination of these tasks. More difficult tasks, such as a positioning or navigational system require additional components and more advanced programming, but can easily be adapted to this quadrotor. The quad-rotor in this project is capable of ground movement as well. So, we can say it is Unmanned Aerial and Ground Vehicle (U.A.G.V.). It is first of its kind till date. As a result of ground movement, it helps military by providing additional support for spying purpose. The other features are its light weight, quick and small craft of carrying pay-load up to 1 kg.
An effective autonomous miniature quad-rotor would have many practical applications ranging from civil purpose such as to provide food and water to a person who has been trapped in a mine and the mine is susceptible to collapse. Photos and aerial videos could be acquired of areas dangerous for humans such as volcanoes, glaciers or caverns. It can also be used for rescue and search operations by integrating heat sensors in case of natural calamity or man-made accident. Moreover, a quad-rotor can also be used for various military applications such as spying enemy forces and detonating itself to enemy forces and save precious life of soldiers. It can also be used for surveillance and intelligence. 13
So, there is no chance of damage to quad-rotor which may happen in case of felling down after reaching the set limit restriction of the aircraft.
Since, our team has also given the role of developing a remote control to give the instruction to quad-rotor for reaching desired position. We do so by using joystick, which is normally used for playing games, and interfacing it with X-bee module which is installed on the aircraft. The X-bee module is managed by Zigbee protocol. Also, we have been given the task of designing a quad-rotor that is capable of flight up to 15 meters. So, we have chosen motors and propellers as such that are capable of producing enough thrust that can lift the quad-rotor to reach our desired height, that is, 15 meters.
1.8 Methodology
The working of quad-rotor is based on multiple factors that include natural laws, hardware software interfacing etc. It includes various principles such as Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) that is the basic tenant of quad copters propeller speed control. The control and maneuvering of Hover Bot 1.0 is simpler as change in speed of rotors is the only factor. Though stability control is not as simple because the Hover Bot 1.0 itself is unstable and requires onboard sensors to gain stability. Some basic methods are explained below that makes a Hover Bot 1.0 provide its basic functionality. 14
These movements can make the Hover Bot 1.0 move in any direction possible in the 3-Dimensional Space. The directional movements on Hover Bot 1.0 works on differential rotor speed between opposite rotors. For instance if you want to go right, the left rotor will have to speed up (creating more lift) and the right one slow down. This makes the platform tilt to the right; same thing for the forward and back motion. The yaw works a little different, your rotor pairs spin in opposite direction CW and CCW (canceling torque), the slow down or speed up of a pair will yaw the platform. Notice that the altitude will drop, thus a little more power will need to be applied to keep from falling. For altitude gain, all 4 rotors will have to speed up equally
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Heres how the movement of the four motors makes the Quad-rotor to maneuver its self during flight.
1.10.1
PPM
A BRUSH LESS DC MOTORS motor works on the principle of PPM. A pulse PPM wave has wave for each input of BRUSH LESS DC MOTORS (3 in this case). The position of each pulse is displaced in time and is repetitive throughout. The PPM is generated by the Esc which is then delivered to the BRUSH LESS DC MOTORS. 16
1.12 PWM
PWM waveforms are "on-off" digital waveforms that are specified by two values: the period and the duty cycle, as shown below.
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Figure 4: PWM Period & Duty (on-Time) A PWM works by making a square wave with a variable on-to-off ratio, the average on time may be varied from 0 to 100 percent. In this manner, a variable amount of power is transferred to the load. The power transferred can be varied by changing the duty cycle as shown below.
and then an increased pulse time produces thrust. The AVR is programmed to generate PWM signals on four pins.
1.15 ZigBee
ZigBee is a wireless technology developed as an open global standard to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power wireless mesh networks. The ZigBee standard operates on the IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specification and operates in
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unlicensed bands including 2.4 GHz, 900 MHz and 868 MHz. The specification is a packet-based radio protocol intended for low-cost, battery-operated devices.
The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications. Low power-usage allows longer life with smaller batteries. Mesh networking provides high reliability and more extensive range. The technology is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs such as Bluetooth. ZigBee chip vendors typically sell integrated radios and microcontrollers with between 60 KB and 256 KB flash memory.
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2.1 History
The idea of a quad-rotor aircraft has existed since early in the 20th century. Throughout the 20th century very few distinct rotor-craft designs had been developed. The earliest workable designs for a quad-rotor were developed by George DeBothezat, Etienne Oemichen and D.H. Kaplan.
