The Portable Wireless Aerial Image Transmission System Based on DSP

Li Zhang1, Chengxiang Liu2, Gongbin Qian1

1.College of Information Engineering, Shenzhen University 2. College of Electronic Science and Technology, Shenzhen University Shenzhen, Guangdong province, 518060, China

Abstract-The paper provides portable digital aerial image system based on Blackfin DSP. The system includes the aeromodellingcarrier part and the ground control part. The image transmission between the two parts realized with Nordic Semiconductors RF transceiver nRF24L01. The aeromodelling-carrier part takes pictures using CMOS image sensor and compresses data by ADSPBF531, then sends them to ground part wirelessly. The ground control center based on ADSP-BF533 supervises images real time and samples data. After relevant subsequent image processing and compressing, the final image is saved locally. In controllable range, the system can take pictures anyplace and any angle, can lock object neatly. This system features double DSP architecture so it can transmit and process image very fast. It is small, light, low power consumption and low cost. It is easy for single taking and operation, so has good application prospect in field reconnaissance, traffic surveillance, city layout and the situation of bad weather or a disaster and so on. Keywords: aerial image, Wireless transmission, Blackfin DSP

surroundings. This paper provided a digital aerial image wireless transmission system. The whole system based on two DSPs ADSP-BF531 and ADSP-BF533. BF531 is responsible for capturing and compressing images in sky, while BF533 is responsible for receiving and processing images on ground. Adopted 2.4 GHz wireless transceiver, we gained effective image transmission around 50 meters remote distance. II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE A. System Configuration The system includes two parts: aeromodelling-carrier part and ground part, as showed in figure 1.
Image processing

CMOS camera

ADSPBF533 Wireless transmission

I.

INTRODUCTION

The Micro Unmanned Air Vehicle (MUAV) is one of the challenging research issue in world front technology field. It is small, light and elusive, so plays an important role in both military and civilian fields. Although oversea research on MUAV began at 1992 [1], there are few reports on wireless image transmission. In fact, wireless image transmission system is an very important component in MUAV, it responsible for acquiring and transmitting information. 2001 sep., Japan developed one most light MUAV UFR- II at that time and can transmit analog image to ground. About the same time, Germany Berlin poly-technic university developed MARVIN (Multi-purpose Aerial Robot with Intelligent Navigation), carried digital camera and transmit image via serial port of the PC [2]. Because using serial port, its processing speed is very low. In 2003, University of California developed AVATAR (Autonomous Vehicle Aerial Tracking and Retrieval) with wireless transmission system. They used micro-wave transmitting analog video data to ground then digitized them [3]. 2006 Mar., Timothy Kinkaid discussed 2.4GHz image wireless transmission system in his doctor paper [4]. Majority of MUAV image transmission system of home and abroad adopted analog images, which have limited transmission distance also low speed, and easier to be interfered in complex

ADSPBF531

TFT LCD Wireless Communication module Ground part

Wireless Communication module Aeromodelling -carrier part

Figure 1. System architecture

Digital communication mode was adopted in the system. The aeromodelling-carrier part composed of CMOS Image sensor DSP control unit and image wireless transmitter. It scouted the flight field of the aeromodelling and transmitted images to ground part. The ground part included the same wireless receiver and DSP processing core. It received the image from aeromodelling and processed then stored the image data. B. Microcontroller Selection This system selected double DSP chips ADSP-BF531 and ADSP-BF533 as controllers. Both of the two chips are enhanced members of Blackfin embedded processor family of Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin processors are 16~32-bit new generation of high performance (up to 756MHz in single core), low power

978-1-4244-5708-3/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

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ADI DSPs. The Blackfin processor core architecture combines a dual 16 bit MAC (Multiply Accumulator) signal processing engine, an orthogonal 32-bit RISC-like microprocessor instruction set, flexible Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) capabilities, and multimedia features into a single instruction set architecture [5]. This unique architecture make Blackfin DSP can easy be used in signal and control processing applications. In these applications, we dont need other isomerized microprocessors. This simplified hardware and software design tasks. On the other hands, Blackfin DSPs feature dynamic power management. The ability to vary both the voltage and frequency of operation optimizes the power consumption profile to the specific task. As the enhanced members, BF531/533 offer significantly higher performance and lower power than previous Blackfin processors while retaining their ease-of-use and code compatibility benefits. The block diagram of ADSP-BF531/533 was showed in Figure 2 [5]. They have very small package selections: 176 LQFP, leaf-free MiniBGA and 160 MiniBGA.

