FINAL YEAR PROJECT SYNOPSIS3-D MAPPING AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT QUADCOPTER WITH

INDUCTIVE CHARGING

Submitted by:

Muhammad Ayaz Qureshi 2013-EE-27

Muhammad Ismail Saleem 2013-EE-29

Wajid Ali 2013-EE-35

Hummad Ahmed Usmani 2013-EE-46

Supervised by: Dr. Khalid Mahmood ul Hassan

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Engineering and Technology Lahore

FINAL YEAR PROJECT SYNOPSIS3-D MAPPING AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT QUADCOPTER WITH

INDUCTIVE CHARGING

Submitted to the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department

of the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Science

in

Electrical Engineering.

Final Year Project Advisor Final Year Project Coordinator

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Engineering and Technology Lahore

i

Declaration

I declare that the work contained in this synopsis is my own, except where explicitly

stated otherwise. In addition this work has not been submitted to obtain another degree

or professional qualification.

Signed:

Date:

ii

Acknowledgments

We express our deep sense of gratitude to Professor Dr. Khalid Mahmood ul Hassan,

for accepting our final year project proposal. May Almighty Allah gives us health and

ability to complete this project sucessfully.

iii

To our parents, teachers and all the well wishers out there . . .

iv

Contents

Acknowledgments iii

Abbreviations vii

Abstract viii

1 Introduction 1

2 History 2

2.1 Recent Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3 Objectives 4

3.1 Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.2 Wireless Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.3 Wireless Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.4 Self-Balanced System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.5 3-D Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.6 Techniques to Implement 3-D Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4 Rough Cost Analysis 6

5 Software Tools 7

6 Project Feasibility 8

7 Estimated Completion Time and Flow Chart 9

7.1 Deliverable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

7.2 Project Flow Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

8 Prospective Problems 11

9 Future Work and Applications 12

9.1 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

9.2 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

10 Block Diagram 13

v

Contents vi

References 15

Abbreviations

UAVs Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

GUI Graphical User Interface

SFM Structure From Motion

ESC Electronic Speed Control

PMA Powermat compatible standard

Qi Wireless Power Consortium standard

vii

Abstract

Quad-Copter is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which is operated to fly indepen-

dently. In our project, we are designing a fully automated Quad-Copter programmed

in a manner, that will fly a specific amount of distance for specific period of time and

then it will sense its landing pad and will land there. Quad copter will move and hover

around by keeping its stability maintained. The conventional quad copters requires a

continuous charging of quad copters but in this project we are including wireless charg-

ing system also named as inductive charging. In addition to automation we are boosting

it up with wireless communication system. So in wireless communication Quad-Copter

can be controlled manually by using a graphical user interface, giving full control to the

user. Conventional Quad-Copters are provided with 2-D mapping capability but our

project surpass their 2-Ds map because we are introducing 3 D map in which concept

of rasterization and image processing is employed. After landing image processing soft-

ware will stitch these photos into 3-D map. So our automated Quad-Copter is capable

of taking the flight after some specified interval of time, collecting all the possible data

regarding 3D-layout (digitized sketch) of any section, and on returning back to its pad,

Quad-Copter send this sketch to working unit on GUI interface.

Chapter 1

Introduction

With the advancement in engineering and technology, there was a dire need of an in-

troduction of device which can go to places where humans cannot, which will enable

them to do much. Also there was a need of device which help take human in the air

in a very much fascinating way. A device was needed which can capture aerial images.

These devices which have revolutionized the flight are called as drones and quad-copter.

The way in which these devices are developed through decades is fascinating. Drones

belongs to a class of air vehicles known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These

vehicles can take off in the air without pilots. Drones are basically flying robots. They

have software control integrated in their environment.

1

Chapter 2

History

The quad-copter designs have been around for a very long time, but the design is inher-

ently unstable. With 4 rotors spinning, keep them moving at the right speed to keep the

quad-copter level and stable is difficult. In November of 1922, Etienne first flew improved

helicopter featuring vertically mounted rotors which rotated in the opposite direction

from the large top rotors. Quad-copters today still use this same basic design. The

Convertawings Model A quad-copter designed by Doctor George E Bothezat appeared

in 1956. It was the first to use propulsion, or a propellers forward thrust to control an

aircrafts roll, pitch and yaw. Recent advances in technology have addressed issues that

plagued early quad-copter design, including poor stability, limited control and complex-

ity. Modern quad-copters are very stable, easy to control and easy to fly. At a small size,

quad-copters are cheaper and more durable than conventional helicopters due to their

mechanical simplicity. Their smaller blades are also advantageous because they possess

less kinetic energy, reducing their ability to cause damage. For small-scale quad-copters,

this makes the vehicles safer for close interaction. Increasing blade size improves effi-

ciency as it takes less energy to generate thrust by moving a large mass of air at a slow

speed than by moving a small mass of air at high speed but it takes at the cost of control.

