UAV Carrier and custom DJI UAV (Quadcopter)

This was our Senior Design Project for the University of Central Florida's Electrical Engineering program. We found out the other day that these are actually called Unmanned Hybrid-Vehicle Systems (UVS) and are something that are becoming more and more popular. We would not have been able to do this without arduino, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to put it on here. We have 5 ATMEGA328's (The chips on the Arduino Uno's) running the rover and one PIC32 that was written in MPLAB. I will let the videos and pictures kind of speak for themselves, but I will answer any questions or expand on anything!

Main Features Include:

  • For the Rover
    Regenerative Charging System based on a Bedini Motor
    Magnetic Neodymium Locking System for the quadcopter
    Mecanum Wheels
    Andymark 1200 oz-in 198 RPM 2-Stage Planetary Gear Motors
    XBEE Pro 900 MHz on the Communication Controls
    APM 1.5 just for real time navigation/GPS
    Custom Made Motor Controllers
    All custom embedded code able to handle up to 255 devices
    Real Time monitoring from a control terminal
    Touchscreen LCD for controls
    Fingerprint scanner for authentication
    Independent Speed Controls for all motors
    FPV using a 200mW transmitter on 1268 mHZ
    Custom made Frame/Shell
    Monitoring Control panel
    2-Way Mirror Film top
    NeoPixel Runway Lighting
    GOPRO HERO3 on a Pan and Tilt System
    Maxbotix SONAR

  • For the Quadcopter:
    DJI F450 Frame
    DJI OPTO ESC"s
    DJI 930kV Motors
    10" APC Props
    200mW FPV on 1280 MHz
    XBEE Pro Telemetry
    APM 2.6
    MinimOSD
    DJI Landing Gear
    Custom 3D printed landing feet with magnets in them
    Lasers
    Frsky 2.4 gHZ Receiver
    Turnigy 9X Controller
    GOPRO HERO3
    Maxbotix SONAR













You can view videos of it running (and also the bloopers) here:

A more detailed version can be found here.

I will be happy to post any code for anyone who would like!

How many copters are there?

Just one.