TIM Communication Library / Firmware The UK Aerial Robotics Team Autonomous Aircraft Design James E. Lumpp, Jr., William T. Smith, Daniel L. Lau University of Kentucky Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The Aerial Robotics Team at the University of Kentucky is designing an autonomous aircraft with sophisticated image capture and analysis hardware and software to compete at the 4th AUVSI Student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition in June 2006. The UAV is based on an off-the-shelf airframe with custom electronics for flight control and mission payload control. The airframe chosen is a conventional high-wing R/C model aircraft with autonomous control, high-bandwidth communications and state-of-the-art image processing that can generate composite photographs of large geographic areas. The system was designed as part of senior design courses and engineering technical electives by students in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Mechanical Engineering Department and Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. The Mission Teams are required to takeoff (manual or autonomous), fly specified waypoints, locate and identify targets on the ground, and return for landing within the allotted time. Mission criteria includes dynamic air vehicle control during autonomous flight, GPS waypoint navigation, target reconnaissance, ability to adjust to changing mission requirements. Piccolo Autopilot Avionics - Small size: 4.8” x 2.4” x 1.5”, 233g. Highly integrated –Includes sensors, GPS, enclosure, and communications link. Real-Time Data Logging. Manual piloting over the integrated UHF ground station link. End-user programmability, including RS-232 serial communications. Flexible drag and drop flight plan generation and updates. Tiny Interface Module (TIM) Measures 1.4 inch x 1.6 inch on a custom PCB CAN, SPI, and two RS-232 communications channels Timer counter arrays Up to seven GPIO pins Header configuration allowing direct to interfacing with servos typically used in aircraft control LED (x3) Power, Status 0, Status 1 Push Button (x2) Reset, Generic Camera System Aiptek IS-DV Fixed lens camera NTSC video out 3MPixels Built-in SD Card Slot (Max. 1 GB) TXA5-Rcb 1W-70 cm TX @ 426.25MH Dual-Axis Servo Stabilizing System Sig Kadet Senior ARF Wings: 80.5 in. Length: 64.75 in. Weight: 6.5 lbs unloaded Engine: 1.6 bhp Tower Hobbies .61 NASA World Wind Open source software GUI to display end images with all required image data Embedded custom code to rotate and place images taken during flight TIM Communication Library / Firmware User API - API used between user code and the IDEAnix message router. Driver API - API is the method of communication between the IDEAnix message router and the CAN driver. Student Team Members David Jackson Ben Redmon Jeannette Djigbenou Vijai Raghunathan Tim Arrowsmith Robert Koontz Justin Raney Subash Marri Sridhar Darren Brown Sam Hishmeh Matt Smith Nithyananda Siva Jeganathan Garrett Chandler Nick Mattei Craig Collins Vamsikrishna Gudivada Adam Groves Shadab Ambat William Berry Deepthi Boyanapally Van Yadack Dale McClure Ala Aldin Meriden Raghuveer Koppala Gayatri Sagi Joe Eaton Breenen Ryan Osamah Rawashdeh