UAV Payload and Mission Control Hardware/Software Architecture

Abstract

This paper presents an embedded hardware/software architecture specially designed to be applied on mini/micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). A UAV is a low-cost non-piloted airplane designed to operate in D-cube (Dangerous-Dirty-Dull) situations [8]. Many types of UAVs exist today; however with the advent of UAV's civil applications, the class of mini/micro UAVs is emerging as a valid option in a commercial scenario. This type of UAV shares limitations with most computer embedded systems: limited space, limited power resources, increasing computation requirements, complexity of the applications, time to market requirements, etc. UAVs are automatically piloted by an embedded system named "Flight Control System." Many of those systems are commercially available today, however no commercial system exists nowadays that provides support to the actual mission that the UAV should perform.This introduces a hardware/software architecture specially designed to operate as a flexible payload and mission controller in a mini/micro UAV. Given that the missions UAVs can carry on justify their existence; we believe that specific payload and mission controllers for UAVs should be developed. Our architectonic proposal for them orbits around four key elements: a LAN-based distributed and scalable hardware architecture, a service/subscription based software architecture and an abstraction communication layer.

Sensor Correction of a 6-Band Multispectral Imaging Sensor for UAV Remote Sensing

“…As a remote sensing platform, the UAV is relatively limited in both its payload capacity and flight duration [4]. It is necessary to balance platform accessibility with the technological limitations inherent of small-scale platforms and the data quality of low-cost sensors.…”

“…The UAV offers an unprecedented level of accessibility to and control over a remote sensing platform. Progress within the fields of digital sensors, navigational equipment, and small-scale aircraft have all reduced the cost of the fundamental components of UAVs [4]. With the growing availability of relatively low-cost commercial components, small-scale research groups are now presented with the alternative of developing their own UAV-based projects.…”

Vicarious Radiometric Calibration of a Multispectral Camera on Board an Unmanned Aerial System

“…The progress of microelectronics in the field of digital sensors, navigation equipment (GNSS/IMU (Global Navigation Satellite System/inertial measurement unit)), along with the design of small aircraft and light-weight materials, has reduced the cost of the fundamental components of UASs [10]. Several authors have published works in which, using cameras on board small planes or radio-controlled helicopters, they have demonstrated the viability of such airborne vehicles as image acquisition platforms for scientific purposes [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

UAS pilot support for departure, approach and airfield operations

“…The USAL is the set of available services running on top of the UAS system architecture to give support to most types of remote sensing UAS missions [9]. USAL can be compared to an operating system.…”