Raspberry Drone : Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
This thesis focuses on the development and implementation of an on-board computing module in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on a low-cost single-board computer that interacts with a base station, in order to transmit the data gathered in a set of sensors.
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the development and implementation of an on-board computing module in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on a low-cost single-board computer. This module interacts with a base station, in order to transmit the data gathered in a set of sensors (GPS, image and other UAV sensors). At the base station, the GPS coordinates are subsequently used to track the trajectory in an user interface based on Google Maps, embedding the sensors data on the map. The mobile station was developed using C programming language on a Raspberry Pi single board computer with Linux distribution. It captures images with an off-the-shelf low-cost webcam and uses a conventional GPS module to acquire the latitude/longitude. The acquired data is then subsequently sent to the base station throw a wireless WiFi communication link. The base station is composed of a web application, developed in Node.Js, with a graphical interface to show (in real time) the trajectory of the UAV, by embedding the georeferenced sensors data and images with convenient markers on the map. According to the conducted performance evaluation, the implemented system is able to fulfil the aimed requirements, being able to offer an image acquisition throughput of 4 fps.