Oemichens quad-rotor design is the earliest mention of a complete four-rotor hovering vehicle in history. Oemichens first design in 1920 failed in the initial attempt to become airborne, thereby requiring Oemichen to add additional lifting power and stability of a helium-filled balloon. After a number of recalculations and redesigns, Oemichen was able to come up with a design that actually was capable of lift off and even established world helicopter flight records of the time, remaining airborne for up to 14 minutes at a time by 1923.
After working on his design for over 2 years, DeBothezats was able to develop a fairly capable helicopter, which was able to take on a payload of up to 3 people in
addition to the pilot. His design was deemed underpowered, unresponsive and susceptible to reliability problems. In addition, instead of the calculated 100 meters cruising altitude, his craft was only capable of reaching a height of roughly 5m.
The early designs were propelled by additional rotors located somewhere on the rear or the front of the craft, perpendicular to the main rotors. Thus, they are not true quad-rotor designs. It was not until the mid-1950s that a true quad-rotor helicopter flew, which was designed by Marc Adam Kaplan. Kaplans quad-rotor design, Convertawings Model A quad-rotor, is arguably the most successful of the early designs of the rotor-craft. The prototype first flew in 1956, and did so with great success. The 2200 pounds craft was able to hover and maneuver using its two 90 horsepower motors, each capable of driving all four rotors in backup mode. Control in this case did not call for additional rotors on the sides of the craft, but was obtained by varying thrust between rotors. This also was the first quad-rotor design that was able to fly forward successfully. Despite these early proofs-of-concepts, people saw little practical use for quadrotors. They simply were not competitive with the performance specifications (speed, payload, range, etc.) of more conventional aircrafts. No production contracts were awarded and interest in quad-rotors waned. Recently however, there has been renewed interest in quad-rotors from hobbyists. This old idea is returning with great potential after RC quad-rotors have shown that there is definite potential in the quad-rotor platform.
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2.2 Features:
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are crafts capable of flight without an onboard pilot. They can be controlled remotely by an operator, or can be controlled autonomously via pre-programmed flight paths. Written programs have the craft turn on, lift off, hover, translate, and land, or any other combination of these tasks. More difficult tasks, such as a positioning or navigational system require additional components and more advanced programming, but can easily be adapted to this quadrotor. The quad-rotor in this project is capable of ground movement as well. So, we can say it is Unmanned Aerial and Ground Vehicle (U.A.G.V.). It is first of its kind till date. As a result of ground movement, it helps military by providing additional support for spying purpose. The other features are its light weight, quick and small craft of carrying pay-load up to .5kg.
An effective autonomous miniature quad-rotor would have many practical applications ranging from civil purpose such as to provide food and water to a person who has been trapped in a mine and the mine is susceptible to collapse. Photos and aerial videos could be acquired of areas dangerous for humans such as volcanoes, 23
glaciers or caverns. It can also be used for rescue and search operations by integrating heat sensors in case of natural calamity or man-made accident. Moreover, a quad-rotor can also be used for various military applications such as spying enemy forces and detonating itself to enemy forces and save precious life of soldiers. It can also be used for surveillance and intelligence.
Now we compare different designs that can be chosen as our design for the project
2.3.1 Helicopter:
Complex mechanical structure and control The most common among manned or unmanned air vehicles that a man can perceive is non-other than a helicopter. Now, since we all are more familiar with a helicopter a natural tendency for design selection would be this but this is where things starts to get complicated. A helicopter has only a single rotor for thrust and another for balancing the angular acceleration. Since it has only on thrust producing rotor its movements (forward backward, sideways) is now based on the mechanical movement of the rotor. Since it includes mechanical moving parts it is not a feasible design, because mechanical movements make the design complex. 24
2.3.4 Dragonfly
Most difficult to control, Thruster not easily available A dragon fly produces its thrust with the help of thrusters which are very expensive to an extent that a single thruster costs approx. 70% of our overall project cost. Also the movement of a dragonfly is based on the positioning of the thruster about their axis which makes the design the most complex of all designs.
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Also because it has four arms the ground mobility on wheels becomes easier because it can now move as a car with the weight distributed equally on all sides.
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CHAPTER THREE 3.1 Quad-rotor Physics:Hover Bot 1.0s (and many other objects of engineering interest, flying or otherwise) can be modeled via Newton's Laws. The overall governing equation is:
Where: F m is is the net the force mass in in, pounds, ounces, or or Newtons kilograms
grams
a is the acceleration in feet/second/second, or meters/s^2 or centimeters/s^2 (all of these units are just common examples; there are others, In words, net forces cause masses to accelerate. This is why larger vehicles tend to be more stable - it takes larger forces to move them. Similarly, smaller craft tend to be more agile. Stability vs. agility is a frequent design engineering trade off - at least before feedback augmentation was available. A certain amount of force has to be generated just to maintain a steady condition. For example, for the quad to hover it must provide sufficient force to overcome gravity. For it to maintain forward flight, the quad must overcome both gravity and air resistance (also known as aerodynamic drag). When aircraft are in this steady condition, they are said to be "trimmed" or "in trim". Only forces that are in excess of the forces required to trim the quad will cause it to accelerate.
