UWE Bristol Engineering showcase 2015

Design Model & Simulation
The design model and simulation
will take part within MATLAB and
Simulink. Written code and
Simulink models will emulate a
guidance, navigation and control
system once developed.
Abigail Glover
Aerospace Systems Engineering
Undergraduate Final Year Project (MEng A)
Investigation and Development of Control and Communications
Systems of UAVs for use within Precision Agriculture
Background
The use of advanced control and autonomous systems are, at present, a major part of our society to and their uses are ever becoming
ever increasingly important. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other Unmanned Vehicle Systems have been a large focus mainly
within Aerospace and Military Defence, but now the possible roles and capabilities for unmanned autonomous systems, are majorly
advancing within the civil and commercial sectors. Applications offered are as such: mapping, surveillance, scientific data gathering,
search and tracking operations (such as forest fire monitoring) and as for the focus area for this project, Precision Agriculture.
AN IDEAL SYSTEM
The ideal autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system,
would enable a vehicle to autonomously follow and track, a specified
path, in the case of a UAV this would be to maintain a desired altitude
and heading without exceeding the constraints set for the system for the
desired tasks that may be required from it – depending on its use,
whether this is for surveillance of crops for example or surveillance of an
specific area that may wish to be examined.
Aircraft Model
Calculating coefficients and
motions of the UAV, including all
of the Aerodynamic equations
and calculations for forces and
motion, Rotations Matrices,
Velocities, Positions, Euler and
Angular calculations that occur
during the Simulation to output
results from the desired aircraft.
Path Following
Given a set of predetermined waypoints,
this is important when looking at the field
of precision agricultures, as the UAVs may
have a set and guided path that may be
required to follow. Knowing the position
currently held by the UAV, will allow for
path tracking algorithms to give the
desired heading (angle).
Autopilot
A controller will allow the UAV
to following a particular
heading, and hold an altitude
– a steady and smooth flight is
always the desired outcome
from a system, and along with
the path tracking being able to
hold an altitude will be an
important step towards this
Further Development
The system is currently still in development from the
first year of the project and will need more time to be
a fully working system. The next steps of development
are to finish the Autopilot system and build upon the
Path Following routines, to think about implementing
an IMU and wind turbulence systems. Implementation
with the Flightgear or XPlane interface will allow for
better analysis of the system.
Project Supervisor
Dr. Pritesh Narayan
Project summary
The primary aim of the investigation is to
design and develop a Control system for a
UAV, which can be developed into a system
that multiple UAVs can use and work
cooperatively together. These will be capable
to perform tasks such as surveillance within
Agricultural production. Some of the ideas
will be an extension of a number of previous
publications, where work on UAVs and
Unmanned Autonomous systems have been
developing over the last decade. The project
proposes to explore wider ideas and
opportunities to present possible solutions
for methods of use of UAVs and unmanned
vehicle systems together in agriculture.
Project Objectives
(MEng A Project Scope)
• Investigate required specifications and
explore the limitations of UAVs and other
vehicles alike that can be used for Precision
Agriculture.
• Investigate current methods for navigation,
guidance and control of UAVs and explore
how these can be developed into use in
project area.
• Design a prototype UAV Control system
(Guidance, Navigation and Control).
• Development of a prototype UAV Control
system using MATLAB/Simulink.
Project Conclusion
The project is still in development although
prototype systems are currently designed and
being developed. All research objectives were
completed. Further development of the
systems are required.