Multi-Agent System of Quadcopters Submitted To Dr. Chien-Liang Fok Dr. Sriram Vishwanath Prepared By Michael DeWitt Seth Gee Brandon Kirkpatrick Devitt Ward EE464 Senior Design Project Electrical and Computer Engineering Department University of Texas at Austin Spring 2011ii CONTENTS TABLES ............................................................................................................................... iv FIGURES ...............................................................................................................................v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ vi 1.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 2.0 DESIGN PROBLEM STATEMENT .........................................................................2 3.0 DESIGN PROBLEM SOLUTION .............................................................................3 3.1 HARDWARE ASSEMBLY AND SELECTION .............................................4 3.1.1 Construction ...............................................................................................4 3.1.2 Electronic Components .............................................................................4 3.2 SOFTWARE ........................................................................................................5 3.2.1 Loalization .................................................................................................5 3.2.2 Telemetry ..................................................................................................5 4.0 DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION .................................................................................5 4.1 HARDWARE ......................................................................................................6 4.1.1 Frame ..........................................................................................................6 4.1.2 Motors, ESCs, and Props ..........................................................................7 4.1.3 Peripherals ..................................................................................................9 4.2 EMBEDDED PLATFORM..............................................................................10 4.2.1 ArduPilot Mega .......................................................................................10 4.2.2 ArduPilot IMU .......................................................................................11 4.2.3 Zigbee Radio .............................................................................................11 4.3 SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................12 4.3.1 ArduPilot Mega .......................................................................................13 4.3.2 Control System and Motor Operations ................................................14 4.3.3 Zigbee Communication ...........................................................................16 4.3.4 Peripherals Operation .............................................................................16 5.0 TEST AND EVALUATION .....................................................................................18 5.1 INDIVIDUAL COMPONENT TESTING ......................................................18iii 5.1.1 ArduPilot Mega and ArduPilot IMU .....................................................18 5.1.2 Motors and Electonic Speed Controllers ...............................................19 5.1.3 Sonar Sensors ...........................................................................................19 5.1.4 IR Camera ................................................................................................19 5.2 MODULE TESTING ........................................................................................20 5.2.1 Navigation Module ..................................................................................20 5.2.2 Communication Module ........................................................................20 5.2.3 Grasper Module .......................................................................................20 5.3 SYSTEM LEVEL TESTING ...........................................................................21 5.3.1 Getting One Quadcopter to Work .........................................................21 5.3.2 Getting The Payload to Work ................................................................22 5.3.3 Getting the MASQ to Work ....................................................................22 6.0 TIME AND COST CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................22 7.0 SAFETY AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF DESIGN ...............................................23 8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ...........................................................................................24 9.0 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................26 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................28 APPENDIX A – BILL OF MATERIALS ...................................................................... A-1 APPENDIX B – ZIGBEE COMMANDS .......................................................................B-1iv TABLES 1 Motor Output Equations .................................................................................................16 2 Bill of Materials ........................................................................................................... A-1 2 Command Line Interpreter ...........................................................................................B-3v FIGURES 1 New vs Old Leg Comparison ............................................................................................7 2 Propeller Orientation ........................................................................................................9 3 PID Controller Equations ...............................................................................................15 4 Flow of Control System ...................................................................................................15 5 Example IR Emitting Payload Through IR Permitting Camera