ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Autonomous Drone For Use With Camera Sensor Modules

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  Statement of Purpose

  • To build a fixed wing drone.

  • Incorporate an autonomous flight controller to run mission plans.

  • The drone will be used for checking crop health levels with camera sensors.

  • Camera modules will be mounted with a custom rail mount on the plane

  • Design and build a custom PDB to power flight controllers and image processing hardware.

  
  
  

  Background Research

  • Last semester Cole built an autonomous quadcopter using a Pixhawk 4 so he is familiar with the process of getting a drone to fly.

  • The Pixhawk needs to communicate with the camera module, telling it when to take a picture based off of GPS location.

  • Mission Planner (by ArduPilot) has to have waypoints configured on the perimeter of the field being evaluated, spaced apart appropriately for the camera sensor to get the information it needs.

  • The drone has to be balanced correctly and weight must be kept to a minimum for maximum flight time.

  • In terms of Power Distribution, Rutvik has previous experience designing custom PCBs for various use cases. Bringing that to do this project, we can use that experience, along with his previous experience with circuit theory to correctly design a power distribution board for our use with a power flight controller and our image processing hardware. This project will take this to the next level in the sense that it will not only be tested and have to be reliable, but the soldering of the board has to be well done in order to withstand possible crashes from testing the drone.

  • Following that, this project is important as it has use cases in the agricultural industry. It can be used by individuals or by companies to test and analyze the health of their crops at various locations around their farm without having to physically visit them. Therefore, it saves time and also money.

  • For example, there are many companies such as PrecisionHawk, they build UAVs to map and analyze the health of their crops. They also have A.I. software which is able to use their visual (RGB) sensors, alongside an array of multispectral sensors, which allow them to capture individual high-resolution bands of light, near-infrared and radiometric thermal data to analyze the crop data they take in.

  • Our project’s goal is to create a similar UAV in the form of a drone. Our project focuses more on the autonomous drone half, straying away from the A.I. required for crop health analysis.

  Design Details

   OVERVIEW FLOW CHARTEngineering Process

  
  

  Parts

  • Power Source (Rechargeable Battery) - Already have

  • $119.99 Pixhawk 4 Flight Controller - https://www.ebay.com/itm/283995152647?mkevt=1&mkcid=28&chn=ps

  • RC Transmitter and Receiver - Already have

  • Custom PCB for power distribution (including any components required for the board) - Already have

  • Wire (12 awg, 24 awg, etc...) - Already have

  • $76.84 Drone Frame - https://usa.banggood.com/X-uav-Mini-Talon-EPO-1300mm-Wingspan-V-tail-FPV-Plane-Aircraft-Kit-p-983331.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_organic&gmcCountry=US&utm_content=minha&utm_campaign=minha-usg-pc&currency=USD&createTmp=1&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_bgcs&utm_content=frank&utm_campaign=frank-ssc-usg-all-20LP-0630&ad_id=445415610714&gclid=CjwKCAjw2Jb7BRBHEiwAXTR4jYtUbSTSR8rDYzEReNod1Z2VvVxcqyTdb0JXT69sKLNG4REL7gS5TxoCvQMQAvD_BwE&cur_warehouse=USA

  • ESCs, Motors, and servos - Already have

  • $3 Propellers (including extra) - https://www.banggood.com/GEMFAN-GF-8040-8060-9045-1050-1070-9060-Electric-Propeller-1-Pair-p-977960.html?akmClientCountry=America&&cur_warehouse=CN

  • Rail Mount for camera modules - 3D print

  • Camera Sensor

  • Telemetry System (for communication between pixhawk and computer with flight plans) - Included with pixhawk

    
    

Total Price = $190

• Possible Challenges

  • Creating and soldering a PCB correctly.

  • First, all the calculations need to be correct and then the components need to be soldered on correctly, everything should be done perfectly the first time, to save time and money.

  • The drone has to be balanced correctly and weight must be kept to a minimum for maximum flight time.

  • Putting together the Power Distribution Panel correctly with other components, to prevent a short circuit.

  
  

  References

  • "Agriculture: Drone Mapping And Analytics". Precisionhawk.Com, 2020, https://www.precisionhawk.com/agriculture. Accessed 17 Sept 2020.

  • "Open Source Drone Software. Versatile, Trusted, Open. Ardupilot.". Ardupilot.Org, 2020, https://ardupilot.org/. Accessed 17 Sept 2020.