2012 Brazilian Robotics Symposium and Latin American Robotics Symposium

Modeling and Design of an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Quadrotor Prototype for Applications in Swarm of Robots
David A. do Nascimento and Cristovao Z. Runo
Sergio Campello Oliveira and Marclio Andre Felix Feitosa
Abstract This paper presents a design for a prototype of an
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) quadrotor for swarm of robots
application. We also propose a set of sensors and a frame where
the UAV quadrotor will be setup.
This is the rst of a set of papers where this prototype will
be modeled, designed, built and then tested in a real world
situation. We propose the use of some devices and we also
explain their necessity in order to obtain a nal prototype
capable of ying autonomously and being able to behave like
a swarm of robots.

Several work only proposed the mathematical model but

they do not include the hardware design with their constraints. Others work are concerned on modeling and building
UAVs but not an autonomous UAV. The UAV proposed in
[2] is a remote controlled quadrotor and it do not realize
autonomous ights. In [3] and [4] the authors proposes
the dynamic model, but they dont include any hardware
model, and [5] have modeling and build a autonomous UAV
quadrotor, but its control is provided by a PC on ground.
This paper proposes the design of an UAV quadrotor
prototype capable of act as a particle in a swarm of robots.
The complete set of sensors and devices needed to the UAV
operation are described. The hardware limitations are considered and they will be important in practical implementation
and tests.
This paper is organized as follows: quadrotor dynamics
is described in Section II; a brief explanation about swarm
intelligence and swarm of robots is present in section III,
the proposed design and peripherals are present if Section
IV. Finally the conclusions are described in Section V.

I. INTRODUCTION
UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) have become an increasingly area of study in the last years. This kind of vehicle
does not require a human pilot to be physically present inside
the aircraft which allows it to be used in dangerous situations
or in hazardous environments. An specic class of these
aerial vehicles known as quadrotors - an aircraft with four
rotors which are specially researched because of its capacity
of hovered ights.
Particle Swarm intelligence, a kind of articial intelligence, is a set of techniques biologically inspired on the
social behavior of animals such as bees, ants, sh and
more. Although these animals dont do complex activities by
themselves the fact that they cooperate towards a common
objective allows them to accomplish complex activities and
even sophisticated behavior [1]. In particle swarms, each
particle takes simple actions which demands little computational effort to accomplish its objective. As each particle
demands little computational effort, simple microcontrollers
can perform the particle tasks. In this context a Swarm of
robots or swarm robotics is the union of robotics and swarm
intelligence where each robot acts like an particle inside the
swarm. These swarm robots can be used on target location
or border controls applications.
There has been a lot of work in modeling and simulating
a UAV quadrotor [2] [3] [4] [5], but little work has been
done in building a UAV quadrotor out of this model. This
kind of activity requires extra work to integrate all sensors
in an embedded system and then writing control algorithms
based on the mathematical model proposed and on hardware
constraints.

II. QUADROTOR DYNAMICS

This section briey presents the dynamics associated with
the quadrotor mechanics, for more details please refer to [2]
[3] [4].
A quadrotor can be seen as a system with 6 degrees of
freedom (DoF): it can move around all coordinated axis
(x, y, z) and all three angles (, , ) that represent roll,
pitch and yaw respectively. This can be seen in Figure 1.
If we dene q as a generalized vector containing all three
coordinates and all three angles, q is dened as
q = (x, y, z, , , )

where (x, y, z) represent the coordinate of the quadrotor

center of mass and (, , ) represent the angles counter
clockwise from axis y, x, and z respectively. Since the
coordinates for the center of mass and the coordinates that
represent the angles are independent, Equation (1) can be
rewritten as
q = (
p,
)
(2)

The authors are with the Polytechnic School of Pernambuco at University

of Pernambuco.
Rua Benca 455, Madalena, Recife - PE. CEP. 50.720-001
+55 81 3184-7542
davidalain89@gmail.com; cristovaozr@gmail.com
scampello@ecomp.poli.br; marciliofeitosa@uol.com.br

978-0-7695-4906-4/12 $26.00 2012 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/SBR-LARS.2012.60

(1)

where
p = (x, y, z)

 = (, , ).
325

(3)
(4)

where F is a vector of generalized forces and Fk is the k-eth

component of this generalized force. Its been shown by [3]
that solving Equation (10) for each coordinate leads to the
following equations:
m
x = sin Fz
m
y = cos sin Fz
m
z = cos cos Fz mg
+ xx
Jxx = C(, )
+ yy
Jyy = C(, )

+ zz
Jzz = C(, )

Fig. 1.

