order purchase (developement)

In order to ensure that developement phase runs according to scheadule, required hardware items have been ordered and purchase. This process have been completed through the hobbyking company which has business franchises throughout the world. Its closest location is at Hongkong therefore delivery is done from there.

About rm 1700 worth of expenditure has been done due to date.

quad hardware = lithium polymer battery (research)

the quadcopter drone needs a power source to juice up the onboard electric equipment. A lipoly battery pack is used due to its high capacity and low weight. Calculation is made to predict the flight time available for the quadcopter with selected capacity of the battery. This needs to be balanced as a larger capacity means the battery need to be bigger and heavier. It is recommended by a technical expert that a 4 cell lipoly battery pack of 4500mah capacity to be used for the above quadcopter configuration.

quad hardware = body frame (research)

-          In order to allow flight control for the quadcopter, the body frame of the quadcopter must be as light as possible. The reason for this is to create enough thrust to weight ratio so that the flight controller has enough freedom to control the movements of the quadcopter through the motors. The best option is to use ready made frames which are constructed specifically for quadcopters using best lightweight material. The X605 frame made by glass fiber and aluminium is used to ensure strength and rigidity to the quadcopter while saving weight.

Arduino workshop (research)

I am going to program the control board on the quadcopter with arduino. Therefore when the BMI was going to oragnise a workshop on Arduino i was one of the first to show interest.

Eventually the workshop was conducted  at TTL1 and the modules covers the basics about Arduino based programming.

The Arduino UNO board was use for practical exercise. We also used a custom attachment for the board provided by the presenter, which gives access to LCD, buzzer and some other stuff.

quad hardware = electric motors & propellers (research)

-          Electronic motors are the main components of a quadcopter drone which creates thrust for the movements of the quadcopter. However it is very important to make sure the specifications of the motors and propellers are right for the custom built quadcopter. Basically the main requirement is to create total thrust for the quadcopter about 2 times its weight. Therefore the motors must be powerful enough to turn the selected size of propellers. In balance to that the motors must also use minimal power for this action to increase battery life. Below motors and propellers configuration is used for this project.

quad hardware = electronic speed controller (research)

This is a device which serve the brushless electric motors on the quadcopter. The quadcopter drone is a vehicle which is controlled by the individual speed of its four motors. Therefore delicate control of each of the motor speed is very critical. This speed controller device facilitates these concerns by having a voltage regulator to feed equal and constant electric power to the motors. The speed controller also receive PWM signals from the flight controller board and then process them and makes sure stable signals are sent to the motors so that the quadcopter drone will move as desired. This project utilises the Afro ESC 30A speed controller.

quad hardware = GPS module (research)

The GPS module is the device which connects itself to available satellites and receive information about its current location. This location information is then sent to the flight controller as input to process the movement controls for the quadcopter drone. The NEO-6M GPS module is used for this project.

quad hardware = flight controller circuit (research)

-          This is an electronic board complete with microprocessors, ram, sensors and other related components and acts as the main brain of the quadcopter. Inputs signals from the RC module and onboard sensors will be processed here and then suitable output PWM signals will be delivered to the motors of the quadcopter drone. For this project the HK Mega flight controller board is chosen to serve this purpose. This flight controller board is equipped with atmega microprocessors, gyrometer, accelerometer, magnetic compass  and pressure sensor to assist on doing flight control processing. The firmware used is Arducopter which is arduino based and have been developed excessively over the years. The codings of the firmware will be modified to suit the functions of this project. 

App inventor (research)

Creating an application on the android based smartphone device requires some kind of programming facility. It is decided for this project, the program App Inventor is used. This App inventor is a web based platform by Massachusetts Institute of technology which allows public users to make and bake their own application for their smartphone device. Basically this web interface provides relevant tools to create an application from scratch such as a main screen to decide how the application will look like. This initially empty screen is then filled out with buttons, links, interactive controls and etc. to provide interaction with user. The programming is for setting up everything together is done through block programming method. When everything is completed the created application can be uploaded straight to the smartphone device for testing. It is identified that there is a specific tool in the App inventor that specialized on making an application for robotic related integration.

