Design and realization of a real-time control platform for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles

This paper introduces a custom real-time control platform design for a quadrotor. The control framework is designed to be universal but yet, flexible for implementation of various control and navigation algorithms. The developed platform is modular and is presented in three categories: hardware, software and communication. System identification is also presented for parameters measurement and estimation. Moreover, a ground station with a graphical user interface is designed in Labview for remote control and monitoring, which makes diagnostic easier. A wireless bidirectional communication unit is also designed to bridge the quadrotor and the ground station. The developed cost effective control platform is validated by Matlab/Simulink simulation and experiment through PID control implementation.