Indoor Quadcopter

Goals and Requirements

• Flight controls through Raspberry Pi using Wifi and Python

• Stable indoor flight and basic object avoidance

• SLAM capabilities

• Automated waypoint flight between multiple floors

• Deliver me nitro cold brew coffee from the kegerator

• Other automated tasks

Design Considerations

Secondary Raspberry Pi to handle all sensors and cameras

• • Raspberry Pi integration with the flight controller gives endless possibilities for automation and controls

  • With Raspberry Pi integration, Python scripting is able to be used for flight commands

  • PixHawk seems to be much more stable reliable than Navio when used with Raspberry Pi

  • Since one primary purpose is lifting and delivering, large propellers with low RPM motors is preferable

  • GPS is not reliable since drone is to navigate indoors

  • Altitude determination

    • Barometric pressure alone is not enough for altitude determination due to air circulation inside most homes

    • When traveling over carpet, IR and Ultrasonic sensors may not be accurate

    • Multiple sensors for altitude data should be used and compared, along with an accelerometer, to source select the appropriate altitude

  • Naviation and Positioning

    • Ulta-Wideband beacons can be used to aid indoor positioning

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      • Much more accurate than bluetooth and Wifi

      • Longer range than RFID

      • Valuable data to use for SLAM

  • Raspberry Pi is not powerful enough to use more complex machine vision algorithms

    • Since it will be indoors and connected to Wifi, video stream could potentially be analyzed using Azure applications