fype report submission

A complete fyp report was written and submitted to my supervisor lecturer, Mr Ahmad Basri bin Zainal and also the library of UNIKL BMI. This completes the requirements of the fyp subject.

project presentation

The project is presented to assesors to provide marks for the fyp subject. The presentation was done at the Gemilang Hall in UNIKL British Malaysian Insitute.  Assesors include lecturers from the electronics department and also representatives from the industry.

functional test

 Functional test is done to test the functionality during general operation of the project system. During this stage testing is done without propellers to enable static experiment of the project. Changes are done to commands by manipulating the user interface. The reaction of the quad copter is observed through the speed rotation change of the quad copter. This can be measured roughly with the change of sound of the motors spinning. 

            A video is made for this process as an evidence of the functionality of the project. The project seems to be functioning as it was programmed to do so. 

radio signal testing (development)

After confirming the command signals reaching from the smartphone to the arduino uno through Bluetooth connection, now it is viable to proceed signal detection at the quad copter which is transported from the arduino through the rc module. The command signal was received by the arduino uno in serial data through the serial port. The data is then processed and encoded into a PPM signal. The RC module then decodes this signal and changes it into a PWM signal which is recognised by the APM flight controller board. Therefore testing is done to confirm correct signal transportation through all these stages.

The overall interaction and the commands that go through the system can be simulated with mission planner software. Set up is done by connecting the APM flight controller board to the laptop, and then everything is activated as normal operation, only that the propellers are taken off. This way all the input signals that are detected by the APM flight controller board are transferred to the mission planner software on the laptop to be analysed. The default main purpose of the mission planner software is to tweak the settings on the APM flight controller board which will decide how the firmware will react to the input and produce output from it. However this automatically produces simulation on the input signals which we can use for testing.

The function on the mission planner that we used for this testing is the radio calibration setup. This function provides visual representation of the command input received at the APM board’s input port which is connected to the receiver of the rc module. The testing is done by observing default radio input and then see the changes which occur due to application of command on the smartphone application.

Serial port testing (development)

The arduino software is used to write codings relevant to the project and then uploaded to the arduino hardware. Integrated to this software is a serial monitor which can be used to simulate the detected data which is transported through the serial port. We used Bluetooth to transfer data commands from the smartphone to the arduino uno board wich is fixed with a HC-05 bluetooth shield. And most importantly the data commands are transferred serially. Therefore we can use the serial monitor to confirm data commands transmission to the arduino uno so that we can know that this part of the system actually works.

building interconnect circuit (developement)

The interconnect circuit is responsible for transferring data from the smartphone to the quad copter. As the smartphone sends out data through Bluetooth, a Bluetooth module is required to receive the data. This data is then processed into a signal understood by the rc module. The rc module can only decode PPM signals fed into its input pin. Therefore a processor is needed to convert the serial data received from the Bluetooth module and encode it into a PPM signal. An arduino uno board is used since it is capable to connect easily with a Bluetooth module shield. It can also encode a PPM signal using its internal timer feature.

creating phone app (development)

The custom phone app is created using app inventor. Desired elements are arrange onto the screen and then functions are programmed using block programming. 

The first screen design contains an introductory page where the name of the subject, name of student, name of advisor and related information is written. This screen functions as a front page for the application

Screen 2 is designed as the main screen where the quad copter controller user interface is put together. The functions and buttons emulate a standard RC transmitter where commands are sent to manipulate the throttle, rudder, yaw and pitch of the quad copter. However additional buttons are integrated to control the sensitivity of the throttle control and also to set the flight modes of the quad copter. In addition to that another button is set to simulate arming sequence of the transmitter to the quad copter. Furthermore one more button is designated to start Bluetooth connection with the interconnect circuit.

Below are some of the examples of block programming