design and control of solar quadcopter using rf and arduino

Design and Control of Solar Quadcopter using RF and Arduino

Sheikh Junaid Yawar, Uzair Ahmed Usmani, Mohsin Ali, Muhammad Mahad and Syed Ali

Department of Electrical Engineering Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology

Karachi, Pakistan [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected] and [email protected] Fida Hussain

School of Information and Engineering Jiangsu University Zhenjiang, China

[email protected]

Abstract This paper focuses on design, implementation and testing of a wireless control system of Unmanned Solar-Powered Aerial Vehicle. The prototype is designed using BLDC Motors and Mono Crystalline Solar Panels. The project uses Arduino Uno and RF Controller to allow the user to easily control quadcopter with the transmitter. The results of the flying experiment show that the flight time has been significantly improved by using Solar Panel along with LIPO Batteries.

Keywords Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Solar Quadcopter, System Control, Renewable Energy

1. Introduction (UAV), or Drone is an aircraft without a human pilot interaction on board. It is controlled by computers itself. These UAVs are used for tasks that are unapproachable or difficult for a human, for example, patrolling for transmission lines, Video capturing, aerial surveillance etc. (Allak, Brommer, Dallenbach, & Weiss, 2020; Contreras, Ayala, & Cruz, 2020; Gupte, Mohandas, & Conrad, 2012; Lukmana & Nurhadi, 2015). Solar-Powered Quadcopter has been designed using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) Controllers by integrating Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Model. Using the renewable energy of Solar Cells, the flight time of quadcopter is considerably improved (Kingry et al., 2018). In this paper, lightweight Solar Quadcopter is designed using LIPO Batteries and Arduino UNO flight Controller. By incorporating Solar Panels, the load is shared between batteries and Solar Panel, that ultimately increased the flight time of the Quadcopter. The UAV generally needs consistent Power to enable long flight time (Leong, Low, & Ooi, 2012; Mandal et al., 2016). However, old UAV designs utilized battery or fuel cells to supply power to these quadcopters and were the only source of power (Suzuki, Kemper Filho, & Morrison, 2012; Sze & Ng, 2006).

Quadcopters are playing a vital role in our life. With an increasing day to day traffic and congestion in our cities, it is becoming clear that some alternate mode of transport needs to be devised for life-critical transportation such as ambulances, fire brigades etc. Air transport is another alternative but current air transport options like helicopters and airplanes are very costly and require proper airports and staff to operate. Quadcopters provide a cheap and easy to operate alternative to the conventional air-based operations. However, controlling quadcopters can be a devious task

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and often requires mastering control of remote control which is sometimes quite difficult to control (Bodin, Redman, & Thorson, 2006; Shiri, Park, & Bennis, 2020).

The Quadcopter is the simplest type of multi-Computer. A quadcopter is based on 4 rotors.

1. Control of this kind of helicopter is done by varying the pace of its four motors. 2. Multi-computer are balanced copters with all equal size propellers at the end of all equal length rods. 3. As quadcopter is lifted by four rotors, its movement can be changed by changing the pace of every motor to

modify the push and thrust forces employed at the end. 4. the goal that the two sets of engines pivots in counterclockwise and the other two turns clockwise 5. The quad-copter balanced configuration takes into consideration simpler control of the general strength of

the drone.

Quad-copter Drones request an unpredictable control framework keeping in mind the end goal to take into consideration adjusted flight. The quadcopter is a flying vehicle talented of vertical departure and landing capacity whose development depends upon the rpm of four rotors. It usually works by a Radio transmitter (RF) or self-sufficiently because of pre-modified flight ways with the assistance of GPS. The designed quadcopter is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1 Prototype of Solar Quadcopter

1.1 Objectives This research aims to provide a design solution of alternate power source for the quadcopter by utilizing the photovoltaic Cells (Solar System) into the UAV design. It focuses on the design of the prototype for solar-powered UAVs. The design uses the PID Controller modular for easy movement and control. The UAV has multiple configurations to lift the quadcopter. The quadcopter has four solar cells installed at the top that charges the batteries during the flight. A prototype software flight controller is designed to ease the human interaction and control.



2. Methods The working of quadcopter relies upon elements that consolidate trademark laws, gear, hardware and programming interfacing et cetera. It contains differing guidelines, for instance, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) that is the fundamental segment for quad copter's propeller speed control. The control of QUAD-COPTER is less troublesome as a change in the speed of rotors. Regardless of the way that quality control is not as straightforward considering the way that the QUAD-COPTER itself is touchy and needs locally accessible sensors to get trustworthiness.

