Development of a Small-scale Autonomous UAV

for Research and Development

M.S.A. Rushdi, T.M.A. Tennakoon, K.A.A. Perera, A.M.H.Wathsalya, S. R. Munasinghe
Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering
University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka

Abstract— Since recently, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles) have increasingly been recognized as a reliable, and
effective means of aerial surveillance. Deployment of UAVs in
disaster management for aerial surveillance and real-time video
feed, when land access is cut off, is one of the most prominent
applications. The ability of small, lightweight UAVs in aerial
access and gathering data, in areas that are insecure or
impossible for humans to reach has significantly improved
remote accessibility. In this research, a new low cost small scale
UAV with fully-fledged autopilot system on board the aircraft
with the capabilities of following a predefined path and returning
home autonomously has been designed, built, and tested
successfully. This small-scale UAV is capable of navigating
through given GPS coordinates at given altitude, while providing
real-time flying status back to the ground control station.
Keywords— UAV; unmanned; aerial; autopilot; flight; fixed
wing; disaster management; aerial surveillance
I. INTRODUCTION
Today, as wreckages pile up on disaster zones after a
disaster, most of the roads are blocked, denying access to such
areas. Thus, usage of manned aircraft to continue immediate
search & rescue, and relief efforts is the commonly used
procedure by responsible authorities. But search and rescue
operations from the air very often become unaffordable and
unsafe for humans to be involved if the disaster persists for a
long period or if it results in dangerous after effects. In this
view, UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) technology provides
a very effective solution, as it can perform more sophisticated
missions that include aerial surveillance at an affordable cost.
They minimize the risk for loss of human lives, as well as they
can monitor a large area within a small time and cost, allowing
a small group of people to control several UAVs at the same
time. It can be used to access and gather data in areas that are
insecure or impossible for humans to reach as well as to get
high resolution photographs making it easy to create a perfect
map on disaster zones and to perform necessary disaster
management actions.
With the demand for UAVs, an autopilot system is a
must to send the UAV beyond visual range, as UAVs are
intended to send longer distances, where the visual range of
the external pilot is limited to his ground visual range. If a
UAV is not capable of flying beyond the visual range
autonomously, then its capability in deploying for serious
work is strictly limited. An autopilot system can navigate the
UAV through given GPS coordinates at given altitude without
the interaction of an external pilot. So, including an autopilot
system into a UAV is a primary requirement. Today more
advanced autopilot systems are available, which include
motion detection, ability to follow a given target, auto take-
off, auto landing and many other advanced features.
This project was aimed at developing a small-scale UAV
with fully-fledged autopilot system, which equips the aircraft
with capabilities of following a predefined path and returning
home fully automatically. Provision of manual override is also
essential to have in responding to unforeseen situations during
flight. The Autopilot was implemented on Arduino platform
[8] with the interconnection of required sensors, servo
actuators, power plant, and communication modules. The
developed autopilot system has been connected with an
inertial measurement unit (IMU) to sense the attitude (roll,
pitch, yaw) [1]. A GPS, Compass, air speed sensor, and a
barometer are also interfaced to provide essential data for the
autopilot to navigate and fly the UAV through the mission.
II. BACKGROUND STUDY
Selecting an appropriate airframe model out of many that
were available was an important step in this project. Thus,
many airframe structural design materials were reviewed to
get an idea and to decide for the best model. Following details
show some models, which were compared with each other
including their properties.
A. F-15 Eagle Shock Flyer
F-15 Eagle Shock Flyer was one of the considered
airframe models initially. The main beneficial factor we
observed in this model was its high speed. It was observed that
this model had a low aspect ratio (wingspan/chord); hence the
gliding effect was not significant. So, this plane model was
capable to acquire a relatively higher speed than many other
models. Therefore, our initial assumption was that this model
would give a higher speed, and due to the lack of air resistance
this would be able to take quick movements/turns. It should be
noted that this low air resistance is inherent in the model itself.
The next step was considering apparent advantages and
disadvantages of this model. The main problem in this model
was high power usage due to low gliding effect. But one of the
main requirements in selecting a model to this project was
having a low flying weight as it needed to carry autopilot
system circuits. So, if we had continued with F-15 Eagle
Shock Flyer, it would have required adding more batteries to

978-1-5090-6132-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

maintain a lengthy flight. This would have limited the carrying
weight and would have been a problem when it comes to
placing the autopilot system. Another problem with F-15
Eagle Shock Flyer was the need of a perfect autopilot system
for better performance. It is because, with this model, every
movement of the plane has a higher speed and the autopilot
system should converge to the stable state as quick as possible.
