GUIADO Y CONTROL AUTÓNOMOS DE UN VEHÍCULO AÉREO CUATRI-ROTOR PARA ADQUISICIÓN DE IMÁGENES DE VIÑEDOS

Abstract

This paper details the design of an autonomous system for the guidance and control of an unmanned aerial vehicle of four rotors. The robot mission is the acquisition of high resolution images of farmland, vineyards in particular, devoted to a precision agriculture. Using low-cost technologies, the crops can be monitored closely and more often to optimize field-level management, what improves the product quality with a lower environmental impact. The system operation is hierarchical. Once scheduled the flight strategy according to GPS assignments, trajectories are generated to achieve progressively the target points with the maximum reliability and speed. The orientation of the aerial vehicle is inner controlled, which regulates the speed and movement direction onto two axes, according to the marked path and without exceeding the limits of flight stability. All this requires firstly the identification of mathematical models, to perform simulation tests and to apply the control theory. Feedback controllers are designed in the frequency domain. Guidance and control algorithms are implemented in a microcontroller device.