Quantity Name 1 4 1 1 4 4 1 4 1 1 Central Hub Arm Battery Holder Battery Electronic Speed Controller DC Motors AVR Microcontroller Propellers Xbee Module Inertial Measurement Unit
4.2.1 Servos:
A servo is the component used to provide the driving torque. In our case, the servos drive each of the four propeller blades. There are two types of servos: brushed and brushless. The brushed DC motor is the conventional type of servo. The brushes make mechanical contact with a set of electrical contacts on the rotor, called the commutator. This forms an electrical circuit between the DC electrical source and the armature coilwindings. As the armature rotates on the axis, the stationary brushes come into contact with different sections of the rotating commutator. The commutator and brush system form a pair of electrical switches, each firing in sequence. Consequently, the armature coil closest to the stationary stator, which is a permanent magnet, constantly has electrical power flowing through it.
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In a brushless DC motor, the electromagnets are stationary. The permanent magnets rotate and the armature remains static. This gets around the problem of how to transfer current to a moving armature. To do this, the brush-system/commutator assembly is replaced by an intelligent electronic controller. The controller performs the same power distribution found in a brushed DC motor, but uses a solid-state circuit rather than a commutator/brush system.
Brushless DC motors are more efficient than brushed DC motors. The absence of friction in the brushes of a Brushless DC motor will convert more electrical energy into mechanical power than a brushed motor. Brushless DC motors are designed to operate over a broad range of speeds and have the advantage of reduced maintenance since there are no brushes or commutators. In conclusion, Brushless DC motors offer increased speed and superior performance with higher torque-to-inertia ratio than their counterparts.
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4.3 Frame
We believe that the current frame will prove sufficient for our purposes. It is light, sturdy, easy to construct, and capable of housing the components we require securely. Currently our Hover Bot 1.0 is made up of Aluminum which is light weight, strong and most importantly cheaper than its counterparts. However, given more time several improvements are possible. In the future use of carbon fiber tubing and sheets, and perhaps even thermoplastics, might allow for an equally functional structure that is 31
lighter and more aesthetically pleasing. Though the aluminum support rods seem to hold our motors well enough for our purposes, some of the arms had the tendency to torque to offset angles and required readjusted before each flight. Also, screwing the ABS to the aluminum rods (for ease of assembly/disassembly) proved detrimental to the structural integrity as the rods dented with the added strain. We hope that future iterations will not have these issues if the arms are constructed out of carbon fiber.
There are some other batteries are also available such as Manganese batteries, alkaline batteries, and Silver oxide batteries etc. but they are very low in performance and cannot be used for long-span. Such batteries are suitable only for very low voltage products.
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Lithium Ion Polymer (LIPO) is the most suitable for our quad-rotor. It has great efficiency as well as it provides enough power for long-span. It has another advantage that since it is soft so it can easily be placed in battery holder. The battery we have used provides 12V and 4000 mA current.
4.4.2 Charger:
A problem with the battery is that it discharges with time. So we need a charger to address this issue. The charger of Lithium ion Polymer (LIPO) acts in a different manner as compared to nickels battery charger. A Li-poly charger functions by charging each cell at a constant current charge rate of about 75% of the cells capacity. The charging process normally takes an hour and a half to complete.
4.5 Propellers:
The propeller is the thrust producing component on the quad-rotor. Designs of the airfoil for the propeller are highly studied and coveted engineering secrets and have been for more than a century. Over the years many classes of airfoils have been developed. Each design created for different applications, producing 33
different flight specifications. For the RC quad-rotor application there is only one class, the small-scale fixed-pitch rotor blade. The miniature quad-rotor most commonly uses a twin-blade propeller for each of its motors. The twin-blade design is light and provides excellent mission endurance. One of problem to deal with is separation drag.
To reduce separation drag the trailing edge of the airfoil must be sharp, which creates a thin, highly acute angle. An additional consideration is the moment force on the airfoil. A high moment force can increase wear, create unwanted vibrations, and increase drag. To reduce the moment, the center of pressure must be moved rearward. One can accomplish this by shifting the center of thickness and camber away from the leading edge, however this decreases lift. Consequently, there is a trade-off between minimizing the moment force and maximizing lift. Another way to reduce moments is by increasing the mechanical stiffness, which reduces angular deflection.