A common way to represent the dynamical model of a

quadrotor is using Lagrangian formalism. To correctly use
Lagrangian formalism its necessary to dene the Lagrangian
of the system, denoted by L as the sum of all kinetic energies
subtracted from all potential energies of the system. So if L
is the Lagrangian of the system then
L=

i=1

Ki

M


Uj

(14)
(15)
(16)

Swarm intelligence is a broad term. It refers to the collective emergent behavior of decentralized, self-organizing
entities, either articial or natural. When used in articial
intelligent systems, swarm intelligence is the collective intelligent behavior that emerges from the simple behavior of the
system agents when they are interacting with the environment
and among them [1].
One classical algorithm of swarm intelligence is the
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). This algorithm was
developed by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1997 and has, since
then, been successfully used in applications on a diversity of
problems and areas [6].
PSO was inspired by the behavior of a ock of birds [6].
The particles are spread around in the parameter space of
a function. The particles move around the parameter space
looking the set of parameters that maximizes or minimizes
the solution [1] [6].
The particles movement, nevertheless, is not entirely random: each particle move subject to two forces: one pushing
the particle to the best position found by the swarm and
another also pushing it to the best solution found by the
particle itself [1] [6]. Both forces are random inside a range
dened by the user.
Several improvements on PSO were proposed in the last
years, but in the original form of PSO, the particle velocity
is calculated by

(5)

where Ki is the kinetic energy and Uj is potential energy.

The kinetic energy present in the quadrotor is due to its
translation and rotation. As can be seen in [2] [3] the kinetic
energy due to translation, denoted KT rans and the kinetic
energy due to rotation, denoted by KRot , are, respectively
1
KT rans = mp 2
(6)
2
and
1
KRot = J 2
(7)
2
where p,
the rst derivative of p, corresponds to linear
velocity, angular velocity, m corresponds to the mass and
J corresponds to the moment of inertia of the quadrotor.
The only potential energy present in the system is the
gravitational potential energy that is dened to be
(8)

where z is the distance perpendicular to the ground and is

the same z from Equation (1).
Using Equatioins (6), (7) and (8) the Lagrangian of the
system is
1
1
(9)
L = mp 2 + J 2 mgz.
2
2
To nd the motion equations of the system it is need to
solve the Euler-Lagrange equation
d L
L

= Fk
dt qk
qk

(13)

III. SWARM INTELLIGENCE

j=1

U = mgz

(12)

where Fz denotes the force produced by all rotors, x

represents the acceleration on the x-axis and so on, Jyy represents
the moment of inertia for rotations around angle and so
represents the Coriolis terms due to rotation in
on, C(, )
-axis plane and so on and xx represents the torque present
on the -axis and so on.
These equations represent the dynamics of a single quadrotor. The dynamics of a UAV quadrotor acting as a particle
inside a swarm will be discussed later and, then, Equations
(11) to (16) will be modied to incorporate the behavior of
the particle.

Quadrotor dynamics model

N


(11)

v (t+1) = v (t)+1 R1 (xgbest x(t))+2 R2 (xpbest x(t)),

(17)
where is the inertia of the particle, 1 and 2 are weights,
respectively the social and cognitive information, R1 and R2
are random values uniformly distributed in the interval [0, 1],

(10)

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is able to provide magnetic orientation, acceleration and

inclination informations respectively.
The altimeter is used to provide the current altitude of
quadrotor. Barometric altimeters have in general precision of
few meters. For landing purposes an ultrasonic sensor with
centimeter precision positioned under the UAV will be used.
The GPS is used to provide geographic localization for
outdoor applications. Its information toghether with the information from magnetometer and accelerometer could be
used to provide a better precision localization scheme.
The ultrasonic sensors are used to detect obstacles and
are arranged as: a set of eight lateral ultrasonic sensors to
provide the distance information of possibles lateral obstacles
distributing one each 45 degrees, and two other ultrasonic
sensors: one on the top of the quadrotor to avoid upwards
collisions and another under the quadrotor to get more
precise distances to the ground on take-off and landing
procedures.
Using eigth ultrasonic sensors with 30 degrees of angular
detection range disposed on each 45 degrees creates a angular
shadow with 15 degrees. It means that an object will be
detected when its distance will be less than 3.83 times its
dimension. In other words: an one meter dimension obstacle
will be detected at 3.83 meters. The ultrasonic information
can be directly included as a force pointing to the opposite
direction of the combined obstacles. Now the PSO forces
can be modied to be rewritten as

xgbest is the best position found by the swarm and xpbest is

the best position found by the particle itself [6].
Once the new velocity is calculated the new position, x(t+
1), can be easily calculated by [6]
x(t + 1) = x(t) + v (t + 1).

