Avionics system for a mini-helicopter robot in a rapid
software prototyping environment
Carlos Mario Vélez S. Mónica Hernández L.
Ingeniería Matemática Maestría en Matemáticas Aplicadas
Universidad EAFIT Universidad EAFIT
Medellín, Colombia Medellín, Colombia
cmvelez@eafit.edu.co mherna23@eafit.edu.co
Abstract— This paper describes the hardware and software of the
avionics for a mini-helicopter robot called Colibrí, which
provides the instrumentation, intelligence, and energy to the
autonomous navigation. The paper describes the function of each
electronic device in the navigation system and explains the tools
for rapid software prototyping. This programming environment
uses a high-level graphical language like Simulink® to design a
test model, and from it automatically build the executable code in
C, which runs in the QNX real-time operating system during
each flight. Matlab® Real-Time Workshop is the tool that
enables this efficient programming methodology. The tests in
pilot assisted flights show that the environment makes easy the
development of state estimators, finite state machines, controllers
and other subsystems.
Keywords- Avionics; mini-helicopter; real-time systems; rapid
software prototyping; Matlab/Simulink; Unmanned Aircraft
Systems
I. INTRODUCTION
The avionics of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is a
technological development that integrates processing,
measuring, wireless communication and sensors systems, and it
can be programmed for tasks like acquisition, communication
and real-time control of autonomous or non-autonomous aerial
vehicles. The avionics box is attached to the fuselage of the
vehicle and its weight must be considered within the limits of
the effective load that the mini-helicopter can carry. The
different electronic devices that contribute to weight are
sensors, cables, flight computer, wireless bridge, etc. These can
reduce the maneuverability or autonomous control of the
vehicle, therefore the hardware inside the box should be as
light as possible.
Many kinds of avionics boxes have been built and applied
with different purposes [1]-[6]. Colibrí avionics box is one of
them. It has been built from COTS (commercial, off-the-shelf)
components, integrated with a friendly software environment
and tested in several experiments. Colibrí system is described
in this paper.
The first version of Colibrí avionic box [7] used non-
integrated sensors (magnetometer, barometer and sonar, global
positioning system - GPS), which required an additional CAN
Andrés Agudelo T.
Maestría en Matemáticas Aplicadas
Universidad EAFIT
Medellín, Colombia
agdtoro@gmail.com
(Controller–area network) communication interface to send the
measurements to the flight computer and it needed additional
power sources. That configuration added too much weight to
the avionics hardware and required more space; also, the
material used to construct the box was 0.9 mm aluminum. In
the new design avionic box (version 2.0), the weight was
reduced to 50% of the initial weight, by using 0.4 mm
aluminum and by the integration of sensors into a single device
called IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit).
The avionics box has the following functions: to provide a
communication link between the vehicle and the ground
station, to carry electronic devices that make up the hardware,
to enable the change of manual/autonomous mode, to perform
real-time acquisition and autonomous control algorithms in the
on-board computer. Thus, the fundamental components
required in avionics are an integrated sensor unit for
navigation, a flight computer with a real-time operating system
(QNX), a communication system, video equipment, a reading
card for servomotors, a manual/autonomous mode switching
card, a wireless network card, and a power supply.
The tasks performed by the computer on board during the
flight tests are scheduled in the Simulink graphical design
environment; once the application is compiled, the Real-Time
Workshop (a Matlab tool) automatically generates C code,
optimizes it, and transfers it from the host computer to the
flight computer. This methodology, known as rapid software
prototyping, has the advantage of eliminating the intermediate
steps between the design and the implementation of test models
customized for each flight. The generation, collection and
transfer are invisible to the designer. Real-Time Workshop
works with real-time operating systems; Colibrí system uses
QNX because of its versatility, reliability, technical support and
excellent documentation (licenses are free for universities).
The rapid software prototyping environment is an
environment in which the working versions of a system
(prototype) can be tested and implemented quickly and
automatically [8],[9]. Rapid software prototyping requires a
design environment (Matlab), a builder (Real-Time
Workshop), a wired or wireless way of transferring files, a
development computer (host), and a target computer (target). It
allows the simulation of mini-helicopter behavior in different
flight scenarios to adjust parameters in the controllers, excite
the system with different trajectories, to communicate the test
model to an external device like a joystick.
antennas. The distribution of components inside the box was
made so that the center of mass coincided with the geometrical
center, so that the helicopter center of gravity is not displaced
from the main rotor shaft and it does not create unnecessary
additional torques.