Lightweight BLDC motors are used in this project to lift and balance the quadcopter in the air. These motors have high torque and low KV rating, for lifting heavy loads. The specific motor chosen is A2212 / 13T 1000KV Brushless Motor. The specification of the motor is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Specification of the brushless motor.

Name of Parameter Value

RMP/V 1000

Inter resistance 90 mΩ

Max. voltage 7.2 V to 12 V

Max power 150 Watt

Max current 13 mA for 60 sec

Shaft diameter 3mm

Weight 47 g

The Electronic Speed Controller functions (ESC) work with the help of Programming in Arduino that is set by 50Hz 1ms to 2ms square wave signal. The ESC draws 30A total current, including ripple current. Arduino UNO along with MPU6050 (gyro+ Accle) is used as a Flight Controller.

The batteries that are used have high amperes hours’ capacity of 2200mah Type 30C LIPO Battery. There are three LIPO cells in series, having ratings of 3.7V and 66 Amps maximum current.

A Mono-Crystalline Solar Panel is used for charging. It produces a maximum voltage of 3V and a current of 100 mA. Four cells are connected in series in the Quadcopter. The proposed controller architecture is shown in Fig. 2.



Figure 2. The proposed Controller Architecture

2.1 Mathematical Equations The torque developed by the motor depends upon the current (Baldursson, 2005; Nash, 1997). IkT .= T represents torque generated by the motor which depends upon the current delivered I, while k is the proportionality constant. The voltage relation is given as, KemRIV .. ω+= V is the voltage dropped in the motor due to motor resistance 𝑅𝑅 and 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 is motor’s angular velocity with counter e.m.f constant 𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾. Now, The Power consumed by the motor will be,

KmKeRITIVP ).(. ω+

==

Since 𝑅𝑅 is low, we assume it as negligible (Nash, 1997).

KmKeITP )( ω+

≈



3 Data Collection The Data is collected during the real flight of the Quadcopter. The charging and discharging time are shown in Table 2. The Power consumption of Quadcopter with and without Solar Panel assistance is also measured and is shown in Table 3.

Table 2. Charging and Discharging of the battery

S.NO

PARTICULARS

CHARGING DISCHARGING TIME

Volts Amps Volts Amps Hour

1 STAND STILL MODE 12 0.18 - - 11 AM

2 STAND STILL MODE 11.9 0.19 - - 12 PM




6 FLIGHT MODE 11.9 0.20 12 2.2 11 AM

7 FLIGHT MODE 11.9 0.20 11.7 2 11:05 AM

8 FLIGHT MODE 11.9 0.20 11.3 1.9 11:07 AM

9 FLIGHT MODE 11.9 0.20 11 1.6 11:10 AM

10 FLIGHT MODE 11.9 0.20 10.6 1.2 11:13 AM

Table 3. Power Consumption during Flight

S.NO

PARTICULARS

TERMINAL VOLTAGE

(V)

CURRENT

I(A)

POWER

P(W)

1. WITH BATTERY 11.1 2.2 24.42

2. SOLAR ASSIST 12 0.15-0.20 1.8-2.4

4. Design and Simulation The Quadrotor design is simulated using Simscape Multibody (formerly SimMechanics) Software as shown in Figure 3. The MATLAB Simulink is used to design the Subsystem as shown in figure 4.



Figure 3. The Quadrotor Design Simulation

Figure 4. MATLAB Simulink Design of Subsystem



5. Results and Discussion Figure 5 shows the graph of Thrust through ESC at 8% to 62% throttle. The behavior of all motors is almost same with minor variations. It shows that between 8% to 62% throttle, each motor can generate thrust. 1KG (10N) Thrust has been generated by each motor at around 62%. The graph of the throttle Verses Current of each motor is shown in Figure 6. At 62% throttle maximum current is 11.7A.

Figure 5. The current flowing into ESC and throttle of each motor

Figure 6. The thrust of each motor and throttle.

6. Conclusion This project initiates the strong concept of Renewable Energy. By availing the solar technology, it can be used for surveillance for a long period. Both Solar and Battery have enhanced Flight time. This could be used for many aspects like surveying of large agriculture fields. By using high-tech solar panels, the flight can be made prolong enough to achieve a desirable result.



References Allak, Eren, Brommer, Christian, Dallenbach, Diego, & Weiss, Stephan. (2020). AMADEE-18: Vision-based

unmanned aerial vehicle navigation for Analog Mars Mission (AVI-NAV). Astrobiology, 20(11), 1321-1337.

Bodin, William Kress, Redman, Jesse JW, & Thorson, Derral C. (2006). Navigating a UAV with a remote-control device. In: Google Patents.

Baldursson, Stefan. (2005). Bldc motor modelling and control-a matlab®/simulink® implementation.

