Anatomy of a Drone

Anatomy of a drone
• Airframe (structure)
• Fixed hardware
• Motors, speed controllers, servos
• Gimbal and camera?

• Avionics
• All electronics associated with Tarot Hex frame kit with landing gear,
maintaining flight speed controllers, motors, and props.

• Flight computer, telemetry, GPS,

power regulation, receivers
• Battery

• Payload
• Mission dependent
• Cameras (thermal/visual/UV)
• Pressure, temperature, humidity, gas PixHack autopilot kit with GPS, PPM encoder,
sensor, deployable items telemetry modems, and power supply
Anatomy of a drone
Design Considerations
• Building a custom solution is a
systems integration problem
• Many components are available Payload mass
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
Total mass

Airframe Propeller or
wing size
Law of
Payload
diminishing
power returns
Battery Motor speed
voltage and and torque
capacity
Endurance
Speed controller
requirement current and voltage
Structure
Fixed Wing Airframes
Conventional Airplane
Bix 3 (Hobbyking)
• Cheap with ready-to-fly
options
• Good for systems testing
• EPO foam body is easily
modified with scalpel
• 500g payload
• 1.5m span
• 15m/s air speed
Delta Wing Sailplane/Glider
Skywalker X8 (FPVModel) Thermik XXXL (Valenta)
• EPO foam body kit • Designed to fly without
• Difficult to launch throttle using thermals
(consider catapults) • Glass and Kevlar fibre skin
• 800g payload • Efficient airframe, but
• 2.1m span difficult to mount extras
• Pusher – prop doesn’t • 1.5kg payload
disturb airflow • 5m span
• 20m/s air speed • 25m/s air speed
• Can be dismantled
Structure
Controls
• Airplane/Delta-wing*/Sailplane are equivalent from a pilots perspective
• Autopilot in FBW mode converts user commands into control surface deflections
• Manual mode is possible giving the pilot direct control of actuated surfaces

Pitch

Airspeed
Roll
Throttle

*for the delta-wing the ailerons and elevator are combined into elevons

Manual mode Ailerons

Pitch up/down
Elevator
Roll left/right Autopilot
Throttle
Speed up/down Sensors Rudder
Structure
Rotary Wing Airframes
Quadcopter Hexacopter Octocopter
(X8 configuration)

F450 (DJI) 680Pro (Tarot) Black Widow (Vulcan)

• Cheap with complete kit
options
• Useful for systems testing
• Plastic frame
• 500g payload
• 450mm span
• Single point failure on any
prop/motor/speed controller
• Carbon fibre + plastic • Carbon fibre + aluminium
• 800g payload • Raised propellers to prevent
• 680mm span camera obstruction
• Could carry a high spec • 1.5kg payload
camera on a gimbal • Can carry multiple sensors
• Some increased simultaneously + camera
redundancy against • Folding arms
prop/motor failure • 1100mm span
• Folding arms • Other frames from Vulcan
can carry up to 30kg!
Structure
Controls
• Quad/Hex/Octo-copter are equivalent from a pilots perspective
• Autopilot converts user commands into motor speeds
• Manual mode is not possible. The stabilising functions are always required

Move forwards Yaw left

(pitch nose down)

Move left Ascend

(roll left)
Move front/back Manual mode Motor 1
Move left/right Motor 2
Autopilot
Ascend/Descend …
Sensors Motor N
Turn left/right
Avionics
Serial communication primer
• Protocols • Connections
• RS232, RS485, SPI, I2C, CANBUS, TTL
Master Slave

• TTL Serial via a UART GND GND

• Common on sensors TX TX
• Common on micro controllers RX RX
• Common on autopilots
CTS CTS
• 3.3V or 5V signal voltages
• 3-6 wires (Vcc, GND, Rx, Tx, RTC, CTS) RTS RTS
• Programming interface by sending VCC VCC
strings of data
TTL Serial Connection Schematic
N;Time;Tgas;RH;SO2;H2S;CO2;P;H2;Vbatt
• GND, Rx, Tx are required
1;2015/07/16 18:32:33;28.168;51.352;2.214;18.151;
-784.447;1008.661;-2.516;12.799;
• Connect Vcc if the slave device
N;Time;Tgas;RH;SO2;H2S;CO2;P;H2;Vbatt requires power
2;2015/07/16 18:32:34;28.168;51.352;2.214;18.151;
-784.447;1008.661;-2.516;12.799; • RTS/CTS are for flow control if
Example serial data stream from a gas sensor using higher bandwidth bi-
directional signals
Avionics
TTL Serial Examples