image sensors. After a decade of research and development, CMOS image sensors have become one of the fastest growing areas in the semiconductor industry. CMOS image sensors feature simple architecture, high integration, low power consumption, small size, and low cost. Some problems CMOS faced before have been solved now. For example, pixel resolution has improved from the original ten thousand-pixel to mega-pixel range and image quality has greatly improved. Thanks to remarkable advances of CMOS image sensor, it has become a viable alternative to CCD [6]. We selected CMOS image sensor capturing images at aeromodelling-carrier part. The famous CMOS manufactures include Agilent, OmniVision, Micron, and Hyundai, among whom OmniVision had the highest market share in the last two years. We choosed SXGA format (1.3MegaPixel) color CMOS chip OV9653 of OmniVision. The OV9653 can operate at up to 15 frames per second (fps) in SXGA resolution with complete user control over many functions [7]. It has high sensitivity for low-light operation and low operating voltage for embedded portable applications.
PPI_VSYNC PPI_D[7:0] PPI_HSYNC BF531 I2C_SDA I2C_SCL /CMOS_RESET PPI_CLK Figure 3. The interface between BF531 and OV9653 OV 9653

Figure 2. Processor block diagram

Being flying in the sky, The aerial image system has a strict require on power and size. It is also a typical image processing system. The Blackfin DSP has low power, small package and up to 756MHz performance with low price around 5-10$. In fact, the family is designed for embedded audio, video and communication applications. The high cost performance can satisfy aerial image task perfectly. Using double DSP, system can take and transmit images quickly and effectively. C. Camera Selection and Interface with DSP There are CCD and CMOS image sensor products in market. CCD dominates the image market at one time due to its high resolution, dynamic range and good low light performance. In 1997, the first commercial CMOS image sensor was produced in the U.K. This renewed interest in the research field of CMOS

Figure 3. shows the interface between ADSP-BF531 and OV9653. BF531 read or write registers of OV9653 by standard I2C bus, while read image data via its Parallel Peripheral Interface (PPI). The PPI of BF531 is a half-duplex, bidirectional port accommodating up to 16 bits of data. It has a dedicated clock pin, three multiplexed frame sync pins, and four dedicated data pins. The PPI can connect directly to parallel A/D and D/A converters, ITU-R 601/656 video encoders and decoders, etc. The input clock supports parallel data rates up to half the system clock rate so perfect for image process. By configurating CMOS sensor, we can capture 1.3 MegaPixel digital images. III. WIRELESS COMMUNICATION MECHANISM A. Wireless Transceiver Overview The aeromodelling-carrier part working in the sky and far away from the ground part. As a aerial image system, images of sky need to be transmitted to ground from time to time, so effective telecommunication method should be taken into good consideration. Majority of micro image wireless transmission system adopted analog mode. It is liable to be interfered with environment, has limited transmission distance and very low

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speed. Compared with analog transmission, digital transmission has more advantages. It has powerful anti-interference performance, high confidentiality, proper for long distance transmission, convenient for encoding and easy integrated. On the other hand, image data flow is big thus lead to heavy data transportation pressure. So effective image compression is also important for this system. The data can be compressed by BF531 before transmitted to ground. We selected 2.4 GHz wireless transceiver nRF24L01 as the wireless communication chip. nRF24L01 comes from Nordic Semiconductors high performance 2.4GHz transceiver families. They are most small size wireless solution single chips in the world. nRF24L01 is 20 pins 44mm QFN package, using the same 2.4GHz GFSK RF transceiver with embedded protocol engine (Enhanced ShockBurst). The RF Transceiver is designed for operation in the world wide ISM frequency band at 2.400-2.4835GHz and is very well suited for ultra low power wireless applications. In transmitter mode, output power -6dBm will consume current 9mA versus 12.3mA in receiver mode. The current is minimal in power down and power off mode. The

without adding complexity on the host controller side. The Enhanched Shock-Burst packet contains a preamble field, address field, packet control field, payload field and a CRC field. Figure 5. shows the packet format with MSB to the left. An packet transaction is always initiated by a packet transmission from the Primary Transmitter (PTX), completed when the PTX has received an acknowledgment packet (ACK packet) from the Primary Receiver (PRX).
Preamble 1 byte Address 3-5 byte Packet Control Field 9 bit Payload 0-32 byte CRC 1-2 byte

Figure 5. An enhanced ShockBurst packet format

The preamble field is a bit sequence used to detect 0 and 1 levels in the receiver. The preamble is one byte long and is either 01010101 or 10101010. If the first bit in the address is 1 the preamble is automatically set to 10101010 and if the first bit is 0 the preamble is automatically set to 01010101. This is done to ensure there are enough transitions in the preamble to stabilize the receiver. The address field contains the address for the receiver. An address ensures that the correct packet are detected by the receiver. The address field can be configured to be 3, 4 or, 5 bytes long with the AW register. Figure 6 shows the format of the 9 bit packet control field. It contains a 6 bit payload length field, a 2 bit PID (Packet Identity) field and, a 1 bit NO_ACK flag.
Payload length 6bit PID 2 bit NO_ACK 1bit

