An UAV autopilot board: Aero Elf
Aero Elf is an airborne plattform for avionics and UAV research and
development.
It has been designed for two main goals: high performance and
flexibility.
High performance means the most complete set of sensors, a 6 DOF Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), barometric altimeter and speed-meter, electronic compass plus a GPS module. Capture is made with high resolution ADCs and powerful computation can be done by a fast 16-bit MCU. For top performance, an additional image processor and a short-range ultrasound altimeter can be fit for automated landing. This makes Aero Elf one of the best products in the market.
Flexibility means that Aero Elf can have a large number of configurations, being all sensor optional. Even a different MCU can be installed by soldering a small PCB just over the MCU footprint. Such flexibility means the minimum weight and cost for each configuration. Aero Elf is also a software-open plattform. Boards are sold with blank MCUs for the customer to develop their own autopilot software.
| Microcontroller | |
| Renesas M16C with in-circuit program/debug connector | |
| Socket to plug in a different MCU | |
| Navigation sensors (all optional) | |
| IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) up to 6 Degrees of Freedom. | |
| GPS module with integrated antenna. | |
| Electronic 3-axis compass. | |
| Barometric altimeter. | |
| Differential pressure airspeed meter. | |
| Data management (all optional) | |
| SD card socket (to store flight data) | |
| Bluetooth module (to transfer data to/from a PC before or after a flight) | |
| Advanced sensors (external modules) | |
| Ultrasound precission short-range altimeter (for automated landing) | |
| Camera and image processing module (for automated landing) | |
| Control ports (for flight control and auxiliary mission) | |
| 6-channel output port to servos | |
| 6-channel input port from servos (capture of manual pilot) | |
| 8-channel general purpose input/output port | |
Aero Elf, because of its flexibility, can be useful for many other purposes like:
- Atmospheric research (pressure, temperature, pollution, etc.)
- Geological research (magnetic field, gravitatory field monitoring)
- Airborne mission robot (using the general purpose port).
- Other data logging (using GPS position or GPS atomic clock).
- Aerodynamics research (real flight measure of actuation and response)
- Flight control research and development (capture real aircraft response to develop aircraft models)