Fully autonomous indoor quad with video transmission

Hi, I'm responsible for an initial design (and then probably implementation) of a fully autonomous indoor quad with video transmission. I'm a beginner in the field of RC with some background in control theory and image-processing, pretty solid programming skills and a soldering iron :). 

The functional requirements are:
  1. Stable indoor flight while piloted manually (to be used in the beginning phases of the project)
  2. Real-time flight data transmission
  3. Able to be piloted via PC (with joypad or so)
  4. Camera onboard, real-time video transmission
  5. Remote camera tilt control (only via PC)
  6. Obstacle avoidance
  7. Autonomous landing and take-off

...and that's it for the beginning. After a couple of days of feasibility study I've decided to go with: 
  1. ArduCopter Quad KIT (I already feel lucky to begin with the project once the kit is already available, or at least will hopefully soon again be)
  2. HMC5843 - Triple Axis Magnetometer
  3. XBee Pro 60mW 2,4GHz
  4. Camera - don't know which yet
  5. Infrared Proximity Sensor Long Range - Sharp GP2Y0A02YK0F for obstacle detection
  6. LiPO Battery
  7. Hobby King Battery Monitor 3S
  8. Ultrasonic Range Finder - Maxbotix LV-EZ4 for autonomous landing
  9. Futaba 7C transmitter

And then the questions:
  1. Can you spot any inconsistencies between the requirements and parts choice already? Am I missing something?
  2. I just need a simple black&white camera, high resolution not required, I'd like to real-time process the data in my PC and send the results back to quad for navigation, so it just needs to suit the airframe.
  3. How to transmit video to the ground? I've read Xbees 900MHz are used to do that, do I need a separate Tx/Rx?
  4. Assuming my Futaba 7C (2,4GHz) has frequency hopping, can I use 2,4GHz Xbee for flight data transmission?

Now, I know it's a lot. So please answer even if you just know one answer or have any comments on my choices. Especially questions 3 and 4 are important to me, as I know very little of radio transmission.

Thanks in advance and regards.

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Replies

  • You can use a precise (+-2cm) Indoor "GPS": http://marvelmind.com/.

    Here a couple of demos:

  • I am also working on indoor navigation with my drone. Take a look here:
    http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/indoor-uav-3d-position

    A piece of advice:
    I suggest to use ultra sonic range finder also for "obstacle avoidance". Their beam are wider, thus detecting obstacles is more reliable.

    For the radio link: you should consider using just 1 radio link, because you plan to control it via a PC. That's what I am doing on my drone, with just 1 bluetooth link for all usages: sending high level commands, manual control, telemetry, etc...
  • this is exactly the Parrot ArDrone you want to do!!!
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