Figure 1. X-Cell 60 Gas 105-102 radio control helicopter with the avionic box

The aim of this paper is to provide technical and

methodological guidance for the construction and Figure 2. CAD design of the box in “Solid Edge”
implementation of the avionic box for a mini-helicopter robot
and for the scheduling of flight routines using the rapid
software prototyping environment. Initially, the paper describes
the test vehicle for which the box was designed, then it
specifies the systems that comprise the box and, finally, it
shows the methodology for programming tasks in the avionic
box within a safe environment for rapid software prototyping.
Some technical details are omitted because they are
irrelevant for global understanding of the environment and
proposed design methodology, and they can be read in
respective hardware manuals. It is shown the general ideas of
implementation that will enable the reader to capture the ideas
and advantages of the complete Colibrí system, which has
innovative ideas to implement avionics and rapid software
prototyping to systems as complex as autonomous vehicles.

II. THE AVIONICS BOX

Figure 3. Distribution of the components in the avionics box.
The avionic box was developed for a small X-Cell 60 Gas
105-102 radio control helicopter [10]. This helicopter weighs
The material used for the prototype of the box is aluminum,
about 5.9 Kg without fuel and its payload is 3 Kg. The weight
which allows the internal shielding from electromagnetic
of the current avionic box including its components is about
waves and the transmission of heat to the environment. It is
1.75 kg.
lightweight and easy to bend. All electronic devices are isolated
The fuselage has an adaptation of trains that allow the from the chassis of the box with foam.
articulation of the box and the mechanical vibration isolators,
Fig. 3 shows the distribution of components in the upper
as shown in Fig. 1. The main rotor system has the Bell-Hiller
and lower side. The orientation of the box is aligned with the
stabilizer bar. Its power plant can reach speeds between 1600
INS reference system. The reference system of the INS is the
and 1700 RPM, which are driven independently by a control
following, called the NED (North-East-Down) system: the X-
system called the governor, which is outside the box. The
axis points to the geographical north (nose of the vehicle), the
vehicle also has a stability augmentation system in the tail
Y-axis points to the geographical east and, the Z-axis points
driven by a gyro (yaw damper system). The radio control
downwards.
system works with Futaba PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)
receivers. The vehicle has a GPS antenna that is connected to Components of avionics box (see figures 3, 4 and 6):
the MNav [11] inertial navigation system (INS).
1. Flight computer: TP400B PC/104 Plus, 300 MHz [12]
The mechanical design of the avionics box was performed
with the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) tool Solid Edge® that 2. Flash memory, which contains the QNX operating system
provides the optimal location of each component without the [13]
need of building physical prototypes. Fig. 2 shows one of the 3. Inertial Navigation System: MNav 100CA, Crossbow
final versions for the final assembly of the box. The restriction [11]
of some components in terms of location was taken into
account, especially because of the need for line of sight of the 4. Power Supply: TP4200-3s2pl Thunder Power
5. Wireless network card: WLAN (Wireless Local Area) uint16
uint8 high
rx
lat,lon,alt
Network Linksys 802.11b WET11 uint8 low
v x,v y ,v z
Byte Split 16 UDPRX
hx,hy ,hz
6. Servomotor reading card: it is an original design. It uses a tx ax,ay ,az
microcontroller PIC 18F258 serv os
p,q,r
UDPT X
int8 low 1
t1,t2,t3
7. Switch card Manual/Autonomous mode: R-306 RxMUX int32
int8 low 2
int8 high 3 Altitude
[14] int8 high 4
tx rx
Pitot
Byte Split 32 QNX SERIAL
8. Video camera Transmitter: Combo AVX 900s 9-V M icroNav
man/auto lat,lon,alt
9. Video camera: Combo AVX 900s 9-V u_manual v x,v y ,v z

