Communications Hardware for a UAV Sensor Network

ECE 791- Oral Project ProposalECE Faculty Advisor: Nicholas Kirsch Ph.D.

October 28, 2011

Presented By: Jason Dusseault, Matthew Gloekler, Andrew Jacobs,

Benjamin Payeur

Content

• Background• Problem Statement• Goals• Design Objectives• Implementation• Budget• Timeline

Background

• Overview• Why use drones?– Time– Money– Terrain– Search area

• Strategy – Multi-disciplinary / Multi University– WPI Teams: Platform Development, Systems

Integration, Communications Team

Background

• UNH Communication Team– FPGA– Radio front end

• Communication Link– Software Controlled Radio– Connect drones to command center– Data filtered, processed– Control drones through command

center

Problem Statement

• We are developing communications hardware for a UAV.

• The communications hardware has to meet size and weight constraints for the UAV.

• To consider this project as a success, our communications hardware should be able to transmit over 50 meters to a N210 radio.

Goals• Main Goal– Construct a network capable of working 50m

above earth– Be able to receive sensor data– Be able to send flight commands to the UAV– Design a micro strip patch antenna for the mother

ship

Main Goal

Goals (continued)

• Secondary Goals– Construct a lower power radio to allow drones to

communicate to the mother ship– Have sensor data sent to the mother ship and

then transmitted back to the ground station– Receive flight instructions which are relayed

through the mother ship

Design Overview

• Goal is to create a wireless UAV network• Two way communication (transceivers at both

ends) between ground station and UAV• Will be implemented with a SDR, based on

Ettus N210• Primary goal of the system will be search and

rescue

Power Managment

• Two different planes with different power considerations. (Penguin B, Senior telemaster)

• Ways to reduce power consumption, if needed: reduce bandwidth, choose less powerful FPGA, reduce signal power.

• Tradeoffs of reducing power consumption

Communication

• Communication frequency needs to be picked that will not violate FCC regulations

• Look angle between mother ship and drones; mother ship and ground station

Bandwidth

• Better image quality requires a higher bit rate• Modulation rate: M-ary QAM used to send

more information at once• Signal to noise ratio limits the number of

symbols that can be used in M-ary QAM

Weight Considerations

• Senior Telemaster: 10 pound payload• Penguin B: 15 pound payload

Implementation

Implementation

Link Budget

• Accounting of the gains and losses

Implementation

BudgetItem Quantity Price Total Cost

AntennaAntenna 1 $25.00 $25.00Front EndModulator/ Detector 1 $6.00 $12.00

High Accuracy Adjustable low dropout regulator 4 $1.00 $4.00Digital Attenuator 1 $5.00 $5.00

Ultra Low distortion differential ADC Driver 2 $5.00 $10.00

Quadrature Demodulator (50MHz-2GHz) 1 $6.00 $6.00Wideband Synthesizer with VCO 2 $8.00 $16.00EEPROM 2 $10.00 $20.00Connection Header Hi-Speed dual 40POS 1 $8.00 $8.00Miscellaneous 1 $50.00 $50.00FPGAFPGA 1 $86.32 $86.32Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver 1 $3.59 $3.59Fuse: 1 Port, right angle 1 $3.83 $3.83

RAM from Cypress Semiconductor, 2.5 V 1 $11.32 $11.32

4.5V to 20V input to variable voltage, 3A output buck converter 3 $6.30 $18.90

Voltage Controlled, Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator, part # unknown Misc

Matched input connector - might be used to probe board? Officical part number not on schematic Misc

Transceiver, exact part number or brand not known 1 Misc

Miscellaneous parts: capacitors, resistors, inductors, connectors, etc Misc $50.00PCB Fabrication $100.00 Total $430.00

Timeline

Front End FPGA Reporting

Determine Constraints

Design System

Board Layout

Fabricate

Measure

Integrate with FPGA and fabricate

Determine Constraints

Design System

Layout

Integrate with front end and fabricate

Test and measure

Progress Report

URC

Final Report

10/17/2011 11/21/2011 12/26/2011 1/30/2012 3/5/2012 4/9/2012 5/14/2012

References

Ettus Research LLC. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ettus.com/>

"Radio Link Budget :: Radio-Electronics.Com." Radio-Electronics.com: Resources and Analysis for Electronics Engineers. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/propagation/path-loss/link-budget-calculation-formula-equation.php>.