Development of an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle using gas-powered RC helicopter

This paper describes the development of a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with autonomous flight capability. It is the result of integrating a commercial off-the-shelf autopilot system with a low-cost gas-powered RC helicopter. Researchers face several challenges when developing UAVs using gas-powered RC helicopters. To avoid the corruption of the structural vibration to the avionics hardware system, an innovative vibration isolation technique is developed to mechanically isolate the vibrations from the gas engine and rotors. Furthermore, a dynamics model for the vehicle is created to support the autonomous flight control development work. Further, a loss-recover method using Kalman filter is employed for estimating the attitude and position statuses when GPS signal is lost. Several other key challenges related to electromagnetic interference shielding and safe flight testing are also effectively solved in the project. The integration work has been completed and the test flights done so far show that the developed autonomous UAV works well under the integration of the mechanical system, electronic system, and controller software.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/0954410014563361
• Record URL:
  http://pig.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/229/11/1987
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/19966973
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.
• Authors:
  • Xie, Pu
  • Ma, Ou
  • Flores-Abad, Angel
• Publication Date: 2015-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1987-2005
• Serial:
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
  • Volume: 229
  • Issue Number: 11
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0954-4100
  • EISSN: 2041-3025
  • Serial URL: http://pig.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Drones; Helicopters; Vehicle design
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01574915
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 28 2015 2:00PM