Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Indoor Flying Vehicle for Cooperative Surveillance Using the DaVinci Server
Quadrotor Version 1
After graduating from Cornell, I began a 6 month internship at Data Storage Institute, Singapore. The project was to demonstrate multi robot collaboration. I proposed to build a flying robot to complement the existing suite of ground based robots. Quadrotors have always intrigued me, so I decided to build one from scratch.
The quadrotor was built with a spherical like cage. The idea was to fly in the air and roll on the ground. Prior to this project I had limited experience with embedded programming. Therefore, after doing some research, I decided to use the Arduino environment as my "brains" for the quadrotor.
The quadrotor was built with a spherical like cage. The idea was to fly in the air and roll on the ground. Prior to this project I had limited experience with embedded programming. Therefore, after doing some research, I decided to use the Arduino environment as my "brains" for the quadrotor.
I tried to get the quadrotor flying without an RC controller by using my keyboard and 2 Xbee radios. I thought the PID controller would be enough for me to do simple commands. Bad idea my craft kept on crashing. Thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew, I decided to build a more conventional quadrotor. And yes. I bought an RC controller.
Quadrotor version 2
I designed the second version with aluminum. Sent that out for manufacturing. The wait was tedious, so I built a test version out of pink and blue foam. The craft was too heavy and seemed to be able to fly only in ground effect.
I named the quadrotor flamingo. After its maiden flight it never flew again because one of it corners broke after its crash and my new parts for quadrotor version 2 arrived.
Learning to fly the quadrotor proved to be a challenge. Even though I had one of the arms of the quadrotor anodized red, I was still confused. but soon I got used to it.
An ultrasonic sensor was incorporated in "Quadrotor flight 1". Its role was to measure its height from the ground to allow a height hold function for the quadrotor.
Building the quadrotor from the ground up was an immensely satisfying task and 6 months flew by. During that time I delivered a quadrotor capable of RC flight which can be incorporated into future robotic microcosms.
Much thanks to my supervisor Mr Vikas Reddy for his support and guidance.
Building the quadrotor from the ground up was an immensely satisfying task and 6 months flew by. During that time I delivered a quadrotor capable of RC flight which can be incorporated into future robotic microcosms.
Much thanks to my supervisor Mr Vikas Reddy for his support and guidance.