Embedded video processing and data acquisition for unmanned aerial vehicle

Drone technology has advanced to aid applications in field of defense, emergency, disaster relief and digital imaging. Inheriting all such applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in low cost scale to make system for ubiquitous for all domains is the motive for our system. Hence, embedding high quality video feed and controlling flight data characteristics to execute several applications. Our system has been devised specifically for air navigation and hence, seamless performance of all the components placed on-board is maintained with high compactness in form factor. First Person View (FPV) is provided for pilots for to achieve long distance mission execution along with image processing for accurate data analysis of flight characteristics. Along with this, the telemetry data procured from Arduino integrated with sensors viz., GPS, Altimeter, IMU assists the pilot for maintaining steady flight characteristics. Our system has been rigorously tested and has also been presented for Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design competition to accomplish humanitarian relief operation. The low-cost general processing boards like Raspberry Pi and Arduino facilitates versatility in embedding various sensors based on requirements of the pilot. Along with the on-board the telemetry system, the Ground Control System (GCS) provides first person visual aid on base station. The JavaFx interface is platform independent with features like FPV video streaming in real-time, representation of UAV's altitude, orientation and position at every instance of time. Moreover, the trans-receiver communication allows controlling flight characteristics from the interface, increasing the scope of applications with UAV.