The basic mainframe of the control application for this project is having joystick controls and buttons on the screen similar to the transmitter device. These joysticks and buttons can be operated through touch detection on the screen.  In addition to that the application should be able to detect inputs from the accelerometer when tilting the device. This motion detection will then be used for controlling the drone. Finally, the application will have Bluetooth connection mechanism so that the smartphone will be connected to a corresponding Bluetooth module while running the application.

RC module (research)

Finding a compatible RC module for this project. Most RC modules are single way where only intruction digital signals are sent from the transmitter to the reciever.

However out quadcopter needs a feedback signal from the quadcopter to utilise its gps function. Therefore the RC module must be 2 way.

After some investigation, the frysky DF RC module seems to fit the project requirements. It has a forward 8 channel digital signal transmitter which feedbacks in serial signal.

quadcopter discussion on popular mechanics magazine (research)

i have stumbled apon an article discussing about quadcopter on the popular mechanics magazine. the discussions are mostly about the air traffic regulations in the US regarding quadcopters. Other than that was some news updates about the implementation of quadcopter technology.

Bluetooth technology (research)

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength microwave transmissions in the ISMband from 2400–2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Created by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.

Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which has more than 19,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics. Bluetooth was standardized as IEEE 802.15.1, but the standard is no longer maintained. The SIG oversees the development of the specification, manages the qualification program, and protects the trademarks.To be marketed as a Bluetooth device, it must be qualified to standards defined by the SIG. A network of patents is required to implement the technology, which is licensed only for that qualifying device.

The Bluetooth specification was developed as a cable replacement in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson, who were working for Ericssonin Lund, Sweden. The specification is based on frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.

The specifications were formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on 20 May 1998. Today it has a membership of over 19,000 companies worldwide. It was established by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies.

All versions of the Bluetooth standards are designed for downward compatibility. That lets the latest standard cover all older versions.

Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B

Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulty making their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also included mandatory Bluetooth hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the Connecting process (rendering anonymity impossible at the protocol level), which was a major setback for certain services planned for use in Bluetooth environments.

Bluetooth v1.1

• Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1–2002
• Many errors found in the 1.0B specifications were fixed.
• Added possibility of non-encrypted channels.
• Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Bluetooth v1.2

Major enhancements include the following:

• Faster Connection and Discovery
• Adaptive frequency-hopping spread spectrum (AFH), which improves resistance to radio frequency interference by avoiding the use of crowded frequencies in the hopping sequence.
• Higher transmission speeds in practice, up to 721 kbit/s, than in v1.1.
• Extended Synchronous Connections (eSCO), which improve voice quality of audio links by allowing retransmissions of corrupted packets, and may optionally increase audio latency to provide better concurrent data transfer.
• Host Controller Interface (HCI) operation with three-wire UART.
• Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1–2005
• Introduced Flow Control and Retransmission Modes for L2CAP.

Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR

This version of the Bluetooth Core Specification was released in 2004. The main difference is the introduction of an Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) for faster data transfer. The nominal rate of EDR is about 3 Mbit/s, although the practical data transfer rate is 2.1 Mbit/s. EDR uses a combination of GFSK and Phase Shift Keying modulation (PSK) with two variants, π/4-DQPSK and 8DPSK. EDR can provide a lower power consumption through a reduced duty cyle.

The specification is published as "Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR" which implies that EDR is an optional feature. Aside from EDR, there are other minor improvements to the 2.0 specification, and products may claim compliance to "Bluetooth v2.0" without supporting the higher data rate. At least one commercial device states "Bluetooth v2.0 without EDR" on its data sheet.

Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR

Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR was adopted by the Bluetooth SIG on 26 July 2007.

The headline feature of 2.1 is secure simple pairing (SSP): this improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices, while increasing the use and strength of security. See the section on Pairingbelow for more details.

2.1 allows various other improvements, including "Extended inquiry response" (EIR), which provides more information during the inquiry procedure to allow better filtering of devices before connection; and sniff subrating, which reduces the power consumption in low-power mode.