Figure 6. Packet control field

Payload length: This 6 bit field specifies the length of the payload in bytes. The length of the payload can be from 0 to 32 bytes. Coding: 000000 = 0 byte (only used in empty ACK packets.) 100000 = 32 byte, 100001 = Dont care. This field is only used if the Dynamic Payload Length function is enabled. The 2 bit PID field is used to detect if the received packet is Figure 4. nRF24L01 block diagram new or retransmitted. PID prevents the PRX device from transmission distance can reach 100 meters in open space. Figure presenting the same payload more than once to the MCU. The 4. shows the block diagram of nRF24L01. Both the transmitting PID field is incremented at the TX side for each new packet and receiving mode of nRF24L01 are controlled by the two DSPs received through the SPI. The PID and CRC fields are used by via SPI interface. There has a standard SPI interface in the PRX device to determine if a packet is retransmitted or new. When several data packets are lost on the link, the PID fields nRF24L01, which can connect with BF531/533 conveniently. may become equal to the last received PID. If a packet has the B. Communication Mechanism [8] nRF24L01 features Enhanced ShockBurst data package same PID as the previous packet, nRF24L01 compares the CRC processing. Enhanced ShockBurst is a packet based data link sums from both packets. If the CRC sums are also equal, the last layer. It features automatic packets assembly and timing, received packet is considered a copy of the previously received automatic acknowledgement and re-transmissions of packets. packet and discarded. The Selective Auto Acknowledgement feature controls the This mechanism enables the implementation of ultra low power, high performance communication with low cost host NO_ACK flag. This flag is only used when the auto microcontrollers. The features enable significant improvements acknowledgement feature is used. Setting the flag high, tells the of power efficiency for bi-directional and uni-directional systems, receiver that the packet is not to be auto acknowledged. The

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payload is the user defined content of the packet. It can be 0 to 32 bytes wide and is transmitted on-air as it is uploaded (unmodified) to the device. The CRC is the error detection mechanism in the packet. It may either be 1 or 2 bytes and is calculated over the address, Packet Control Field, and Payload. C. SPI Operation BF531/533 have a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) port that provides a glueless hardware interface to a wide variety of SPI compatible peripheral devices. SPI is a four-wire interface consisting of two data pins MOSI/MISO, a device select pin SPISS, and a clock pin SCK. It is a full-duplex synchronous serial interface, supporting master modes, slave modes, and multimaster environments. nRF24L01 also has a standard SPI with a maximum data rate of 8Mbps. BF531/533 can connect with nRF24L01 via SPI and access all the features in the chip. As master, BF531/533 can activate the nRF24L01 data FIFOs or the register map by 1 byte SPI commands during all modes of operation. Every new command must be started by a high to low transition on CSN (the same pin as SPISS). In parallel to the SPI command word applied on the MOSI pin, the STATUS register is shifted serially out on the MISO pin. The SPI read and write operation and timing is showed in Figure 7. and Figure 8. respectively.

prospect in field reconnaissance, traffic surveillance, city layout and the situation of bad weather or a disaster and so on.

Figure 9. Wireless aerial image system

REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Steven A, Palm- size spy planes, Mechanical Engineering, vol.120, issue 2, pp. 74-78, 1998. MARVIN: An autonomously operating flying robot, TU Berlin department of computer science, 2006. http://pdv.cs.tuberlin.de/MARVIN/mark_ii_ frameset_image_acquis ition.html. USC autonomous flying vehicle project, Autonomous flying vehicles of University of Southern California, 2006. http://wwwrobotics .usc.edu/~avatar/vis ion_hw.htm. KINKAID T., Study of micro-sized technology, micro air vehicles, and design of a payload carrying flapping wing micro air vehicle, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2006. Analog Devices, Inc., ADSP-BF533 Blackfin Processor Hardware Reference, September 2008. Zhang Li, Ruan Shuangchen, Zhang Min and Liu Chengxiang, Method of video capture port design for IP, Proc. SPIE, International Symposium on Instrumentation and Control Technology, Oct. Vol. 6357, pp. 63573R1~63573R-6, 2006. OmniVision Technologies, Inc, OV9653 color CMOS VGA digital camera, March 2005. Nordic Semiconductor ASA, nRF24L01 Single Chip 2.4GHz Transceiver Product Specification, July 2007.

Figure 7. SPI read operation [7] [8]

Figure 8. SPI write operation

IV. CONCLUSION The finished aerial image system is shown in Figure 9. The aeromodelling is a 360 degree exact directional, full scale remote control helicopter weights about 1200g. The ADSPBF531 system is integrated to one small PCB about 80g which fixed to the aeromodelling. Besides aeromodelling is the ground control part that is ADSP-BF533 system contain TFT-LCD. This aerial image system is a whole digital 2.4 GHz wireless images transmission system based on double DSPs, features real time image transmission. Adopte wireless transceiver and get effective data transmission around 50 meters distance. It is small, light, low power consumption and low cost. It has good application

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