DMC implemented the onboard flight control system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (also known as unmanned aerial system or UAS), which included the development and deployment of a ground-based control station for supervisory control and coordinating flights.
The UAVs used custom airframes, which required the control systems to be custom designed in order to accommodate the unique nature of the aircraft.
Airborne Flight Control System
DMC designed the UAV’s flight control system to consist of 2 subsystems -- power management and flight control:
- The flight control subsystem, controlled by multiple high-performance microcontrollers, manages the processing of flight dynamics, ensuring accurate and responsive control as well as communication with the GCS over a wireless link.
- The power management subsystem provides safety measures, as well as manages power delivery and monitoring of the aircraft’s actuators according to commands from the flight control subsystem.
DMC’s Embedded Team developed the airborne hardware and firmware with the following benefits::
- Redundant Flight Sensors: These include RTK GPS, IMU, compass, barometric pressure, etc. to provide robust positioning and attitude data for flight control and navigation.
- Precise Trajectory: DMC developed custom real-time flight trajectory following controls, allowing users to specify an exact profile for the UAV to follow.
- Redundant Power: DMC’s power management subsystem supports power delivery from multiple sources, allowing reliable flight and providing users flexibility in battery options.
- Redundant Communication: The UAV flight control system communicates to the GCS over a redundant wireless link to ensure reliable communication in a variety of conditions.
- Enhanced Safety and Reliability: Following ISO-13849 design practices, DMC implemented comprehensive safety systems to automatically detect and address in-flight and grounded failures, ensuring operator safety and flight reliability at all times.
Ground Control Station
Our teams built a ground control station to act as the command center for the UAV system, offering comprehensive supervisory capabilities with the heart of the station being a custom .NET C# application to interface with UAVs, operators, and ground-based sensors.
DMC’s Application Development team designed this station with a focus on user-friendliness and adaptability and included:
- Real-Time Monitoring and Control. Providing operators with live flight data, including visualization of a UAV’s path on a geo-referenced map.
- Intuitive Touchscreen Interface. A custom-built graphical touchscreen interface enabling straightforward interaction and allowing operators to select flight trajectories, issue commands, and review diagnostics with ease.
- Integrated Design. DMC developed the ground control station and onboard flight control system together, providing seamless interoperability between the two systems.
Flight Tuning and Path Planning
In addition to the system design and development, DMC’s team of FAA Part 107 Certified Remote Pilots also performed real-world tuning.
Taking this additional step, DMC minimized the costs and material risks of flight controller tuning by developing a physics-based model of the aircraft and optimizing control inside a simulation environment prior to performing real-world tuning.
Our teams also developed a suite of custom flight planning tools in Python enabling the user to simplify visualizing and designing navigation missions and trajectories.
Learn more about DMC’s Embedded Development and Embedded Programming expertise and contact us for your next project.