Tolga ULUTAŞ, Osman AVCI, Engin Can AKAR, Barış KÖKSAL, Yılmaz KALKAN

Simple Design and Implementation of Two-Way Communication System through UAV

In this paper, an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) which can carry and communicate with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV - Rover) is designed and realized. In this context, one UAV and one Rover are designed separately. The Rover is designed much smaller than the UAV as it is carried by the UAV and it can make its own movement after leaving the UAV near the area where it will be operated. At this stage, the carrier UAV acts as a communication relay, providing communication between the central control station and the Rover. Using nRF24L01 transceiver modules on each of the central control station, carrier UAV and the Rover, communication between them is achieved via programming as being master or slave. The relay communication system is designed on Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocolof nRF24L01 transceiver modules. The Rover is also equipped with a camera on it to record videos and to take pictures. Both the UAV and the Rover were designed especially in order to reduce the energy consumption of them. Hence the Rover is designed as small in size and light as possible. By taking into account the equipment, batteries and motors that the vehicles will carry, the best design has been tried to be implemented in order to increase their ranges and reduce energy consumptions. It is possible to use it in the defence industry for military purposes, in places where bomb detection or long-range access is difficult with a single UAV, where land access is required.

Keywords:

Relay Communication, nRF24L01 Module, UAV, UGV, SPI,

PDF

___

[1]Y. Zeng, R. Zhang, and T. Lim, “Wireless communications with unmanned aerial vehicles: Opportunities and challenges,” IEEE Comm. Magazine, vol. 54(5), pp. 36–42, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2016.7470933
[2] B. Custers, The Future of Drone Use: Opportunities and Threats from Ethical and Legal Perspectives. T.M.C. Asser Press, 2016.
[3] J. Lyu, Y. Zeng, R. Zhang, and T. Lim, “Placement optimization of uav-mounted mobile base stations,” IEEE Comm. Letters, vol. 21(3), pp. 604–607, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/ LCOMM.2016.2633248
[4] M. Reinecke and T. Prinsloo, “The influence of drone monitoring on crop health and harvest size,” in In Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/NEXTCOMP.2017.8016168
[5] Z. Duan, Y. Li, J. Wang, G. Zhao, and S. Svanberg, “Aquatic environment monitoring using a drone-based fluorosensor,” Appl. Phys. B., vol. 125(108), pp. 36–42, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-019-7215-y
[6] G. Quaglia, P. Cavallone, and C. Visconte, “Agri q: Agriculture ugv for monitoring and drone landing,” in In Proceedings of the 4th IFToMM Symposium on Mechanism Design for Robotics, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00365-4
[7] E. Harik, F. Guerin, F. Guinand, J. Brethe, and H. Pelvillain, “Uavugv cooperation for objects transportation in an industrial area,” in In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), 2015.
[8] A. Lakas, B. Belkhouche, O. Benkraouda, A. Shuaib, and H. Alasmawi, “A framework for a cooperative uav-ugv system for path discovery and planning,” in In Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (IIT), 2018. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/INNOVATIONS.2018.8606028
[9] M. Saska, T. Krajnik, and L. Pfeucil, “Cooperative μuav-ugv autonomous indoor surveillance,” in In Proceedings of the International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices, 2012. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/SSD.2012.6198051
[10] D. Galar, U. Kumar, and D. Seneviratne, Robots, Drones, UAVs and UGVs for Operation and Maintenance. CRC Press, 2020.
[11] S. Kontogiannis and J. Ekaterinaris, “Design, performance evaluation and optimization of a uav,” Aerosp. Sci. Technol., vol. 29(1), pp. 339–350, 2013. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2013.04.005
[12] Z. Benic, P. Piljek, and D. Kotarski, “Mathematical modelling of unmanned aerial vehicles with four rotors,” Interdiscip. Descr. Complex Syst., vol. 14, pp. 88–100, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.14.1.9
[13] S. n.d., “Sunnysky x4108 brushless motor (datasheet),” https://tr. aliexpress.com/item/32224922674.html, Accessed December 2, 2021.
[14] D. Myers, “Calculating flight time for unmanned aerial vehicles in the presence of obstacles and the incorporation of flight dynamics,” in MsC diss., State University of New York. ProQuest (A AT 1482242), 2010.
[15] A. Elbanna, T. Soliman, A. Ouda, and E. Hamed, “Improved design and implementation of automatic flight control system (afcs) for a fixed wing small uav,” Radioengineering, vol. 27(3), pp. 339–350, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.13164/re.2018-3
[16] Q. Yuan, Y. Hu, C. Wang, and X. Ma, “3d beamforming for improving the security of uav-enabled mobile relaying system,” Radioengineering, vol. 28(1), pp. 304–311, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.13164/re.2019-4
[17] B. Kamel, B. Yasmina, B. Laredj, I. Benamoumeur, and A. Zoubir, “Dynamic modeling, simulation and pid controller of unmanned aerial vehicle uav,” in In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovative Computing Technology, (INTECH), 2017.
[18] V. Gomez, N. Gomez, J. Rodas, E. Paiva, M. Saad, and R. Gregor, “Pareto optimal pid tuning for px4-based unmanned aerial vehicles by using a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm,” Aerospace, vol. 7(6), pp. 604–607, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/AEROSPACE7060071
[19] H. Keskin, “What is spi and how it works?” https://herenkeskin.com/ spi-nedir-ve-nasil-calisir/, Accessed August 27, 2021.
[20] M. Grusin, “Serial peripheral interface (spi),” https://learn.sparkfun.com/ tutorials/serial-peripheral-interface-spi/all, Accessed August 28, 2021.
[21] F. Baskoro, M. Rohman, and A. P. Nurdıansyah, “Serial peripheral interface (spi) communication application as output pin expansion in arduino uno,” Indonesian Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (INAJEEE), vol. 3, pp. 34–40, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.26740/inajeee.v3n2.p63-69
[22] T. n.d., “Spi protokol¨u, gelece˘gi yazanlar (turkish),” https:// gelecegiyazanlar.turkcell.com.tr/konu/egitim/arduino-401/spi-protokolu, Accessed August 25, 2021.
[23] L. M. E. n.d., “How nrf24l01 wireless module works & interface with arduino,” https://lastminuteengineers.com/ nrf24l01-arduino-wireless-communication/, Accessed August 22, 2021.