AERIAL SURVEY DRONE
General Plan July 27 2004

1. Description of Project

The aerial survey drone will consist of a small aircraft with an
automated control system that will be issued commands from a ground
station and carry them out in an autonomous or semi-autonomous manner,
for the purposes of ground survey, mapping, and ground course 
planning.

The platform for the survey drone will be a parasail, chosen for its
relatively low speed, simplicity of control, and self-stability. A
parasail consists of a soft wing with a platform suspended below it,
which contains a gasoline engine and cargo area. The predicted cargo
weight limit is approximately 4 kilograms, which will contain all the
control systems, sensors, fuel and other equipment.

  1.1 Computing and Sensors
  
  The control system will be a small computer, most likely a 586
  class, with a small amount of storage, 802.11b down-link to ground,
  and various connections for sensors and controls. The computing
  and sensor systems will be powered by an alternating current
  generator attached to the axle of the propeller drive motor.

  The sensor package will consist of several physical sensors:

    * Small embedded Global Positioning System receiver (position)
    * 3 axis +/- 50 G MEMs accelerometer (dynamic acceleration)
    * 2 axis +/- 5 G MEMs accelerometer (static acceleration -> orientation)
    * 2 axis rate gyroscope (pitch and yaw -> orientation check)
    * Range finder (altitude-from-ground check)
    * Ground-looking survey camera (high resolution map photos)
    * Front/ground looking nav camera (manual control/monitoring)
    
  Most sensors will be connected through a multi-channel Analogue to
  Digital converter. Other sensors will be connected through serial or
  USB.

2. Step by Step Plan

Step 1.
 
Side A - Plane construction           | Side B - Computer construction
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Purchase plane platform            | I. Purchase computing platform
II. Purchase motor + servos	      | II. Purchase sensors, connection gear
III. Purchase radios, etc.            | III. Connect to computing platform,  
IV. Assemble plane and fly manually.  |      write software to read sensors,
V. Construct Generator system         | IV. Write software framework for plane
 a. acquire magnets  	      	      |     control
 b. wind coils			      | V. (dep. A.II) connect computer to servos
 c. locate/acquire/build magnet wheel | VI. Write software to control servos 
 d. acquire/build regulator -> 12vdc  |					     
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Step 2. Assemble, mount, connect.
Step 3. Fly manual with computing platform recording sensor output
Step 4. develop control software
Step 5. develop ground control software

etc etc.