Design of quadrotor’s autonomous flight control system based on beaglebone black

Abstract

A problem of quadrotor’s autonomous flight control system based on BeagleBone Black (BBB) high-performance embedded computer is investigated in this paper. BBB is chosen as the main control computer equipped with Wi-Fi receiver, GPS, and camera, while STMS320F28335 is used as the attitude control processer equipped with IMU, optical flow sensor, and infrared range finder. The software system is made up of a cascaded (inner-outer loop) attitude control based on optical flow sensor and ground station control system based on robot operating system (ROS) network. This system enhances quadrotor’s ability of performing complex tasks and enables it autonomy. Indoor hovering tests prove that attitude control algorithm has a stable performance.