1B15 Design and Autonomous Control of a Six-Rotor Type Flying Robot

Abstract

MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) can be used for many applications such as the investigation of inhospitable environments, regions contaminated by nuclear pollution or hazardous material and other inaccessible areas. For such kind of purposes, a small machine that can autonomously fly seems to be appropriate. It can be used no matter how complicated geographical features are, since the air is relatively free from obstacles. MAV is not flown by a radio controller. It can autonomously fly and accomplish target duties. In our laboratory we select a Quad-Rotor MAV as our platform, and achieved autonomous take-off, landing, hovering, way-point navigation, and vision-based navigation flight, however, the payload of our current platform is low (about 500grams), and the flight duration is only about 10 minutes. To overcome these obstacles, we designed a Six-Rotor type MAV with 770mm of diameter, 1.9Kg of weight, 1.5Kg of payload and 12 minutes of flight duration(without payload). To achieve autonomous flight, we install our developed autopilot system and design model-based controller (attitude control, velocity control and position control). In this paper, we present the main design considerations which are essential for the construction of Six-Rotor type MAV and controller design technique.