Information-Measuring Technologies for UAV's Application: Two Practical Examples

Uav’S Sensors

An interest to create and scaling up unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) application field is widening today. It is fair to say that low price and affordability of materials allowed creating radically new UAV designs, such as copters. Scaling up of UAV application field leads to R&D activities for outfitting them with new payload and adapting it for unpiloted or remote-controlled aerial vehicles. Apart from creating new and modernization of existing UAV designs, vigorous efforts are conducted for creating cost-efficient navigation and control means for various types of UAV. Modern hardware components allow implementing accurate navigation solution and complicated control algorithms, particularly for automatic UAV’s.

A plenty of R&D and commercial aircraft builders in the world are concerned with creating UAV’s of different specifications and design types. Remote controlled UAV’s are predominant today. Such aerial vehicles are known to be controlled by a remote pilot that stays in a terrestrial control center to control a UAV flight by monitoring visual and navigational information received from UAV using a wireless information channel, makes a decision and transmits it to UAV using a control channel. The control chart described can vary in structure and certain implementation features, but a remote pilot or rather remote UAV operator is a necessary control loop element.

Another UAV type does not require an operator as a remote pilot. Such UAV’s are controlled automatically using preset control algorithms. In this case, operator serves as a UAV maintenance engineer, i.e. adjusts navigation algorithms for a specific UAV task, verifies the functionality of UAV's onboard avionics and actuators and loads control system with algorithms adjusted for successful application task performance. No doubt, technical implementation of a really unmanned vehicle is much more difficult.

Thus the relevance of activities for a creation and technical implementation of robust algorithms for UAV flight control is undeniable.

The first example represents an original application of a barometric pressure sensor. The process of landing and touchdown of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the set exactness requires the realization of new information technologies of control of parameters of space and operation process. So far the solution of mentioned questions of realization is a problem. A possibility of choice of well-known measuring facilities necessary for the operation of UAV is considered. The improved mathematical model adaptive to region and variability of parameters of real air environment is offered.

Pressure sensors include technical devices, output signals of which change depending on the pressure of the investigated environment behavior. At the modern market, the enormous amount of pressure sensors, intended for a wide circle of applications is presented. The optimal choice of a pressure sensor for this application can be executed stage-by-stage:

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  Determination of purpose, type, and range of measurable pressure (absolute, extra or differential, working and maximal influencing pressure, static or dynamic pressures, service life);

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  Analysis of metrology characteristics;

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  Account of influence of surrounding conditions: temperature differentials, vibration, humidity, electromagnetic interference, electrostatic destruction, high-frequency interference on feed circuits;

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  Presence of output chains protection, protection from short circuits;

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  Analysis of requirements to an electric interface (analog or digital output signal);

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  Account of requirements of mechanical characteristics for setting on an object;

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  Economic efficiency.

Questions of increase of metrology characteristics of sensors, selection of their mechanical and electric interfaces, and also production on classes of protection and persistence to influences of the environment are not solved to the present time.

Classification of sensors for UAV on substantial technical characteristics is given in Table 1.