Control by Video. Flight is controlled by onboard compute

1
UAV Specific SystemsJustin Murtha, Matt
Moritz10/31/06

• UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
• 4 Main Topics
• Unique configurations
• Unusual landing styles
• Autopilot to drive autonomous flight
• Ground station communication

2
Unique Configurations

• Possible due to lack of constraints on pilot
• Smaller
• Cheaper
• Increased landing/TO options

AeroVironments PUMA Aerosondes
Aerosonde
3
Landing Style

• Conventional Landing with Landing Skids
• Hard Landing with breakaway components
• Net Landing
• Similar to AAIs Shadow
• Landing Pad
• Pole landing
• Similar to ScanEagle
• Parachute Landing
• Autorotation

4
Extreme Accelerations

• Landings often exceed human acceleration
  tolerances
• Maximum Human Gs 7 (head to toe)
• 17 front to back
• Requires special suits
• Maximum Gs measured on landings
• 1600Gs measured in tail for AVs PUMA
• 3000Gs measured in nose of AVs Raven
• 44Gs in fuselage of ScanEagle during pole
  landing

5
Extreme Accelerations

• Lack of acceleration constraint opens the door to
  more aggressive flight maneuvers
• UCAV Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle
• X-45, X-46, X-47 smaller, lighter, cheaper

6
Control by Video

• Flight is controlled by onboard computer via
  video post processing

7
Autopilot

• Can be used for stability control while pilot on
  ground flies the mission
• Can be used for Autonomous Flight while being
  monitored by the ground station
• Can be used for Autonomous Flight completely
  independent on ground station
• Uses programmed GPS waypoints to fly to mission
  critical locations
• GPS waypoints can be changed while data link is
  connected

8
Small UAV Autopilots

• Piccolo Autopilot
• Size 4.8 x 2.4 x 1.5
• 212g
• Number of GPS Waypoints 100
• MicroPilot
• Size 3.94 x 1.57
• 28 g
• Number of GPS Waypoints 1000
• Kestrel 2.2
• Size 2 x 1.37 x 0.47
• 16.65g
• Number of GPS Waypoints 100

9
Autopilots

• Inputs
• GPS Position
• 3 Satellites needed for Lat/Long
• 4 Satellites needed for Altitude (not very
  accurate)
• Pitot Static Pressure
• Used to calculate airspeed
• Sometimes used to calculate altitude based on
  standard atmosphere and ground reference pressure
• Accelerometers Rate Gyros
• Used to measure pitch, role, and yaw
• Special Instrumentation for Research
• Angle of attack measurements
• Sonar based altitude

10
Ground Stations

• Large UAV
• Global Hawk
• Predator
• Small UAV

11
Integrated Communications System (ICS) for
Global Hawk

• Manufacturer L-3 Comm. CS West, Salt Lake City
• CAMA Common Air-born Modem Assembly
• LOS Line of Sight
• LNA Low Noise Amplifier
• HPA High Power Amplifer
• HVPS High Voltage Power Supply
• SATCOM Satellite Communications
• Total Weight 375 lbs
• Power Reqs 3822 W
• Temp -54 to 60 C
• Altitude SL to 70,000 ft.

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Smaller UAV Data Links

• L-3 Comm. CS West, Salt Lake City
• Size 3.05 x 4.95 x 0.7
• Weight lt0.5 lbs
• Power lt10 Watts
• Frequency 1755 to 1850 MHz
• Interfaces Ethernet, USB, GPS, Video, ect.

13
Video Transmission

• Video Transmission is a tricky thing to get right
• This 200 system shows how video can cut out
  sporadically due to directional antenna needed
  for the data transfer rate required for a live
  video feed

14
References

• http//www.procerusuav.com/productsKestrelAutopilo
  t.php
• http//www.l-3com.com/csw/Product/docs/12-Global2
  0Hawk20ICS.pdf
• http//www.micropilot.com/prod_mp2028g.htm
• http//www.cloudcaptech.com/piccolo_plus.htm
• http//www.procerusuav.com/productsKestrelAutopilo
  t.php
• http//www.ramsystemsllc.com/UAV/UAV20Flight20Da
  y2-120Ignition.jpg
• http//www.defense-update.com/products/s/scaneagle
  .htm
• http//ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.g
  ov/19930020462_1993020462.pdf
• http//www.ramsystemsllc.com/UAV/UAV20Flight20Da
  y2-120Ignition.jpg
• Air to Air Video courtesy of Dr. Craig Woolsey,
  AOE Faculty, Virginia Tech