Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | FPV Drone Custom Flight Controller |
Hulya Goodwin Jaelynn Abdullah Muhammad Rabbani |
Jason Jung | design_document1.pdf final_paper1.pdf grading_sheet1.pdf presentation1.pptx proposal1.pdf |
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| # Team Members: Muhammad Rabbani (rabbani3) Hulya Goodwin (hyg2) Jaelynn Abdullah (jja8) # Problem: Building a custom drone from scratch requires both hardware and software development, particularly in designing an efficient and reliable flight controller. Most off-the-shelf flight controllers come with proprietary firmware, which limits customizability. For advanced applications such as autonomous navigation, swarm coordination, or precision control, users require deeper access to the flight algorithms and hardware integration. Our goal is to develop a fully functional flight controller to run an FPV drone system. The system is broken down below. # Solution We plan to design a custom flight controller that interfaces with drone hardware to provide real-time flight stability and navigation control. The system will consist of a microcontroller-based flight control unit, sensor fusion for IMU data processing, motor control algorithms, and wireless communication for user input. Our custom firmware will handle: Sensor data processing (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer) PID-based flight stabilization Motor speed control via pulse-width modulation/ESC Wireless communication for remote control Constant streaming of the drone’s live camera feed Manual and autonomous flight modes Additionally, we will construct a drone frame through 3D printing or PCB design and integrate all components, ensuring a robust and modular design for future improvements. # Solution Components ## Subsystem 1 – CPU STM Microcontroller This subsystem processes sensor data, computes control outputs, and interfaces with the drone’s actuators. We will use Betaflight to handle: PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control loops for pitch, roll, and yaw stabilization. Sensor fusion algorithms to accurately estimate the drone’s orientation. Communication protocols (I2C, SPI, UART) for sensor integration. The STM32F405 microcontroller is a good candidate due to its real-time processing capabilities ## Subsystem 2 - Sensors The flight controller must read and process sensor data in real time to maintain stability and control. This subsystem will include: IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit): Includes an accelerometer and gyroscope to determine the drone’s orientation. We will likely use the MPU6050 or ICM-20948 for IMU data ## Subsystem 3 - Power Within our system, the STM32 requires 3.3V and some components require up to 12V. With this, a 4S battery rated for 14.8V and can provide up to 1400mAh will be used to power the Flight Controller, motors, and peripherals. Using a voltage regulator will ensure that the components are getting the correct voltage and a simple voltage divider component will be added to ensure we can send 3.3V for the STM. Since we are using brushless motors, there will not be a need for an H-Bridge. The battery specifically would be a BetaFPV 4S 450mAh 75C. ##Subsystem 4 - Telemetry System We will purchase a radio transmitter (LiteRadio 3 SE Radio Transmitter from BETAFPV) in the shape of a game controller to allow us to control the movement of the drone. It uses Tx protocol ExpressLRS to transmit the user's input to the radio receiver. The radio receiver will be an ELRS Nano Receiver (from BETAFPV) with a receiver protocol CRSF to communicate between the receiver and the FC. The FC then communicates with the KISS 24A ESC that will be using ESC protocol Dshot to control the speed of the motors. ## Subsystem 5 - Physical Drone The physical drone will be made by us. This frame will either be 3D printed and sanded down for aerodynamics or made of PCB material that’s insulated and separated from the flight controller PCB in case of a crash. It will be an X-Frame Quadcopter with a larger center to place the FC on. If our frame is not flyable, then there are cheap drone frames we can purchase as well. For the motors, we will probably stick with the same brand and use BetaFPV 1404 3800KV. ## Subsystem 6 - Camera + Goggles For using analog communication, a Caddx Ant Lite or a Runcam Nano 3 would be useful considering we are using a MAX7456 OSD. To broadcast this device, we would need a plug in receiver for the phone, however, the latency would be an issue. For staying within our budget, a Eachine ROTG02, however, has a latency near 100ms. We can utilize apps online (such as GoFPV and FPViewer) but if time allows, we can make our own interface. For the phone, we will create a housing similar to Google's Cardboard. ## Criterion For Success We will demonstrate a working flight controller that has full control over our various subsystems: We receive live data from our sensors. We receive live video from our camera. We have complete control over our power subsystem and various motors to achieve synchronous motion. Our micro controller has our custom/modified program to completely analyze our sensor data to control our motors in response to our orientation and inputted controls. |
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