2.1 Recent Developments

In the last few decades, unmanned aerial vehicles including quad-copters have been used

for many applications. The need for aircraft with greater hovering ability has led to a

rise in quad-copter research. The four-rotor design allows quad-copters to be relatively

simple in design yet highly reliable. Research is continuing to increase the abilities

of quad-copters by making advances in multi-craft communication, environment explo-

ration. If these developing qualities can be combined, quad-copters would be capable of

advanced autonomous missions that are currently not possible with other vehicles.

2

Chapter 2. 3

Some current programs include:

• Bell Boeing Quad Tilt Rotor : concept takes the fixed quad-copter concept

further by combining it with the tilt rotor concept.

• Parrot A.R.Drone : is a small radio controlled quad-copter with cameras at-

tached to it, designed to be controllable by smartphones or tablet devices.

• Nixie : is a small camera-equipped drone that can be worn as a wrist band.

As far as recent development regarding inductive charging is concerned it is being em-

ployed in mobile industry and electric vehicles. In 2015 Samsung announced the new

S6 and S6 Edge with wireless inductive charging through both Qi and PMA compatible

chargers. Blackberry also released phone to support wireless inductive charging through

compatible chargers. In electric vehicles in one inductive charging system, one winding

is attached to the underside of the car, and the other stays on the floor of the garage.

While as far as 3 D mapping is concerned, in industry and in many applications there

is a dire need of a system which can rapidly, reliably, remotely and accurately perform

measurements in three-dimensional space for the mapping of environment. From now

onwards there will be a lot of research on 3 D mapping. Previous work comprises of

invention seeks to provide a method of locating at least a surface and modeling the

surface using at least two image capture. A considerable amount of work has been done

by researchers in the field of machine vision and image analysis.

Chapter 3

Objectives

3.1 Automation

Designing a fully automated quad-copter programmed in a manner such that, quad-

copter will fly a specific amount of distance for specific period of time and then it will

sense its landing pad and will land there using ultrasonic sensors.

3.2 Wireless Charging

Wireless charging is also known as inductive charging. Landing pad of quad copter will

contain a transmitter coils. Alternating current will be provided to coils. Receiver coil

is embedded in quad copter. Because of change of current in transmitter coil, magnetic

field is changed. This rate of change of magnetic field will induce voltage and hence

quad copter will be charged according to electromagnetic induction.

3.3 Wireless Communication

Quad-copter can also be controlled manually by using a graphical user interface, giving

full control to the user. Communication between GUI and controller is done through

wireless communication system. Through GUI we can move it up, down and left, right.

3.4 Self-Balanced System

Quad copter will move and hover around by keeping its stability maintained. Upward

thrust will be produced by four motors. Direction will be changed with the help of pro-

pellers. Automated flight of Quad-copter will be sustained by using feedback circuitry

which avoids any upcoming obstacle.

4

Chapter 3. 5

3.5 3-D Mapping

3-D mapping makes it possible to generate 3-dimensional layout of that place. Circuitry

inside quad- copter will automatically send this digitized layout to the working unit of

that place (most probably the data will be sent to some GUI interface). A good 3D map-

ping can be completed with 60 to 100 still pictures. There should be 80 percent overlap

between consecutive pictures. The camera shutter needs to be triggered throughout

the mission. After landing image processing software will stitch these photos into three

dimensional map.

3.6 Techniques to Implement 3-D Mapping

The conventional method of 3D mapping is to divide it into bins. The bins are checked

whether they are full (identified interesting feature) or empty. This is known as raster-

ization. Rasterization is the task of taking an image converting it into a raster image

(pixels or dots) for output on a video display or printer. So in 3D mapping one picture

is one big box which is split into 4 boxes. So from these four boxes; the box containing

information is further divided into 4 boxes and this process continues. Larger boxes

with no useful information are discarded to save memory.

Chapter 4

Rough Cost Analysis

Frame PKR 6,0004 Motors PKR 4,0004 ESCs Electronic Speed Controller PKR 4,0004 Propellers PKR 3,6001 Flight Controller PKR 1,5001 Lithium polymer Battery PKR 3,000Transmitter and Receiver PKR 10,000Wireless Charger PKR 2,000Camera PKR 20,000Miscellaneous Parts PKR 1,000Rasberry Pi 3 controller PKR 7,000STM 32 F4 Discovery Board PKR 3,000Total Estimated Cost PKR 65,100

*This is a rough sketch and we will be giving actual cost analysis in our last report

6

Chapter 5

Software Tools

Throughout our Project we will be dealing with the following softwares:

• Keil U-Vision

• Matlab

• Visual FSM

• Agisoft Photoscan

• Pix4D

• Embedded C

• GNU Compiler

7

Chapter 6

Project Feasibility

Our project is purely industry based, which will help industry to get a 3-d layout of any

working section after regular intervals. Our visit to Packages Industry and a little talk

with section engineer agnized us, their dire need of Automated Quad-Copter capable of

taking the flight after 3Hrs collecting all the possible data regarding 3d-layout (digitized

sketch) of that section, and on returning back to platform, quad-copter send this sketch

to working unit on GUI interface so that they may get rid of congestion and probably

accommodate all the packages of that working section on desired location. This strat-

egy will surely serve that industry to get a density diagram of their busiest section, thus

enabling them to work there effectively and efficiently.

