Title:
A Compact Guidance, Navigation, and Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
A Compact Guidance, Navigation, and Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Authors
Christophersen, Henrik B.
Pickell, R. Wayne
Neidhoefer, James C.
Koller, Adrian A.
Kannan, Suresh K.
Johnson, Eric N.
Pickell, R. Wayne
Neidhoefer, James C.
Koller, Adrian A.
Kannan, Suresh K.
Johnson, Eric N.
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Abstract
The Flight Control System 20 (FCS20) is a compact, self-contained Guidance, Navigation,
and Control system that has recently been developed to enable advanced autonomous
behavior in a wide range of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The FCS20 uses a floating
point Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for high level serial processing, a Field Programmable
Gate Array (FPGA) for low level parallel processing, and GPS and Micro Electro Mechanical
Systems (MEMS) sensors. In addition to guidance, navigation, and control functions, the
FCS20 is capable of supporting advanced algorithms such as automated reasoning, artificial
vision, and multi-vehicle interaction. The unique contribution of this paper is that it gives a
complete overview of the FCS20 GN&C system, including computing, communications, and
information aspects. Computing aspects of the FCS20 include details about the design process,
hardware components, and board configurations, and specifications. Communications
aspects of the FCS20 include descriptions of internal and external data flow. The information
section describes the FCS20 Operating System (OS), the Support Vehicle Interface Library
(SVIL) software, the navigation Extended Kalman Filter, and the neural network based
adaptive controller. Finally, simulation-based results as well as actual flight test results that
demonstrate the operation of the guidance, navigation, and control algorithms on a real
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are presented.
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Date Issued
2006-05
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