Hardware & software architecture for multi-level unmanned autonomous vehicle design

Abstract

The theory, simulation, design, and construction of a radically new type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are discussed. The vehicle architecture is based on a commercially available non-autonomous flyer called the Vectron Blackhawk Flying Saucer. Due to its full body rotation, the craft is more inherently gyroscopically stable than other more common types of UAVs. This morphology was chosen because it has never before been made autonomous, so the theory, simulation, design, and construction were all done from fundamental principles as an example of original multi-level autonomous development.