10. Regulated power supply 1 col u_manual_raw hx,hy ,hz

lon
v olt_serv os ax,ay ,az
lat
11. Regulated power supply 2 ped v olt_box p,q,r
Servo Encoder Servos PIC M icroNav
12. Serial connector DB-9 Sim ulator

13. On/off switch
A. Inertial Measurement Unit: MNav 100AC
The Colibrí inertial navigation system is integrated into the
MNav [11], which manages two groups of sensors: three
accelerometers, three gyroscopes, a magnetometer and a GPS,
which estimates the three approximated geodesic coordinates
and three NED velocities. This device sends measurements to
the flight computer through a RS-232 serial protocol. The
number of sensors used in the MNav varies according to the
information required on each flight. The MNav also offers the
possibility of driving directly the four servos by means of
Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) signals generated by a built-in
microcontroller (see Fig. 4).
B. Servomotor reading card
The status of the four servos (lateral and longitudinal cyclic
actuators, collective actuators and pedal actuators) needs to be
known to ensure a smooth transition when the pilot using the
joystick changes from manual to autonomous mode. The servos
are connected in turn to a Futaba PCM1024 receiver integrated
into the helicopter chassis. The channels of this receiver get
four PWM signals corresponding to the current states of the
servos, driven by the pilot, and an additional signal to switch
from manual to autonomous. The output PWM signals are
intercepted in the avionic box and registered in a PIC18F258,
sent to the flight computer via RS232 and sent to the
monitoring station (Ground Control Station) by wireless
communication [7].
Figure 5. Drivers in Matlab/Simulink of avionics devices and communication
in Colibrí system
The software in the PC104 uses hardware interruptions;
thus, the processing unit does not require to continuously
checking the state of the PWM signals. The application has a
time base controlled by the activation of the signal of the pedal
servomotor. This signal activates the time base within which all
scheduled breaks must occur, including data packaging and
delivery to the serial port of the flight computer.
When there is a rising edge on the pedal channel, a
hardware timer and a countdown variable start. The timer is
used to calculate the current pulse width of the pedal signal, in
time units, and to mark the moment when it can gather
information from the three remaining signals and send their
state. The software has a cyclic component that decreases the
countdown variable in each iteration, and when it is zero the
above task is executed. When a falling edge occurs on the pedal
channel, the timer stops and its current value will be the pulse
width measurement of the pedal signal. The code uses the same
logic for the three remaining signals.
C. Flight computer
Real-time processing is one of the main features of the
computer system in UAS. Control actions computation, state
estimation (extended Kalman filter), wireless transmission of
data to the ground station, and capture of data are continuously
processing for navigation and control. The flight computer of
the X-Cell works with the real-time operating system QNX
[13]. The system has different sampling rates for different
sensors, but the control sampling rate is 50 Hz.
The program in the flight computer integrates the whole
system of acquisition, filtering, estimation, control and discrete
events logic. The computer coordinates the hierarchy of
required tasks: reception of INS measurements via RS-232,
reading of servomotors, delivery of received data packets to the
ground station via TCP/IP, selection of the control according to
some operation point, execution of the estimation and control
algorithms, and sending of commands to the servos.

