Design and Implementation of a New Modular UAV Ground Station System

With the increasing demand for small UAV ground station systems in areas such as aerial photography, public safety, power inspections, and forestry protection, the design and implementation of small modular UAV ground station systems are relatively lagging behind. In order to overcome the problems of poor modularity, complex system, and weak expansion capability of the existing small ground station system, it is urgent to develop a new UAV ground station system to solve the above problems.

This article mainly studies the design and implementation of a small modular UAV ground station system. According to the requirements, a new modular ground station system was designed and its hardware was divided into three parts.　　Operate docking stations and tablets. In manual mode, the drone can be controlled in real time by operating the docking station; in automatic mode, the drone can fly independently according to the planned trajectory of the tablet.

Then it is divided into two parts, software and hardware, and describes the realization process of the system in detail. In terms of hardware, the detailed circuit design and implementation of the console are mainly carried out, and the real-time control of the UAV is realized by using the man-machine interaction equipment such as the radio station based on the remote stick and the buttons. In terms of software, based on the .Net framework and open source map control, functions such as flight monitoring, map display, and route planning of the ground station system are realized.

The system implements two Cserial port serial communication classes based on C language. It is used to send and receive telemetry and remote control data and send control commands through the joystick in manual mode. At the same time, when selecting the communication protocol, the MAVlink UAV communication protocol is used, which reduces the system cost and reduces the complexity of system design.

Finally, functional verification and post-processing of telemetry data were performed on the UAV ground station system, which verified the rationality of the system design and the effectiveness of the specific implementation process. The system realizes the basic telemetry and remote control functions of the new ground station system.

The new modular UAV ground station system developed by this project has passed the industry-level UAV system joint debugging test. Its high degree of modularity, strong reusability, low cost, has certain reference significance for the development of similar equipment.

FlyDragon FD6000 ground control station for VTOL UAV and Drones building

FlyDragon FD6000 ground control station GCS hardware refers to the complete set of ground-based hardware systems used to control the UAV. This typically includes the Human-Machine Interface, computer, telemetry, video capture card and aerials for the control, video and data links to the UAV. Smaller UAVs can be operated with a traditional “twin-stick” style transmitter,as used for radio controlled model aircraft. Extending this setup with a laptop or tablet computer, data and video telemetry, and aerials, creates what is effectively a Ground Control Station. A number of suppliers offer a combined system that consists of what looks like a modified transmitter combined with what is usually a touch screen. An internal computer running the GCS software sits behind the screen, along with the video and data links. Larger GCS units are also available that typically fit inside flight cases.  As with the smaller units, they feature an internal computer running the GCS software, along with video and data links. Large single or dual screens are also fitted that can be high-brightness or treated with an anti-glare coating to increase visibility in bright sunlight. They can either be placed on the ground, on a portable table, or feature integrated folding legs.[8] Some portable GCS units are in the HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) layout. This layout includes a 3-Axis Joystick to control yaw, pitch and roll of the UAV. A slide or t-bar fader can increase or decrease the airspeed of the UAV.

 

Box type: Military three-proof safety box
Cover size: length 968MM* width 406MM* height 155MM
Overall weight: 20KG
Shell material: PVC composite
Protection level: Cover IP67
Operating temperature: -10 ° C to 60 ° C
Color Type: Matte Black
Portable features: Open and use, external handle, built-in lever Battery and battery life 4 hours
Operation panel : Panel material 3K carbon fiber plate
Interface support: USB*3, RS232*1, DC IN, HDMI, RJ45, VGA
Feeder and interface: Support N, SMA interface
Human-computer interaction: industrial control keyboard, industrial control touch panel, joystick, buttons, lever Switch parameters Total power, power button, link power, custom button
Other equipment: Industrial cooling fan
Industrial control host
Processor : I5 6400T
operating system: Windows 10
RAM: 8G
Hard disk: 128G solid state
I/O interface: USB, network port, serial port, HDMI
Left and right dual display : Size 18.5 inches
Resolution: 1920*1080
screen ratio: 16:9
Backlight type: led
Maximum brightness: 1000nit (automatic induction adjustment)
input interface : HDMI
Remote control function: PTZ joystick Control PTZ pitch and direction customization
Two-stage lever
Three-stage lever mode switching and other customization
Buttons, photo, video, height, etc.

Battery & Power
Display content Current voltage, current current, current remaining capacity, power, etc.
Management system protection Over current protection, over voltage protection, low voltage protection, over capacity protection, over power protection
Battery protection Over current protection, over temperature protection, over voltage protection, low voltage protection
Battery endurance time: 4 hours