User manual

U-Ground User Manual - General System Introduction

General System Introduction

Airelectronics has developed a complete solution for both rotary and fixed wing UAVs. The

system is composed of:

• U-Pilot or U-Pilot OEM

• U-Ground or U-Ground OEM

• U-See Software

U-Pilot manages and controls the vehicle from Take-off to Landing, being capable of controlling

any kind of aircraft including fixed wing, helicopters and multicopters.

U-Pilot is completely capable of following a flight plan with up to 200 real-time editable points.

Once the flight plan is loaded on U-Pilot, it is independent of operator instructions, and in case

of a communications failure, U-Pilot starts a Return Home and Land manoeuvre which would

safely land the UAV on the Runway Point.

Thanks to its versatility, U-Pilot can control any payload on board the UAV such as cameras,

parachutes or sensors. These devices can be real time controlled by a computer operator or by

U-Pilot automatically.

The FPGA technology used in U-Pilot and U-Ground allows the system to have several logic

working in parallel with the main processors. U-Pilot has working in parallel:

• Up to 31 PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) or GPIO (General Purpose Input / Output).

• 3 ADC inputs (Analogical Digital Converter) to monitor the voltages of 3 batteries on the

UAV.

• 4 serial ports RS232 to communicate with payloads, external magnetometers, etc.

• A radio with up to 100 km

• GPS, dynamic and static pressure sensors, a magnetometer, gyroscopes and

accelerometers.

U-Pilot is built using a two parallel microprocessor approach:

• One processor handling the state estimation and control of the UAV, using hardware

acceleration to calculate high speed algorithms.

• A second processor handles of the mission at high level, communications with U-Ground

and the Payload.

• The processors do not spend time handling low-level tasks, as these tasks are processed

in parallel by dedicated logic of the FPGA.

Due to the fact that those two processors are working in parallel and there is dedicated

electronics processing the serial ports, sensors, inputs and outputs, the system is capable of

recalculating its position, orientation and closing control loops at 1000 Hz. This control speed

provides a great navigation accuracy and control.

On the ground segment, Airelectronics has both U-Ground and U-See.

U-Ground is a ground station that mainly acts as a relay of command and data between U-Pilot

and U-See software. Besides acting as data relay, U-Ground provides useful information to U-

Pilot such as U-Ground position and pressures. U-Ground hardware is also capable of handling a

Antenna tracking system.

1 Range may vary with the frequency band used. Default is 900 MHz but legal limitations in some countries may

change this.