(18)

In spite of the chosen swarm intelligence ruling the particle, the particle behavior will be driven by forces obtained
from the environment surrounding the particle. In PSO these
forces are the social and cognitive terms added to the velocity
on Equation (21). Simulations can use Equation (18) but on
the particle real implementation with quadrotors the position
update isnt that simple once the movement of the particle
will be rulled by Equations (11) to (16). One way to directly
control the quadrotors with the particle swarm behavior is
to join Equation (21) with Equations (11) and (12) to obtain
two new equations that also consider the forces that drive
the particle in the swarm. If FS (t) is the force due to the
swarm behavior, Equations (11) and (12) can be rewritten as
m
x = sin Fz + FSx (t)

(19)

m
y = cos sin Fz + FSy (t)

(20)

and
where FSx (t) and FSy (t) are, respectively, the forces in xaxis and y-axis.
For now the force due to the swarm behavior is only bidimensional. In the future this movement will also take in
consideration the z-axis. Using Equation (19) and Equation
(20) the control algorithms will be able to directly translate
the quadrotors on the direction of the particle movement in
the swarm.

FS (t) = 1 R1 (xgbest x(t)) + 2 R2 (xpbest x(t))+

8

1
3 R3 .
D
n
n=1
(21)

IV. DESIGN

where Dn is the distance calculated by the n-eth sonar, 3

represents the weight given to the proximity information and
R3 is a random uniformly distributed value in the interval
[0, 1].
The time of low-level control processing is critical and
many devices connected to one single microcontroller will
increase the time to process the information. The input
of ultrasonic sensors data and the management of battery
level are important, but this tasks are not essential to keep
the quadrotor ying. These tasks can demand too much
processing time so that a single microcontroller may not be
able to process it. This would cause a performance decrease
of control and stability. So two microcontrollers are used to
process data of all sensors and actuate on output signals to
control the quadrotor motors. One microcontroller will be
responsible with the ight control and the second microcontroller will be responsible with the swarm localization and
behavior.
Four three-phase BLDC (brushless direct current) motors.
Brushless DC motors dont have the mechanisms necessary
to rotate by itself so to do the rotation movement is necessary
to use a device to control to energize each phase to generate
the rotation correctly [7]. Its important to mention that

The design and project of a fully autonomous UAV

quadrotor is a complex task and requires integration from
some areas like control, sensoring, actuators and computer
intelligence [2]. In an UAV quadrotor design some devices
are needed to provide informations about position, orientation, velocity, acceleration and inclination so that this
information can be used in attitude and ight control. Its
also necessary some information about the environment so
that the quadrotor can be able to actively avoid obstacles.
A project of a fully autonomous UAV quadrotor can be as
follows:
a 9 DoF IMU (inertial measurement unit);
an altimeter;
a GPS;
ten ultrasonic sensors;
two microcontrollers;
one or more LiPo batteries;
four ESCs (electronic speed controller);
four three-phase brushless DC motors;
four propellers, and;
one high range communication module.
The IMU consists of three devices: a 3-axis magnetometer,
a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope so the IMU

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controllers, like UART, I2 C, ADC and GPIO, are used. Using

I2 C interface simplies the board design and the embedded
software control because I2 C devices shares the same bus to
exchange data.
A special frame body is being designed to accommodate
the ultrasonic sensors. This frame body needs to avoid the
ultrasonic to detect the quadrotor own propellers.

adjacent motors in the quadrotor UAV rotates on opposite

directions. This is necessary because the total centripetal
force generated by the rotation of the motors would make
the quadrotor rotate in the opposite direction to the rotation
of the motors.
A LiPo battery is used as energy source. Related work
indicates this type of battery as the best for this use [2]
[7] [8] [9]. The LiPo is a rechargeable battery that has
characteristics like high driven electrical current capacity,
high charge storage capacity, several charge-discharge cycles
and others [10] [11].
Four propellers are used, one for each motor. Two propellers for clockwise rotation and another two for counter
clockwise rotation as shown in Figure 1. Also it is important
to mention that the adjacent propellers have opposite attack
angles because the clockwise motor demands clockwise
propellers and counter clockwise motors demands counter
clockwise propellers.
One high range communication device can provide communication between the quadrotors and between the quadrotors and the base. This is necessary to exchange swarm information. A high range communication device is necessary in
outdoor applications because the communication has remain
active even when the distance between the quadrotors or the
base is big.
Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the embedded hardware system design of the quadrotor with all proposed devices, interconnections and microcontrollers interfaces used
to implement them.

V. CONCLUSION
A complete design of a fully autonomous UAV quadrotor
was presented and discussed. The proposed hardware design
can be used to particle swarm applications in several swarms
congurations. The swarm behavior equations, in this paper
considered for PSO, were modied to include the hardware
limitations. Also, the control dynamic equations were modied to include the swarm robot behavior.
Future work aims to implement the design presented here
in border control applications.
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Fig. 2. Block diagram showing all devices and interconnection signals

between them

As shown in Figure 2 only common interfaces on micro-

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