| Summary: | Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are getting popular with a wide range of potential civil
and military applications. Research interest in UAV has also stepped up locally, with DSO
National Laboratories and Nanyang Technological University teaming up to take on a threeyear
UAV project. However, majority of UAV prototype developed lacks reliability. Without
an autopilot system, it could prove to be mission-critical to these projects whose control
system is of secondary interest. A market research on off-shelf autopilot system has identified
ArduPilot Mega to be ideal as a portable autopilot system due to its relatively cheap cost and
capacity for development. Troubleshooting and assembling the electronics, the ArduPilot
Mega is tested to be fairly reliable and robust. Further steps to operationalize the autopilot
system onto several vehicular models are done to demonstrate its capabilities. Building an
inheritably unstable telescopic quadcopter, the Ardupilot Mega was used as the stabilizing
electronics and helped fly the rotary UAV to clinch an award in the Singapore Amazing
Flying Machine Competition. Serving as a telemetry system for a racing car prototype, it
transmit accurate real-time data back to the ground crew and proved to be instrumental in
analyzing driving strategy for the Shell Eco-marathon competition.
|
|---|