Autonomous Flight Control of Unmanned Small Hobby-Class Helicopter Report 1: Hardware Development and Verification Experiments of Autonomous Flight Control System

摘要

We detail hardware and firmware development for autonomous control of an small unmanned hobby-compatible small helicopter. Preserving compatibility with hobby products greatly reduces overall cost, including that for hardware development and system maintenance. The original concept in the development of hardware, firmware, and the operating system for autonomous control flight focuses on compatibility and adaptability with conventional hobby products. The newly-developed servopulse switching unit and the pulse generator realized this concept, implementing expandability and flexibility to control. Taking the small payload into account, we dramatically downsized helicopter hardware resulting in a 2.9 kgf controller. We verified correct control performance through simulation and experiments including guidance flights.