Contreras, Ruben, Ayala, Angel, & Cruz, Francisco. (2020). Unmanned aerial vehicle control through domain-based automatic speech recognition. Computers, 9(3), 75.

Gupte, Shweta, Mohandas, Paul Infant Teenu, & Conrad, James M. (2012). A survey of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Paper presented at the 2012 Proceedings of IEEE Southeastcon.

Kingry, Nathaniel, Towers, Logan, Liu, Yen-Chen, Zu, Yue, Wang, Yuchen, Staheli, Briana, . . . Dai, Ran. (2018). Design, modeling and control of a solar-powered quadcopter. Paper presented at the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Leong, Bernard Tat Meng, Low, Sew Ming, & Ooi, Melanie Po-Leen. (2012). Low-cost microcontroller-based hover control design of a quadcopter. Procedia Engineering, 41, 458-464.

Lukmana, Muhammad Arifudin, & Nurhadi, Hendro. (2015). Preliminary study on unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) quadcopter using pid controller. Paper presented at the 2015 International Conference on Advanced Mechatronics, Intelligent Manufacture, and Industrial Automation (ICAMIMIA).

Mandal, Supantha, Saw, S, Shaw, Karan, Thakur, A Kabiraj, Seth, Varsha, & Singh, Puja. (2016). Low-Cost Bluetooth-Arduino Hover Control Design of a Quad Copter. IOSR J. Electron. Commun. Eng.-JECE, 11, 81-90.

Nash, James N. (1997). Direct torque control, induction motor vector control without an encoder. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 33(2), 333-341.

Shiri, Hamid, Park, Jihong, & Bennis, Mehdi. (2020). Remote uav online path planning via neural network based opportunistic control. IEEE Wireless Communications Letters.

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Biography Sheikh Junaid Yawar is a Professional Electrical Engineer received B.E. and M.E. Degrees from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan in 2009 and 2012, respectively. An MBA Executive Degree from Virtual University of Pakistan, in 2020. He has a total Professional Experience of 11 years. Currently, he is pursuing Ph.D. Degree from Hamdard University, Pakistan. He worked as Assistant Manager at K-Electric, Design Engineer at Associated Technical Consultants and Lecturer at Hamdard University. He is currently working as Assistant Professor and B.E. Supervisor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. His research interests include Power Quality Improvement, Renewable Energy Systems and HVAC transmissions.

Uzair Ahmed Usmani is an Instrumentation and Control Engineer at UTF-Labs and held a position as Research and Development Engineer at Mesol Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Uzair holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Sir Syed University. He has a sound experience in executing the renewable projects and developing the energy storage system for residential consumers and he is now working with industrial engineers on energy management projects. He has done internship at Karachi Port Trust and took training from Jinko Solar and Huawei fusion solar and now enrolled in the course for Solar Energy Codes, Permitting and Zoning. He worked on different projects like Voltage Source Inverters, MOSFET based Power Supplies, PV MPPT charge controllers and Power Electronics. These topics are his key research areas.

Mohsin Ali is an Assistant Site Engineer at FG consultant group of companies. Mohsin Ali holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Sir Syed University. He has a sound experience in executing the



renewable projects, HV and LT panels and energy storage system for residential consumers and he is now working with industrial engineers on energy management and maintenance projects. He has done internship at Karachi Port Trust, SGS Pakistan and Pakistan Steel Mills. He worked on different projects like Voltage Source Inverters, MOSFET based Power Supplies, PV MPPT charge controllers and Power Electronics. These topics are the key research area for him.

Muhammad Mahad is an Instructor. He has gained experience in electrical drawings and Auto CAD at Steelman Engineering & Construction Co. He has interest in the Machines and Drives. He got his bachelor’s degree in electrical Power Engineering from Sir Syed University. He has been working on the cable quality enhancement and LV & MV apparatus. He is also eager to develop the Smart Energy systems with effective BMS. Artificial Intelligence is the area of interest in which he wants to get hands on experience.

Syed Ali is Managing Hardware and Paint Store. He has also technical knowledge in switch gears. He has done Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Sir Syed University, He has done internship at Ahmed Electrical Services, one of the electrical consultants in the city. He is more than an engineer. He has keen interest in IoT and got certification in the field of Mechatronics from NED University. He has Experience as Application and Estimation Engineer at Engineers and Engineering Company. He is more into startups and he is eager to learn about the renovation in the modern technology.

Fida Hussain has completed M.E. and M.S. degrees from Hamdard University and NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan, in 2011 and 2015, respectively. His research interests include smart grids, deep machine learning, power system automation and hydropower automation.



design and control of solar quadcopter using rf and arduino

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