College - Author 1

College of Engineering

Department - Author 1

Computer Engineering Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in Computer Engineering

Date

12-2017

Primary Advisor

Lynne Slivovsky

Abstract/Summary

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information on what components of a quadcopter system were lacking and what barriers currently limited desired drone operation. Distilling this information and after exploring various projects in the field of quadcopter and autonomous control, the idea was found to develop a system that could track the motion of quadcopters to jump start other projects.

Specifically, live feedback was explored to be used as hardware in the loop testing systems where commands are relayed to the quadcopter and its response can be accurately measured. This can be extremely beneficial in new equipment testing such as new propeller design, motor design, and frame response. A further stretch objective for this project is to unify input commands to the quadcopter with its physical position in order to train control systems to fly new platforms running “piloted” platforms such as BetaFlight, RaceFlight and KISS platforms typically associated with drone racing as well as hobby grade semi-autonomous flight controller such as ArduPilot Mega (APM) & PixHawk.

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