Control system for UAV application based on inspection robot

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Control system for UAV application based on inspection robot

Chmaj, G. / Uhl, T.

The design, development and operation of an inspection robot for unmanned aerial vehicles was developed. The hardware and software architecture used for controlling the inspection robot was presented. The archtecture of pan, tilt and roll camera control system on-board the inspection robot was also presented. The camera is mounted in a light gimbal driven by 3 servos. The controller has currently 3 operation modes available. The first mode keeps the camera at a fixed position. The second mode drives the gimbal servos using signals received from an inertial measurement system mounted on video glasses. Data provided by 3 sensors (a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, and a 3-axis magnetic compass) from the inertial measurement system are integrated by using a sensor fusion algorithm to obtain the best estimate for the system dynamic state. The Kalman filter is very attractive for low-cost applications, where acceptable performance and reliability is desired, given a limited set of inexpensive sensors. Manual control by using the conventional RC radio is also possible. The inspection robot was tested in real flights and a number of autonomous flights (where the takeoff and landing were performed manually) in which the altitude up to 70 meters was achieved. Once full autonomous flights with vertical takeoff and landing manoeuvre are achieved, the gyroscope video platform will be tested in flight.