Bluetooth v3.0 + HS

Version 3.0 + HS of the Bluetooth Core Specification was adopted by the Bluetooth SIG on 21 April 2009. Bluetooth 3.0+HS provides theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s, though not over the Bluetooth link itself. Instead, the Bluetooth link is used for negotiation and establishment, and the high data rate traffic is carried over a collocated 802.11 link.

The main new feature is AMP (Alternative MAC/PHY), the addition of 802.11 as a high speed transport. The High-Speed part of the specification is not mandatory, and hence only devices sporting the "+HS" will actually support the Bluetooth over 802.11 high-speed data transfer. A Bluetooth 3.0 device without the "+HS" suffix will not support High Speed, and needs to only support a feature introduced in Core Specification Version 3.0 or earlier Core Specification Addendum 1.

L2CAP Enhanced modes

Enhanced Retransmission Mode (ERTM) implements reliable L2CAP channel, while Streaming Mode (SM) implements unreliable channel with no retransmission or flow control. Introduced in Core Specification Addendum 1.

Alternative MAC/PHY

Enables the use of alternative MAC and PHYs for transporting Bluetooth profile data. The Bluetooth radio is still used for device discovery, initial connection and profile configuration, however when large quantities of data need to be sent, the high speed alternative MAC PHY 802.11 (typically associated with Wi-Fi) will be used to transport the data. This means that the proven low power connection models of Bluetooth are used when the system is idle, and the faster radio is used when large quantities of data need to be sent. AMP links require enhanced L2CAP modes.

Unicast Connectionless Data

Permits service data to be sent without establishing an explicit L2CAP channel. It is intended for use by applications that require low latency between user action and reconnection/transmission of data. This is only appropriate for small amounts of data.

Enhanced Power Control

Updates the power control feature to remove the open loop power control, and also to clarify ambiguities in power control introduced by the new modulation schemes added for EDR. Enhanced power control removes the ambiguities by specifying the behaviour that is expected. The feature also adds closed loop power control, meaning RSSI filtering can start as the response is received. Additionally, a "go straight to maximum power" request has been introduced. This is expected to deal with the headset link loss issue typically observed when a user puts their phone into a pocket on the opposite side to the headset.

Ultra-wideband

The high speed (AMP) feature of Bluetooth v3.0 was originally intended for UWB, but the WiMedia Alliance, the body responsible for the flavor of UWB intended for Bluetooth, announced in March 2009 that it was disbanding, and ultimately UWB was omitted from the Core v3.0 specification.

On 16 March 2009, the WiMedia Alliance announced it was entering into technology transfer agreements for the WiMedia Ultra-wideband (UWB) specifications. WiMedia has transferred all current and future specifications, including work on future high speed and power optimized implementations, to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum. After the successful completion of the technology transfer, marketing and related administrative items, the WiMedia Alliance will cease operations.

In October 2009 the Bluetooth Special Interest Group suspended development of UWB as part of the alternative MAC/PHY, Bluetooth v3.0 + HS solution. A small, but significant, number of formerWiMedia members had not and would not sign up to the necessary agreements for the IP transfer. The Bluetooth SIG is now in the process of evaluating other options for its longer term roadmap.

Bluetooth Smart (v4.0)

The Bluetooth SIG completed the Bluetooth Core Specification version 4.0 (called Bluetooth Smart) and has been adopted as of 30 June 2010. It includes Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth high speedand Bluetooth low energy protocols. Bluetooth high speed is based on Wi-Fi, and Classic Bluetooth consists of legacy Bluetooth protocols.

Bluetooth low energy (BLE), previously known as WiBree, is a subset of Bluetooth v4.0 with an entirely new protocol stack for rapid build-up of simple links. As an alternative to the Bluetooth standard protocols that were introduced in Bluetooth v1.0 to v3.0, it is aimed at very low power applications running off a coin cell. Chip designs allow for two types of implementation, dual-mode, single-mode and enhanced past versions. The provisional names Wibree and Bluetooth ULP (Ultra Low Power) were abandoned and the BLE name was used for a while. In late 2011, new logos “Bluetooth Smart Ready” for hosts and “Bluetooth Smart” for sensors were introduced as the general-public face of BLE.

