ABSTRACT

The military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown because of
their ability to operate in dangerous locations while keeping their human
operators at a safe distance. The larger UAVs also provide a reliable long
duration, cost effective, platform for reconnaissance as well as weapons. They
have grown to become an indispensable tool for the military. The question we
posed for our project was whether small UAVs also had utility in military and
commercial/industrial applications. We postulated that smaller UAVs can serve
more tactical operations such as searching a village or a building for enemy
positions. Smaller UAVs, on the order of a couple feet to a meter in size, should
be able to handle military tactical operations as well as the emerging
commercial and industrial applications and our project is attempting to validate
this assumption.

CONTENTS
Table of Contents

Page No.

Quadcopter

Abstract

ii

List of Figures:

iv

List of Tables:

iv

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2: UAV Background and Project Motivation

Chapter 3: Quadcopter Technology

3.1 Concept exploration:

3.2 Flight Platform:

3.3 Payload Components:

3.4 First Semester Graphical User Interface (GUI):

3.4.1 Sensors Tab:

3.4.2 Mission Tab:

10

3.4.3 Navigation Tab:

10

3.4.4 Log Tab:

10

3.4.5 Manual Control Tab:

10

3.5 Second Semester GUI.

11

3.5.1 Third Party Libraries

11

3.5.2 Toolbar

11

3.5.3 Tabs

12

3.5.4 Log Tab

12

3.5.5 Mission Tab

12

3.5.6 Manual Control Tab

13

3.5.7 Future Work

13

Chapter 4: Markets and Ethics.

17

4.1 Target Markets:

18
II

4.2 Ethics:

25

Chapter 5 Conclusions and Future Work

19

5.1 Future work

20

5.2 Future risks

20

5.3 Conclusion

21

III

LIST OF FIGURES
Figures No.

Page No.

Figure 1: Global Hawk

Figure 2: Micro Air Vehicle

Figure 3: IMU Shield and Adru Pilot Mega Board

Figure 4: Quadcopter

Figure 5: Remote Control

Figure 6: Linksprite JPEG color camera

Figure 7: XBee-PRO

Figure 8: transmitter

Figure 9: First Semester GUI

10

Figure 10: Graphical Interface

12

Figure 11: Early Flight Test

16

Figure 12: Indoor Tethered Flight

16

Figure 13: Outdoor Tethered Flight

17

Figure 14: First Test

18

Figure 15: Tethered Outdoor Flight

20

Figure 16: Outdoor Untethered Flight

21

Figure 17: DARPA Competition

29

II