Autonomous Racing Drone

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Dineshkumar E

Racing drones can reach speed up to 150 Km/hr. These drones are used by drone enthusiasts for racing, to shoot videos and to perform stunts, etc. By implementing artificial intelligence and computer vision techniques into these drones we can make it autonomous which helps in reaching much higher speeds than the speed achieved during manual control. In this article, you will learn to build an autonomous racing drone from scratch.

Normally racing drones are built on top of quad configuration (four propellers) which gives good agility and helps in achieving high speeds. In the quad configuration, two rotors will rotate in the clockwise direction and the other two will rotate in the anticlockwise direction.

Project Implementation:

In this project, the drones are integrated with vision-based prediction algorithms like snake-gate algorithm to predict the colored gate in the image. Following are the components used to build the drone.

Frame: Racing drones are build using frames with the following dimensions 210mm, 215mm, 250mm, etc. These frames are mostly made up of carbon fiber with 3mm thickness.

Camera: CMOS camera sensor is used to capture the video footages which processes the image and detects the path for the drone.

Video Transmitter: It is used to transmit the footage captured by the camera to the user.

Brushless motor: It is used to produce the thrust. These motors are high KV rating motors (KV denotes the RPM produced per volt).

Inertial Measurement Units: This helps to stabilize the drone with the help of Gyroscope and Accelerometer sensors integrated with the flight controller.

Flight Controller: It is powered with a high-end processor to perform the required functions without any lag.

Propellers: Propellers are rotating wings that help in generating lift. It converts the rotational motion into thrust with the help of motors.

Global Positioning System: GPS module helps to detect the position and location of the drone. So that it can be operated easily.

Electronic Speed Controller: ESC consists of a microcontroller that processes the input signal from the flight controller and delivers the current to the motor. It also contains one more circuit called Battery Eliminator Circuit that reduces the high voltage current from the battery and delivers the power to the other components.

Transmitter and Receiver: Transmitter is used to control the drone during the manual flight. It converts the stick movement into radio waves and sends it to the receiver. Receiver which is placed on the drone receives it and passes it to the flight controller.

Fix all the components and do the accelerometer calibration and now the drone is ready to fly. Before doing the actual flight, you can also simulate the autonomous flight of the drone using the software.

Kit required to develop Autonomous Racing Drone:

Technologies you will learn by working on Autonomous Racing Drone:

Autonomous Racing Drone

Any Questions?

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