Avionics system design of a mini VTOL UAV

Herein, the avionics system design of a mini Vertical Take-Off And Landing (VTOL) capable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), namely a Quadrotor, will be described. The Turkish Air Force Academy personnel together with a team of cadets have been working on the design and development of an autonomous Quadrotor vehicle for educational purposes. The main emphasis was to study the flight dynamics of such a vehicle but the development of on-board electronics that consists of a sensor payload, embedded computer, and other hardware, along with the embedded software was such a critical work package under the project that required special emphasis and an innovative approach. A new avionic architecture that is derived from the rationale of Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture of today´s larger platforms is proposed and currently being implemented within the framework of our project. The advantages of this approach for the development of mini/micro UAVs along with the academic education of our cadets will be discussed.