Control system design of a quad-rotor with collision detection

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to present the process of building hardware and software for a collision avoidance system of a quadrotor capable of an indoor autonomous flight. Design/methodology/approach – The system development was carried out in two steps. First, the quadrotor system was designed to mount mission equipments for an indoor flight. The prediction error minimization (PEM) method was used for system identification of the quadrotor, and the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control method was used for the attitude control. Second, a collision detection system was realized by using a Kinect sensor, an embedded board and a ground control system (GCS). A Kinect sensor with embedded board can send the 3D depth information to GCS and then the GCS displays the 3D depth information with a warning message. Findings – As the controller design requires a linear model, the PEM method was used in system identification. The LQR was used in controller design. It was found that the use of the PEM me...