Design, fabrication and test of an embedded lightweight kinematic autopilot (ELKA). Issue 2 (6th May 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Petricca, Luca; Hrishikeshavan, Vikram; Ohlckers, Per; Chopra, Inderjit
• Is Part Of: International journal of intelligent unmanned systems. Volume 2:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 150
• Publication Date: 2014-05-06
• Subjects: UAV -- Autopilot -- ELKA -- Embedded system -- NAV/MAV -- Unmanned vehicles; Vehicles, Remotely piloted -- Periodicals; Robots -- Control systems -- Periodicals; Mechanical engineering -- Robots -- Periodicals; Robotics -- Periodicals; Submersibles -- Periodicals; Space vehicles -- Command control systems -- Periodicals; 629.046
• DOI: 10.1108/IJIUS-10-2013-0022
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2049-6427

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: – Unmanned vehicles flight is controlled by embedded circuits in the aircraft, under the remote control of a pilot on the ground. This circuit, called autopilot, represents one of the key elements inside the vehicles. The authors developed one of the smallest autopilot, specifically designed for low-weight low-power applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: – The system is based on STM32 ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller. It includes an onboard 9 DOF IMU (MPU9150) and a 2.4 GHz wireless transceiver (nRF24L01+). Findings: – The embedded lightweight kinematic autopilot (ELKA) can pilot up to eight servomotors, and can be used to monitor more than 100 sensors. The final assembled board is 28×21 mm2 and weighs around 1.2 grams (battery excluded), and has successfully passed initial functionality tests. Originality/value: – The authors presented the design, fabrication and initial tests of a lightweight kinematic autopilot (ELKA board version 1.0). The system has been designed in order to upgrade the state-of-art capability in sensing and processing over a previous autopilot (GINA), which is of similar weight and size. The small size (28×21 mm2) and the lightweight (around 1.2 grams) make ELKA one of the smallest autopilot in the world.