Autonomous Airplanes

For our autonomous plane, we use an EyeBot controller together with a number of sensors to autonomously navigate a plane. All plane actuators are connected to a specially designed switch that allows to alternate (via remote control) between a standard model plane remote control and autonomous flying. That way, the critical actions take-off and landing can be performed manually, while for the flight between it can be switched to automatic mode. We rely on a GPS as most important sensor. A flight path can be specified by entering GPS way points that the plane will approach successively. For details see the book "Embedded Robotics".

Actuators used in the plane:

Switch box that transfers control of all plane servos either to remote control or automatic control

Standard servos for roll / pitch / yaw / motor speed

Lights on the fuselage underside to indicate the plane's internal mode (manual / automatic / error)

Sensors used in the plane:

GPS
Digital Compass
Gyroscope

FlyeBot Settings

TPU  2     Rudder
TPU  3     Elevator
TPU  4     Ailerons
TPU  5     Motor speed
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DO 4       Error indicator
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DI 0-7     compass
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Serial1    User (PC) interface
Serial2    GPS interface

Thomas Bräunl