Название: A First Course in Aerial Robots and Drones
Автор: Yasmina Bestaoui Sebbane
Издательство: CRC Press
Год: 2022
Страниц: 216
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

A First Course in Aerial Robots and Drones provides an accessible and student friendly introduction to aerial robots and drones. Drones figure prominently as opportunities for students to learn various aspects of aerospace engineering and design. Drones offer an enticing entry point for STEM studies. As the use of drones in STEM studies grows, there is an emerging generation of drone pilots who are not just good at flying, but experts in specific niches, such as mapping or thermography.

This book prepares readers to the field of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) or drones. The term unmanned aircraft includes very large aircraft similar in size and complexity to manned aircraft, but also very small drones. The smaller ones have the size of an insect. Even small UAS may be equipped with advanced features that allow the drone operator to operate out of their visual line of sight (VLOS), relying on the guidance and navigation control system of the drones. The UAV performance capabilities coupled with the installation of cameras and other sensors make small UAVs very attractive for both commercial and not commercial operations. The remote pilot keeps the UAV close enough to be capable of seeing it with vision unaided by any device other than corrective lenses, and seeing and avoiding all threats and hazards. Drones can hover or reach a speed of more than 1000 Km/h, be controlled by a computer, a smartphone, a tablet or satellite communication, and carry all kinds of material.

Some advantages of UAVs over conventional manned aircraft include:

1. It is programmable such that the UAV does not exceed its limits. The on-board computer uses the information given by the sensors and can calculate the limits of the aircraft. Thus the UAV will not undertake a maneuver that will cause it to stall.
2. Drones tolerate wider environmental ranges, greater ranges of pressure, temperature, and turbulence.
3. UAVs are also able to operate in areas that would prove hostile to humans, such as Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical (NBC) radiated areas.
4. UAVs save weight as there is no pilot and no-pilot related equipment on-board.
5. UAVs have lower operational costs. The reduction in weight and size allows the vehicles to operate on far less power.

Main processor: This is the central unit that runs the autopilot firmware and performs all the calculations. Most flight controllers have 32 bit processors which are more powerful that than 8bit systems, but there are still a few popular 8 bit autopilot platforms such as ardupilot mega. 8051 versus AVR versus PIC versus ARM: These microcontroller families form the basis of most current flight controllers. Arduino is AVR based and MultiWii is the preferred code. Microchip is the primary manufacturer of PIC chips. ARM uses 16/32-bit architecture, whereas AVR and PIC tends to use 8/16-bit. As single board computers become less and less expensive, a new generation of flight controllers can run full operating systems, such as Linux or Android.

Key Features:

Focuses on algorithms that are currently used to solve diverse problems.
Enables students to solve problems and improve their science skills.
Introduces difficult concepts with simple, accessible examples.

Suitable for undergraduate students, this textbook provides students and other readers with methods for solving problems and improving their science skills.