For this requirement to be fulfilled, the autopilot system would
have to have a perfect control algorithm, which puts the plane
into a stable state within the quickest possible time limit which
was a requirement that was difficult to be achieved.
B. Sumo 3D
Sumo 3D [2] is also a plane model with a low aspect ratio
and has most of disadvantages as of F-15 Eagle Shock Flyer.
The smooth flying and the possibility of taking quick turns
and becoming stable was problematic in this model due to its
relatively different model shape.
Another issue found in this model was, when trying to
place the system circuits and sensors, a significant change in
the overall model would have occurred (even though we
scaled up the original one) and thus completely different and
unpredictable flying characteristic would have been observed
from the initially defined model.
C. 700 Flying Wing
When compared with the above two models, 700 Flying
Wing possessed different characteristics. So this model had its
own advantages and disadvantages. The main difference of
Fig. 1. Basic architecture of the algorithm
this airplane model and the previous two was that, this model
had a higher aspect ratio. So, this model would have had a
higher gliding effect at the flying state and would have
relatively consumed a low battery power. This was an
advantage for our project as we needed to include less battery
weight into the plane structure and considered keeping some
weight vacant for the autopilot circuitry and other sensors.
This advantage perfectly matched with our project
requirements. But when the negative side of higher gliding
effect was considered, it was realized that this model was not
the best solution since high gliding effect disturbs quicker
movements of the airplane and it even limits the speed of the
plane considerably. Additionally, it was doubtful about the
successfulness and stable flying of this airplane in high wind
conditions due to its larger wingspan.
D. AZ-Shrike Blucor Fan Fold Pylon Racer
AZ-Shrike Blucor Fan Fold Pylon Racer model had an
optimal aspect ratio compared to aspect ratios of models that
were previously studied. This also had some amount of
containing space for autopilot system circuit in the fuselage
but however it was observed that remaining space may not be
enough for the sensors and other connectors. In addition to
that problem, this model needed some special materials to
develop it, which were hard to find in the local market.
E. Blu Baby
After analyzing several models, the most suitable model
found was, an airframe model named “Blu Baby” which
matched with our project requirements. It consisted of perfect
features such as the most optimal aspect ratio [3], simplicity
without an extraordinary shape & a simple structure and a
fuselage with sufficient space to place the autopilot system
circuitry. As nothing is better than the user experience of a
system or device, it was also capable of providing best user
experience to users.
III. METHODOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Model Aircraft & Autopilot System
The UAV model used in this project was ‘Blu Baby’
UAV model. As developing a selected airframe model was not
an easily repeatable task (given it was not perfect or
incompatible with project needs), we had to make sure and
convince ourselves that we found the best model possible for
the project. This model had been developed from less
expensive materials but, could provide a good stability [6] for
the flight and met the critical project requirements well. It also
consisted of an autopilot system, which could navigate the
UAV, through given GPS coordinates. The open source
algorithm and platform, used for this autopilot system was
‘Ardu-Pilot’.
B. Algorithm
The algorithm of this system runs in 3 main loops. They
are, fast loop, medium loop and slow loop. Fast loop is the
most frequently driven loop event. Main events in the fast loop
are, reading input radio signals, airspeed & GPS, calculating
the altitude & bearing(heading) error and updating the current
flight mode. Medium loop consists more infrequent events
than fast loop events, while slow loop consists even more
infrequent events. Updating GPS coordinates & navigation
information calculations and updating current attitude
messages is done at medium loop, while in slow loop reading
the flying mode, checking battery and updating GPS light is
handled. Fig.1 shows the basic architecture of the algorithm.
Fig. 3. Avionics diagram
Fig. 2. Programmed waypoints vs. actual flight path in autopilot mode
C. Avionics
We had the flexibility of customizing our design from the
platform, since it was an open source platform. We redesigned
the system with some added features such as data logging,
downlink etc. Fig.2, illustrates the avionics block diagram
design, which we used in our system.
D. Simulation & Testing
Tuning up the autopilot was broken down to several steps,
without directly switching from manual mode to autopilot
mode. Initially it was tested under stabilize mode, where the
operator can control the throttle level, but the system
automatically maintains the initialized orientation, by
actuating the servos. Next it was tuned with FBW A (Fly By
Wire A) mode, where it maintains the given orientation, while
external pilot can control the throttle level. Then it was tested
in FBW B (Fly By Wire B) mode, where it automatically
controls the throttle level as well. Finally, auto mode was
tuned, where outer PID loop controls the waypoint distance
error.
