Sensor fusion and actuator system of a quadrotor helicopter

Abstract

This article focuses on the sensor and actuator system of an autonomous indoor quadrotor helicopter. The sensor system has two parts: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a vision system. The fusion between the two systems is solved by extended Kalman filters. The calibration of the inertial measurement unit is described for various types of errors. The variance analysis is performed for the noise sources of sensors. The actuators of the helicopter are the four rotors. The identification and low level control of the brushless DC motor based rotor system is also presented. The embedded control system integrates a lot of processors and communication lines. The verification of the system´s parts were performed under real-time conditions. The main results of the paper are the new calibration algorithm for the different sensors and the real-time realization of the complex sensory system that may be part of a formation control system of UAVs.