Design and Development of Integrated Micro Autopilot module with 10 state Sensor Suite and Data Logger for Micro Air Vehicle

Abstract

The use of Micro Air vehicle (MAV) for various applications of civil and military domain is exponentially increasing. This is basically due to the ease of acquisition, deployment and commercially viable options. The applications of MAV range from local area surveillance, remote sensing of harmful gases to surveillance applications during natural calamities.   With the advancement in the micro electronics technology, many companies in the world are attempting to develop many variants of microelectronic payloads for Micro Air Vehicles (MAV). The micro payloads include functional units like full Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), programmable controller, data logger and digital as well as analog interfaces. This paper presents the research activity taken up at CSIR-NAL, Bangalore, India in design and development of an indigenous micro Autopilot hardware module with 10 state sensors suite and data logger as an integrated hardware for its application in MAV. Design and development activity  concentrated on the selection of suitable programmable controller, compact sensor suite, effective placement and routing for EMI/EMC protection, programmable software resource and easy to handle on-board debugger and data logger system.