• In a single mode implementation the low energy protocol stack is implemented solely. CSR, Nordic Semiconductor and Texas Instruments have released single mode Bluetooth low energy solutions.
• In a dual-mode implementation, Bluetooth low energy functionality is integrated into an existing Classic Bluetooth controller. Currently (2011-03) the following semiconductor companies have announced the availability of chips meeting the standard: Qualcomm-Atheros, CSR, Broadcom and Texas Instruments. The compliant architecture shares all of Classic Bluetooth’s existing radio and functionality resulting in a negligible cost increase compared to Classic Bluetooth.

Cost-reduced single-mode chips, which enable highly integrated and compact devices, feature a lightweight Link Layer providing ultra-low power idle mode operation, simple device discovery, and reliable point-to-multipoint data transfer with advanced power-save and secure encrypted connections at the lowest possible cost.

General improvements in version 4.0 include the changes necessary to facilitate BLE modes, as well the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) and Security Manager (SM) services with AESEncryption.

Core Specification Addendum 2 was unveiled in December 2011; it contains improvements to the audio Host Controller Interface and to the High Speed (802.11) Protocol Adaptation Layer.

Core Specification Addendum 3 revision 2 has an adoption date of July 24, 2012.

Core Specification Addendum 4 has an adoption date of February 12, 2013.

Bluetooth specification Version 4.1 was officially announced in December 4, 2013.

quadcopter basic dynamics (research)

A quadcopter is a vehicle which control its movements by adjusting the speed of each of it propellers.

upward movement = this happens by having two propellers going clockwise and two going conter clockwise and being configured opposite to each other. Giving the same speed to all four propellers and being fast enough will give enough thrust for the quadcopter to float upwards.

downward movement = same concept with upward movement but having lower speeds than required to support the quadcopter weight.

forward movement = this happens by giving more speed to two backside propellers.

backward movement = this happens by giving more speed to two front propellerd.

sidways movement = this can be done by having two propellers opposite to desired movement rotate with more speed.

clockwise yaw = this happens by giving more speed to two propellers which rotate clockwise.

counter clockwise yaw = this happens by giving more speed to two propellers which rotate counter clockwise.

Balance is important for the basic quadcopter movements. therefore speed adjustments must be changed not too drastically.

1st FYP briefing

A briefing session for FYP 1 students was conducted at TTL1 to introduce the FYP subject to the students. Infomation was given about the BMI FYP website and also the content of the FYP1 WPB 49804 subject. Detail guidelines were explained on how to do the proposal report which will have to be completed and submitted by the end of the semester. In addition to that it is also informed about the project competition possibilities and this indirectly motivated the students on doing their projects properly.

fyp schedule

this fyp project is implemented in 3 stages

• research phase
• developement phase
• improvement phase

research phase = this is the timeline where necessary research is done to gain knowledge to be applied to the project.

developement phase = this is the timeline where the actual building of hardware and software take place.

improvement phase = this is the timeline given to further improve and complicate the project.

the gantt chart below represents the time table for the project.

title registration

Students are required to register their fyp titles into the bmi fyp website through their respective advisers. Although initially 1 week was allocated for this task, due to technical problems the timeline extended to 2 weeks.

I submitted a three page unofficial summary and rough action plan about my project to my adviser and shortly afterwards my title was registered to the website.

finding advisor

In order to do the final year project the students are required to find a personal adviser for guidance and supervision.

We are given the freedom to choose whoever we like as long as he or she is a lecturer however it is recommended that the choice is made according to the section of study. I am currently studying bachelor engineering technology in electronics therefore mine is electronic section.

I decided to pursue Sir Ahmad Basri b Zainal requesting permission to be my advisor, fortunately, after a short briefing about my plans on the project i would like to do, he is willing to help me on my project and confirmation is done though mutual agreement.

blog = logbook

This blog is created as a virtual progress report log book in order to satisfy the requirements of the subject FYP1 WBP 49804.

To start out here's some basic info :

Student = Aiman b. Ibrahim 51211111027

Advisor = Sir Ahmad Basri b. Zainal

Place of study = UNIKL British Malaysian Institute