4.5.1 Selection
We decided to try several propeller designs in an attempt to find quiet, fast, and high thrust combinations for our motors. The first set consists of two-blade, 83.8 props. (8 inch diameter, 3.8 blade pitch).
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Figure 15: 9x3.6 Dual-Blade Prop These are fairly large rotors and draw fairly low current for our hover estimate. The second set consists of tri-blade, 73.5 props (7 inch diameter, 3.5 blade pitch).
Figure 16: 7x3.5 Tri-Blade Prop After some research, it was found that tri-blade props can be quieter than dualblade when run at the same speed, though they draw a couple hundred milliamps more at hover. The test results for both prop sets can be seen in the figures below.
4.6 PROP-ADAPTER
Even though the figure below shows only screws and nuts and may seem of no importance at all this prop adapter is a very important component of the quad copter. It keeps the propellers tightly in their place and stops it from flying away and causing and hazard to humans or anything around. Since the motor rotates at incredibly high speed and if any propeller leaves the copter during flight it is going to result in instant crashing of the copter and may severely damage the quad copter. It can also severely hurt any humans in the vicinity.
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4.7 Electronics
To control the quad-rotor autonomously, it has a micro-controller, connected to an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a wireless operations unit to drive the four main motors. To get the quad-rotor to hover or move in mid-air effectively and reliably, the craft must have a fairly accurate inertial measurement system, which sends all the necessary inputs to the micro-controller resulting in its ability to determine its instantaneous movement and correct for any instabilities in its flight.
The new quad copter must have at least a 3-axis accelerometer (3 spatial coordinates
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xyz) and a gyroscope to detect the rotation. The alternative to these two sensors is an IMU device.
4.7.2 Gyroscope
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of conservation of angular momentum. Gyroscopes can be very perplexing objects because they move in peculiar ways and even seem to defy gravity. These special properties make gyroscopes extremely important in everything from your bicycle to the advanced navigation system on the space shuttle. A
typical airplane uses about a dozen gyroscopes in everything from its compass to its autopilot.
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In an INS, sensors on the gimbals' axles detect when the platform rotates. The INS uses those signals to understand the vehicle's rotations relative to the platform. If you add to the platform a set of three sensitive accelerometers, you can tell exactly where the vehicle is heading and how its motion is changing in all three directions. With this information, an airplane's autopilot can keep the plane on course, and a rocket's guidance system can insert the rocket into a desired orbit!
4.7.3 Accelerometers
An accelerometer is a device that measures the vibration, or acceleration of motion of a structure. The force caused by vibration or a change in motion (acceleration) causes the mass to "squeeze" the piezoelectric material which produces an electrical charge that is proportional to the force exerted upon it. Since the charge is proportional to the force, and the mass is a constant, then the charge is also proportional to the acceleration
An Inertial Navigation System (INS) is a navigation aid that uses a computer and motion sensors (accelerometers) to continuously calculate the position, orientation, and velocity (direction and speed of movement) of a moving object without the need for external references. Other terms used to refer to inertial navigation systems or closely related devices include inertial guidance system, inertial reference platform, and many other variations. An accelerometer alone is unsuitable to determine changes in altitude over distances where the vertical decrease of gravity is significant, such as for aircraft and
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rockets. In the presence of a gravitational gradient, the calibration and data reduction process is numerically unstable.
4.7.4 Micro-controller:
The microcontroller chosen on our main board is the Atmel atmega32/atmega328 series microcontroller.
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Low power and high performance AVR microcontrollers can handle demanding 8 and 16-bit applications. With a single cycle instruction RISC CPU, Pico Power technology, and a rich feature set, the AVR architecture ensures easy application development and fast code execution combined with the lowest possible power consumption. The well-defined I/O structure limits the need for external components and reduces development cost. A variety of timers, SPIs, UARTs, internal oscillators, pullup resistors, pulse width modulation, Analog Comparators, ADCs and Watch-Dog Timers are some of the features available for engineers. It is interesting to note that most instructions only take a single clock cycle to execute and there is no internal clock division. Whether you program in C, Pascal or assembly language, the tuned AVR instructions decrease program size and development time. The AVR processor features a real life stack and its instruction set was designed and optimized for use with high level languages - it is easy to program these chips using C. AVR microcontrollers may be programmed using assembly or a higher level language. Learning to program it in assembly language is a good idea, as it gives you in depth understanding of the internal operations.