Before going for actual testing of our autopilot algorithm,
we used simulation platforms to test the performance virtually
[5]. These simulations gave us clear indications about the
behavior of our RC model aircraft and how to deal with
environmental factors by doing changes to the source code.
The autopilot system is based on two cascaded PID loops.
Simulation helped immensely to find the kp, kD and kI
coefficients of these PID loops, where they were later fine-
tuned with actual testing. We also had extra benefits from
simulations [4] because real world testing for UAV had lots of
constrains (availability of experienced pilot, testing areas etc.).
Therefore, we used simulations as far as possible to tune our
autopilot algorithm closer to real world scenarios.
The autopilot algorithm was developed with Matlab
Simulink blocks, where it was simulated with Matlab
Fig. 5. Variation of distance to next waypoint in A – Manual, B – FBW B, C
– Auto, D – Manual modes. Waypoints 1-5 are reached at v, w, x, y and z
respectively.
aerospace block set. This was not only useful to simulate the
algorithm, but also to animate and analyze test flights with
logged data. This software-in-loop simulation was further
extended with Simulink UDP communication blocks, where
the output of it was fed to Xplane simulator [4]. ‘Blu Baby’
aircraft model was designed in Xplane simulator and it was
simulated as a realistic simulation, which helped to mitigate
most of the oscillations of PID loops before the actual
implementation. Hardware-in-loop simulation was done by
connecting the autopilot circuitry to the computer through
serial port, where we could give external inputs to the virtual
‘Blu Baby’ aircraft in Xplane simulator.
Testing a UAV is a high risk and time consuming task,
since even a mere mistake would cause the UAV to crash
down into pieces. During testing, standard testing procedure
was followed to minimize the number of crashes, where the
full manual functionality of the aircraft was tested through a
set of testing procedures and then was tuned in above
mentioned flying modes before switching to autopilot mode.
All the information of the flight, namely, external pilot’s
input commands, commands given by the control system,
aircraft’s orientation, position, throttle level, air-speed,
ground-speed and time were recorded in the data-log, which
was based on a micro SD card. This information not only had
a high importance in tuning the algorithm, but also was
important in analyzing the causes during crashes.
IV. RESULTS
This section presents, results obtained from a test flight.
In addition to ground control station we used a micro SD
memory card to collect all the flight information on the flight.
Programmed waypoints are represented by five blue color
bubbles in Fig.3. The pink color path is the actual flight path
in fully autonomous mode. Waypoints were programmed with
an 18m hit radius, i.e. the UAV considers a point as a
waypoint hit if it reaches the circle of 18m radius from the
Fig. 4. Variation of Roll angle, with respect to Roll Input signal in A –
Manual, B – FBW B, C – Auto, D – Manual modes. v, w, x, y and z are
waypoints 1-5 respectively.
waypoint [7]. After reaching the final waypoint (waypoint 5),
it starts to loiter in a circle around the home location. For this
test flight, this loitering radius was set to 50m and the partially
completed circle can be seen from the map.
Thus, it has reached all the waypoints and has had a drift
towards south (bottom of the map) in the flight path, which
was due to the heavy wind condition during the flight, which
can be observed as well. Since our UAV is light weight &
small scale, the wind impact on the UAV is very high.
A. Distance Variation
Fig.4, illustrates the variation of the distance to the next
waypoint. In the Manual and in the Fly By Wire B regions,
next waypoint has not been considered and the distance to the
waypoint has been changed according external pilot’s
maneuvering. In the auto mode, it has reached the waypoints,
one by one. Once the distance to a waypoint was less than
18m, it has started to consider the next waypoint and has
flown towards it. Flight path in Fig.3, and the waypoint
distance variation in Fig.4, has clearly coincided each other.
B. Throttle Profile
Fig.5, illustrates the throttle profile of the complete
flight. In the graph ‘throttle input’ is the throttle command
given by the external pilot and the ‘throttle output’ is the
actual throttle level set by the control system of the UAV.
As it is illustrated in the graph, during the first manual
region, ‘throttle input’ and ‘throttle output’ overlays and it
shows that the external pilot’s throttle command was carried
out accurately. We can clearly observe that in the FBW B (fly
by wire B) mode even though the external pilot has changed
the throttle, it was overdriven by the control system.
Fig. 8. Variation of Throttle Output with respect to the Throttle Input signal in
A – Manual, B – FBW B, C – Auto, D – Manual modes.