How our project is different from FYP of the lastsession-2011?

We are introducing the following new features in our project which were not present last

year.

1. The project made by the students of EE 2011 with the title autonomous quad copter

in GPS denied environment were using laser rangefinder for displaying 2-D map and

path of navigation, but our project surpass their 2-D map because we are introducing

3-D map in which concept of rasterization and image processing is employed.

2. The previous project was requiring a continuous charging of quad copter but in this

project we are including wireless charging system also named as inductive charging. So

there will be no additional labor required for charging the quad copter.

3. Previous project was fully automated but in our project in addition to automation

we are boosting it up with wireless communication system. So an additional control is

given to user.

8

Chapter 7

Estimated Completion Time and

Flow Chart

Key Milestones of the Project with prospected time is as follow:

1. Our first goal is to achieve the wireless charging. And to study the main body

structure, that is mechanical and aero-dynamics of quadcopter in the very coming sum-

mer vacations.

2. Perhaps, getting all the related knowledge we shall try to implement it on hard-

ware and if successful then proceed further to control analysis of quad-copter in seventh

semester.

3. With control analysis being completely done in seventh semester we will be proceed-

ing toward 3-d mapping techniques in the eighth semester.

4. Tentatively, we will be continuing our project and further moving on to GUI-

interfacing along with wireless communication of quad-copter.

7.1 Deliverable

Summer 2016 (June-July) Making out complete mechanical strucutreSummer 2016(July-August) Working circuitry of wireless charging2016 (August-December) Control Analysis of Quad-Copter2016-2017 (December-February) Implementing 3-D mapping2017 (February-April) Enabling the wireless communication

9

10

7.2 Project Flow Chart

Figure 7.2.1. Flow Diagram of Proposed Project

Testing 3 D mapping using SFM (structure from motion) through open CV along with LINUX for connecting camera with base computer.

Research on mechanical and aero-dynamics of quad-copter and implementing it on the mechanical structure.

Wireless/Inductive charging of quad copter and to complete wireless and inductive circuitry.

Control analysis of quad-copter and its automation

Implementing 3-D mapping by using 3-D techniques

GUI Interfacing along with wireless communication

Chapter 8

Prospective Problems

One of the features of our project is 3 D mapping. We found that open CV is a good

option for image processing. The code of live video stream worked well with webcam

of laptop but when tried to add IP address of camera it does not work. This was the

first problem faced as we were new to image processing. Taking pictures from camera

and then transmitting to base station and then processing to make 3-D map was not

allowing us real time processing. A technique called structure from motion (SFM) with

open CV is available which uses image stitching into 3 D reconstruction terrain. There,

also comes a problem of connecting camera with base computer; which requires for

which we need to learn Linux for motion transmission. Besides these challenges we will

be facing other challenges regarding stability, wireless charging, wireless communication

and automation.

11

Chapter 9

Future Work and Applications

9.1 Future Work

Future work can comprise of increasing its stability such that this quad copter can hover

around easily by lifting the heavy weights. Its flight time and flight distance can be

increased. Graphical user interface can be made more attractive and user friendly.

9.2 Applications

Some of the applications of quad copter are:

1. Military and law enforcement

2. Aerial photography

3. Minor industrial lifting

4. Commercial usage

5. Research platform

12

Chapter 10

Block Diagram

*

Overall schematic of our proposed project with all its functional modules can be seen

on next page.

13

14

Figure 10.1. Overall Schematic Of Proposed Project

Wireless Charging System (Induction coils) Wireless Communication System (Receiver and transmitter)-GUI

INTERFACING _*tentative

3 Dimensional Image Processor Motors and Propellers

MICROCONTROLLER Sensors for

Automation Control mechanism for self-balancing

Wireless Charging Circuitry

Automated Quad-Copter Circuitry

References 15

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[4] ”instructables,” [Online]. Available: http://www.instructables.com/id/Projection-

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mapping-work. [Accessed 1 April 2016].

[6] ”Image Processing Resarch Group,” [Online]. Available: http://iprg.co.in/index.php.

[Accessed 1 April 2016].

[7] B. G. a. C. Detweiler, ”College of Arts and Sciences College of Engineering,” [On-

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