4.7.4.2 Specifications
4.7.4.2.1 Features
o High-performance, Low-power AtmelAVR 8-bit Microcontroller o Advanced RISC Architecture o 131 Powerful Instructions Most Single-clock Cycle Execution o 32 8 General Purpose Working Registers o Fully Static Operation o Up to 16 MIPS Throughput at 16MHz o On-chip 2-cycle Multiplier
4.7.4.2.2 Memory
o 32Kbytes of In-System Self-programmable Flash program memory o 1024Bytes EEPROM o 2Kbytes Internal SRAM o Write/Erase Cycles: 10,000 Flash/100,000 EEPROM 40
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4.8 Communication:
4.8.1 XBEE Module:
Xbee is one of popular wireless module in the world. It support two-ways communication (one Xbee module can send or receive the data to/from other modules).The different between Zigbee and Xbee is Zigbee is name of industry standard while Xbee is name of Zigbee standard module produced by Digi. Xbee can communicate via UART (TX, RX signal) and sending the signal (data) within the short range is very accurate. Xbee module has an internal IC that helps in encoding the data. The main advantage of this module is it consume low watt (low electric power), small size and cheap. Although it is restricted to send data within short distance, it can send data from one node to another node and this feature make it appropriate for making wireless sensor network.
Xbee is the device that integrates Microcontroller and RF IC into one piece (one module). It works as transceiver equipment (the equipment that can both send and receive signal). Xbee is half-duplex and it operate at 2.4 GHz frequency band. It consume low electric power and easy to use because the interface used for sending and receiving data with Xbee is UART (TTL), so we can connect the UART communication pin of Xbee to the UART of microcontroller direct
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4.9.1 Nylon:
Is a polymer material that is very light and easy to manufacture. It is abundant and easy to procure, however, it is not very stiff, and its mechanical properties are incredibly sensitive to environmental conditions. Ultraviolet rays will break down the molecular structure, compromising its strength. Humidity also severely compromises its strength: a relative humidity of 50% cuts its ultimate tensile strength (UTS) in half.
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a carbon fiber composite fails with little deformation, consequently failure is often abrupt and violent, as opposed to most metals, which bend before breaking.
4.9.3 Steel:
Is an alloyed metal, which has the highest UTS of the materials investigated, beating the competition by a factor of two or more, and has the second highest stiffness. It is however by far the heaviest, nearly three times as heavy as aluminum. Its increased density requires more time to machine making it a difficult material to use.
4.9.4 Wood:
Is perhaps the most widely used structural material in the world. It is lightweight and is very easy to work with. Unfortunately, it is not as strong as the other surveyed materials, and its strength is directional like carbon fiber composite. Red oaks UTS along its transverse axis is merely 7.2 MPa. Not to mention the countless environmental issues to consider. Ultraviolet rays break down the fibers of the wood, and there is potential for rot.
4.9.5 Aluminum:
Is a metal that has been used consistently for various aerospace applications. It is a good compromise between strength, rigidity, and weight. It is not as strong as stainless steel, but weighs considerably less, and it is not as light as carbon fiber, but does not have the same directional load dependency.
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5.2 Programming
The basic task were to vary the speed of the motors in turn the propellers in order to make the Hover bot float, the motors were connected to the esc's, DC ESCs in the broader sense are PWM controllers for electric motors. The ESC generally accepts a nominal 50 Hz PWM servo input signal whose pulse width varies from 1 ms to 2 ms. When supplied with a 1 ms width pulse at 50 Hz, the ESC responds by turning off the DC motor attached to its output. A 1.5 ms pulse-width input signal results in a 50% duty cycle output signal that drives the motor at approximately half-speed. When presented with 2.0 ms input signal, the motor runs at full speed due to the 100% duty cycle (on constantly) output. We programmed the atmega32 to use the PWM channels to generate the desired wave form.
The 2nd task was to program for receiving the input through sensors which were interfaced with the AVR serial parallel interface(SPI),The Serial Peripheral Interface SPI - allows digital devices to communicate using only 4 wires, additional devices can be added to the same 'bus' with the addition of only a single selection wire for each device. Last but not the least we coded to implement the PID loop it was tedious job and had us our hands full with complex mathematics.
Figure 22: FLOW CHART FOR THE HOVER BOT 1.0 PROGRAMMING
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Firepower target locking can be added to it for military purposes, system. With programming and using precise equipment the Hover Bot 1.0 can be made to perform extreme maneuvering capabilities.
The ground mobility can be greatly enhanced putting more robust wheels that can make the Hover Bot 1.0 overcome steep obstacles.
Night vision/thermal vision can also be introduced to make the HOVER BOT a state of the art military Reconnaissance and Spy drone.