Fig. 6. Variation of altitude, with respect to altitude to hold in auto mode.
Flying modes are A – Manual, B – FBW B, C – Auto and D – Manual
respectively.
In the auto region, the user has not changed the throttle
input command but it was completely controlled by the control
system of the aircraft. This auto region corresponds to the
flight path in Fig.3. In the auto region, we can observe that the
throttle level has changed in a wide range, since it had to
struggle against the heavy wind to reach its waypoints.
C. Roll Profile
Fig.6, demonstrates the roll profile of the flight. ‘Roll
Input’ is the input of the external pilot to control the roll of the
UAV, which is plotted as the servo rotation angle. ‘Roll’ is the
roll angle of the UAV. In this graph roll occurs in the opposite
direction to the roll input signal. In the FBW B mode, almost a
mirrored role of the roll input about time axis has occurred. It
is because, in the FBW B mode, the UAV maintains the
orientation for the given input command. For an example, if
Fig. 7. Variation of air speed and ground speed in A – Manual, B – FBW B,
C – Auto and D – Manual flying modes.
the external pilot sends a specific roll signal for some time,
instead of continuously rolling, it maintains the corresponding
roll angle continuously.
In the auto region, it can be clearly observed that the
external pilot has not sent any input command, but the UAV
has changed its roll angle. If we compare it with the waypoint
distance graph, we can observe that it has roll spikes
immediately after reaching a waypoint, since it has changed
the flying direction towards the next waypoint, once it reaches
a waypoint.
D. Altitude Profile
Fig.7, illustrates the altitude variation during the test
flight. During the manual mode, altitude of the UAV has
increased, since it was the take-off and climbing of the flight.
In FBW B, given orientation should be maintained. Just before
the FBW B, there was a climb up and that climb up rate was
maintained during the FBW B, which means the UAV has
maintained its given pitch angle in FBW B mode.
In the auto mode, altitude of the waypoints was set to
48m. From the graph, it can be observed that, when it was
switched to auto mode, the UAV has descended from 150m to
48m and it has tried to maintain that altitude. Finally, home
altitude was set at 50m in the auto mode.
E. Speed Profile
Fig.8, demonstrates the speed profile of the flight.
During the FBW B mode, UAV has tried to maintain an
average airspeed. During the auto mode we can see that it has
tried to maintain an average airspeed of 7ms-1, which was the
pre-set cruise airspeed. The ground speed has been randomly
changed with the wind condition and the airspeed.
V. FUTURE WORK
There are many structural improvements that can be
made for the benefit of a safe and more stable flight. An
extended improvement would be using a twin boom [6] B. Taylor, C. Bil and S. Watkins, “Horizon Sensing Attitude
Stabilisation: A VMC Autopilot”, 18th International UAV Systems
mechanism instead of nose cone propeller for the airframe to Conference, 2003.
avoid high damage to propeller at crash landings while tuning [7] M. Imran Akram, Ahmed Pasha, and Nabeel Iqbal, “Optimal Path
the autopilot system. For long range surveillances, endurance Planner for Autonomous Vehicles”, World Academy of Science,
is an essential requirement. As a solution having a larger Engineering and Technology, 2005.
structure with an array of batteries will provide sufficient [8] Arduino website [Online]. Available: www.arduino.cc
endurance to the aircraft.
Creating a mathematical model for the aircraft is another
future challenge. Using this model, the advantage of
predicting the aircraft behavior while using the autopilot
algorithm in virtual simulation platforms can be gained as
well. There are limitless improvements that can be done to
increase the surveillance capabilities of the UAV. Adding a
gimbal mounted camera and giving remote handling to that
camera will further improve the surveillance capabilities of the
aircraft.
We have used manual takeoff and landing procedures in
our system. But if those procedures can be automated there
will be added advantages especially with the absence of highly
trained external pilots and landings which should be done out
of visual range. Programmed takeoffs and landing will become
a possibility, which will further enhance this autopilot systems
capabilities.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this research project, a small, light-weight unmanned
aerial vehicle was designed, built, and tested in actual flights.
A fully-fledged autopilot system was designed and
implemented with essential sensors- IMU, GPS, compass,
airspeed, and baro sensors. Flight control system was
developed to bring the UAV autonomously through a
preplanned 3D path defined by GPS locations and altitudes.
Flight performance and qualities were evaluated using the
logged flight data, and proper functionality has been verified.
The development was done on Arduino platform, which will
be further developed to a more advanced platform. The
autopilot controls will be further improved to optimize flight
endurance.

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