Navigation Functionalities for an Autonomous UAV Helicopter
Navigation Functionalities for an Autonomous UAV Helicopter
Navigation Functionalities for an Autonomous UAV Helicopter
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2.2. THE <strong>UAV</strong> HELICOPTER PLATFORM 11<br />
The PFC is implemented on a 700Mhz Pentium III <strong>an</strong>d includes a wireless<br />
Ethernet bridge, a GPS receiver <strong>an</strong>d a barometric altitude sensor. An<br />
earlier version of the system included a compass as a heading sensor source.<br />
The compass has been removed from the latest version since the Kalm<strong>an</strong><br />
filter which fuses the inertial sensors <strong>an</strong>d GPS provides sufficiently stable<br />
heading in<strong>for</strong>mation. The PFC communicates with the helicopter through<br />
a serial line RS232C, where the inertial sensor data from the YAS is passed<br />
to the PFC. The PFC c<strong>an</strong> also send control inputs to the YACS <strong>for</strong> helicopter<br />
control. The IPC runs on a second PC104 embedded computer<br />
(PIII 700MHz), <strong>an</strong>d includes a color CCD camera mounted on a p<strong>an</strong>/tilt<br />
unit, a video tr<strong>an</strong>smitter <strong>an</strong>d a video recorder (miniDV). The DRC system<br />
runs on the third PC104 embedded computer (Pentium-M 1.4GHz) <strong>an</strong>d<br />
executes all high-end autonomous functionality. Network communication<br />
between computers is physically realized with serial line RS232C <strong>an</strong>d Ethernet.<br />
Ethernet is mainly used <strong>for</strong> CORBA applications, remote login <strong>an</strong>d<br />
file tr<strong>an</strong>sfer, while serial lines are used <strong>for</strong> hard real-time networking.