3DR Pixhawk has five serial Teensy 3.2 Microcontroller can Cables and adapters for
ports for communications with communicate over several serial connecting serial devices to a PC
GPS modules, telemetry radios, protocols (TTL, I2C, SPI) and also
or additional microcontrollers read analogue voltages

MultiGAS sensor with serial output 3DR telemetry modem U-BLOX NEO-7 GPS module
Avionics
Flight Computer
Common features
Standard external inputs
- GPS + magnetometer Multiple
- Airspeed power
options
Pilot inputs
- PPM
- SBUS Telemetry ports
- TTL serial
- I2C
PWM Outputs - USB
- Servos Internal sensors
- Speed controllers - IMU (accelerometers + gyro)
- Payload? - 2nd magnetometer
- Barometer
Avionics
Many options

Pixhawk (Unmanned) Pixfalcon (Holybro) Pixhawk 2.1 (Proficnc)

- Established open source - Pixhawk in a different - Latest revision with
design shape increased sensor redundancy

Navio 2 (EMLID) N3/A3 (DJI) MP21283X (Micropilot)

- Shield for RPi. - Plug and play solutions - Redundancy and system
Allows on-board interfaces to meet military
computing aerospace standards
Avionics
Batteries
Common features
Capacity
• Specified as Ah (or mAh)
• e.g. 5000mAh
Maximum Current
• Specified as a multiplier
of the capacity (C)
Voltage
• e.g. 25C --> 25*5A = 125A
• Voltage specified as number of cells (S)
• Each cell voltage varies between 3.6V and 4.2V
• e.g. 4S with nominal voltage of 14.8V and
maximum (charged) voltage of 16.8V

Intelligent Flight Batteries

• LiPo battery with built in additional circuitry
• Over charge protection
• Over discharge protection
• Temperature warning (prevents hot charging)
• Automatic storage charge
• Charge indicator
Phantom 3 Intelligent Flight battery
• Automatic balancing (4S, 4480mAh)
Avionics
LiPo Safety
• When building custom solutions there are no protective
circuits so the user is responsible for safety
• Always store at 3.7V – 3.8V per cell
• Always transport in a LiPo bag
• Store in a fire proof metal container
• Never change a puffy/swollen/misshapen battery

Taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnNId0mDnBo

Avionics
Motors and Props

Propeller Specs.
• Diameter
• Pitch – the amount of air “pulled” Phantom 9450 Anticlockwise Propeller
9.4” diameter, 5.0” pitch
through the propeller disc
• Greater diameter or pitch increases Brushless Motor Specs.
drag, therefore increases torque • Maximum continuous current
requirement of motor • Voltage range
• RPM, nominal airspeed, and blade • Kv (Motor Velocity Constant) is the
pitch must be matched for optimal RPM per volt
thrust to power ratio
DJI2312 960Kv
-high speed, low torque
-more slender
-14A max KDE4014XF 380Kv
-2-4S LiPo -low speed, high torque
-flatter and wider
-36A max
-4-8S LiPo
Avionics
Speed Controllers and Servos
Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) Specs.
• Maximum continuous current - match the motor
• Voltage range – stated in LiPo cell count (S)
• UBEC or OPTO options
• Connections usually include 3 wires to motor, 2
wires to battery, and control input via a standard
servo connector carrying a PWM signal Hobbyking ESC
• PWM input from flight computer sets the RPM 30A, 2-4S LiPo, UBEC

Servos
• Torque and speed are interchangeable. The
internal gear ratio is usually designed for
either high torque or high speed.
• Voltage range – normally 5 – 7.5V
• Controlled and powered by a single servo
connector (Vcc, GND, PWM)
HiTec HS7655TG
• PWM input from flight computer controls the
High torque, 4.8 – 6V arm rotational position
 Long Range Data Communication
Sensor GPS+Time Wireless Radio Modems
• Often come transceiver pairs for two-way
Flight Computer
communication
• Act as virtual “wire” whereby serial data sent
Transmitter Modem into the transmitter is repeated at the receiver
• Bandwidth reduces as range increases
Antenna • Diversity system allows two antennas to
Replaces
wired serial
increase reliability and flexibility
connection • Antenna size is determined by the frequency
Antenna

Receiver Modem
VCC
GND
Ground Station Rx/Tx
RTS/CTS
3DR Radio Modem RFDesign Radio Modem
Storage Display • Single antenna • Diversity dual antenna
• <2km • <40km