MEMS-Based Low-Cost Flight Control System for Small UAVs

Small unmanned air vehicles(UAVs)can be used for vanous kinds of surveillance and data collection missions.The UAV flight control system is the key to a successful mission.This paper describes a low-cost micro-electro mechanical system-based flight control system for small UAVs.The integrated hardware flight control system weighs only 24 g.The system includes a highly-integrated wireless transmission link,which is lighter than traditional links.The flight control provides altitude hold control and global positioning system navigation based on gain scheduling proportional-integral-derivative control.Flight tests to survey the grass quality of a large lawn show that the small UAV can fly autonomously according to a series of pre-arranged waypoints with a controlled altitude while the wireless video system transmits images of the surveillance target to a ground control station.