Very Low Cost Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) Avionics

"asdIn this project we develop an extremely lightweight and inexpensive avionics package for small expendable UAVs. Starting with a proven COTS UAV autopilot, the Micropilot 2000, we squeeze most of its functionality into a lower cost, lower power, morehighly integrated microcontroller, the new TI430F149. In another project we are developing a robust 1 cu inch Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for guided munitions using this controller and a suite of MEMS inertial gyros and accelerometers by AnalogDevices. A Honeywell MEMS strapdown magnetometer and pressure sensor are added here to help coast through signal outages due to jamming of the tiny GPS receiver. The desired time of arrival at up to hundreds of waypoints can be loaded into the aircraftbefore or during flight. We develop an innovative Kalman filter to minimize position drift during GPS outages by exploiting the unique characteristics of a stable UAV that are not available in typical munition based GPS/INS guidance applications. asdThecost target of this system will put it into a cost area that is viable for model airplane enthusiasts."