Autonomous fixed wing (drone)

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Baskaran K

Here you are going to learn about how to make an automatic flying robot called UAV. Nowadays everything is becoming an automatic system where you are able to reduce the human errors as much as possible.

To make this type of UAV (DRONE) you will need a fixed-wing aircraft and flight controller which can able to do an autonomous flight with help of GPS and COMPASS module. In TX and RX, you can use any type of 2.4 GHz Transmitter and receiver should have a minimum 5 channels. Here you can use lipo battery where lipo batteries are widely used for making drones.

You can use BLDC motor which can be easily controlled by ESC. Also, you can monitor the plane where exactly, how much altitude, at what speed it's flying, battery level and all the onboard data while flying in the air by using the Telemetry system.

In telemetry, there are two modules one is air module which is connected to the flight controller another one is a ground module which is connected to the computer or mobile devices which can act as a Ground station where you can also able to control your plane.

Not only autonomous, if you want you can take manual control also.

Project Description:

AIRCRAFT: This is the flight that going to fly autonomously where you are going to fix all the electrical and electronics components on to it.
FLIGHT CONTROLLER: The flight controller(autopilot) will be fixed over on the frame which controls all the motors automatically when it got pre-programmed by the software.
GPS MODULE: This unit will help you to follow the waypoint which was pre-programmed in the software.
POWER MODULE: Power module is used to power the flight controller board where it also helps to trigger the RTL function internally when battery level got low.
ESC Electronic Speed Controller used for controlling the speed of the BLDC motor.
MOTOR: BLDC motor.
PROPELLER: Its a device a which converts the rotational motion into the thrust. Propeller is made up of airfoil design which will cause the pressure difference due to that propeller will move upward direction along with the drone.
BATTERY: You can use lipo battery as a power unit.Battery size will be changed according to the drone size.This type of battery gives you high energy with less weight.
TELEMETRY: For dual way communication.
TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER: 2.4GHZ TX and RX. It should have a minimum of 5 channels
POWER DISTRIBUTION BOARD: It will distribute the battery voltage into all the ESCs equally.

Project Implementation:

Above mentioned electrical and electronics parts should be mounted on the airplane. Connections have to be done properly.
Connect the battery to the power module and open up your mission planner which you have already downloaded.
Install the stable firmware to the flight controller board.
Now do all the mandatory calibration and the flight mode that you want to fly in your transmitter in the radio calibration step.
Do autotune for the more stability where you don't need to give PID values manually.
Now go to flight page in the mission planner and make your waypoints that your drone need to follow.Now upload the mission that you have done on the flight plan into the FC.
Now the aircraft is ready to fly autonomously.

Software requirements:

Mission planner or Q-Ground control or Tower

Kit required to develop Autonomous fixed wing (drone):

Technologies you will learn by working on Autonomous fixed wing (drone):

Autonomous fixed wing (drone)

Project Description:

Project Implementation:

Software requirements:

Any Questions?

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