Title: The development of a GPS-based autonomous quadcopter towards precision landing on moving platform

Authors: Muhammad Farris Khyasudeen; Norlida Buniyamin; Saaidal Razalli Azzuhri; Muhammad Badri Mhd Noor; Mohamad Hakim Bin Abu Bakar; Mohamad Faizal Abd Rahman; Nik Izwan Kamel; Aliff Shariffuddin; Iraj Sadegh Amiri

Addresses: Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Department of Computer System & Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Department of Computer System & Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Pulau Pinang), Pulau Pinang, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Pulau Pinang), Pulau Pinang, Malaysia ' Ifcon Technology Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Ifcon Technology Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Department of Computer System & Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), especially quadcopter is widely used in search and rescue, mapping, surveillance and infrastructure inspection. The quadcopter's ability to fly outdoor and return-to-home is important as it simplifies the quadcopter operation and reduces the possibilities of the quadcopter suffering damages and loss. This work proposes a system for a quadcopter performing landing operation on a moving landing platform. This system is based on coordinates of both quadcopter and the moving landing platform using Global Positioning System (GPS) and feedback control using radio frequency communication. From the GPS inputs, the system identifies the distance and yaw angle between these two points and lands on the moving platform without pilot assistance during the landing sequences. The results show that the accuracy of landing on a moving platform based on the performance of the GPS used was within the radius of 2 metres from its target landing point. This paper contributes to the advancement of quadcopter precision landing through developing methods, which use low-cost equipment without compromising the accuracy of the process. Another contribution in this paper shows the ability and accuracy of the quadcopter to execute precision landing on a moving platform without using complex image processing techniques or a high capability computer on the quadcopter, to achieve a real-time UAV navigation.

Keywords: quadcopter; GPS; moving platform; autonomous precision landing; UAV; radio frequency feedback control; return-to-platform.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVAS.2022.133006

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, 2022 Vol.16 No.2/3/4, pp.108 - 126

Received: 18 Dec 2020
Accepted: 08 Sep 2021
Published online: 24 Aug 2023 *

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