D. Power supply of the avionic box

The power supply of the box is a critical aspect in any flight
Figure 4. Inner configuration of the MNav test. It must be monitored all the time in the ground station for
safety. As power supply, the box uses lithium-polymer (Li-Po
system) batteries. They have charge storage cells that must be
balanced with a charge balancer to achieve the highest
performance in power supply. The Li-Po system has three
elements: the source of charge, the balancer and the batteries.
Batteries provide 12.6 V which must be regulated to 5 V by
DC/DC bridges, and then to supply power to the other devices
inside the box.
E. Video equipment
The video system comprises two elements: the transmitter
and the camera. The first one is inside the box and the second is
outside (see figures 3 and 6). This system is oriented to video
capture, aerial photography and, in the future, to image
processing for pattern recognition.
Figure 6. Internal and external components in Colibrí environment
Figure 7. Test model for the acquisition and communication between the
avionic box and the ground station
F. Communication system
For the communication between the box internal devices,
which receive signals, and the flight computer, the devices are
the MNav and the servo card. The communication of these two
devices with the computer is serial RS-232. The QNX Blockset
for Matlab/Simulink is an intellectual property development of
the Colibrí project that contains configurable blocks that
implement the various communication protocols and memory
access to the flight computer during each flight. Fig. 5 shows
the elements of the QNX library. It shows the MNav block,
which receives and scales the data frame from the IMU and
transmits it to the ground station. In the library, there are also
blocks for synchronizing and detection of errors in
communication. The block called "PIC Servo" in Fig 5 is
responsible for transmitting the normalized data from the servo
card.
As regards the communication between the flight computer
and the ground station, the PC-104 and the ground station
communicate each other using the wireless network
"Colibri_Link" ruled by the 802.11b standard, which allows
fast communication at speeds of 7.1 Mbps.
Fig. 6 shows the interaction between devices attached to the
helicopter (outside the avionic box), the avionic box, the
ground station, and the pilot.
III. AVIONICS SYSTEM PROGRAMMED USING THE RAPID
SOFTWARE PROTOTYPING ENVIRONMENT
Fig. 7 shows a typical Simulink model used in a flight test.
The blocks called MNav and PIC Servo perform the operations
described in section II and the state of all the variables is
monitored from the ground station. Therefore, Simulink
diagram becomes the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Fig. 8
shows some sensor measurements, which are obtained directly
in Simulink. The modules of Rapid Software Prototyping
Environment are shown in Fig. 9.
The model designed in Simulink in the host computer is
transferred to the flight computer by a wireless bridge that uses
the telnet console of the host computer. Once the connection is
enabled, the model is loaded in the QNX operating system.
Figure 8. Actual accelerations from the avionic box
The procedure starts by the generation and compilation of
the C code from the model in Simulink using the "incremental
build" button from the Simulink menu bar; the model is valid
for the selected operating system; this process can be seen in a
Matlab command window. Then the host computer is
synchronized with the target computer clock, i.e., the flight
computer, and the model begins to be transferred via TCP/IP.
Any software change in the Simulink model requires a new
compilation, generation, construction and transference of the C
code to the flight computer.
Once the model is in the target computer, the executable
file is generated by the compiler in that system, and it is
loaded in the host by entering the IP address of the flight
computer through the telnet console of the host computer; the
process can be seen in a telnet window. The next step is to run
the Simulink model that is in the host computer, and to enable
the connection with the target computer (flight computer). At
this point, changes in the variables of the helicopter can be
viewed and monitored directly in a Simulink scope block like
Fig. 8, where the accelerations in the X, Y, and Z-axes are
shown. See Fig. 10 for entire development process.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the basic elements of a simple avionics box
are presented with some details. The description allows to
somebody to reproduce the box and understand the key ideas of
the hardware development. Together with the hardware,
general ideas of rapid software prototyping are exposed and
applied to the avionics box into the possibilities and advantages
of a well-supported tool like Matlab and Simulink. The details
of electronic components can be found in the manuals.
Several tests show that the exposed avionics box together
with the rapid software prototyping environment is an
interesting and easy deployment platform to reach the
autonomous fly of a mini-helicopter robot. The system must be
improved permanently, but the global architecture could be the
same.
Figure 9. Software prototyping environment modules
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by EAFIT University with the
project under code 103-000011. The authors express thanks to
students of Mathematical Engineering and Master in Applied
Mathematics of EAFIT University, Medellin, Colombia, by
their constant support to the project.
Figure 10. Development cycle in Rapid Software Prototyping with Matlab and
Simulink
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