Low -Cost UAV Avionics for Autonomous Antenna Calibration

This paper di scusses the implications of using low -cost avionics for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) . An application in field calibration of antennas is described, where a small helicopter is equipped with a custom sensor and flight computer package for sta bilizing hover at desired positions. Differences in computational complexity are discussed as they relate to using a low -cost main processor as opposed to a more powerful one. Alternative methods for data processing to reduce the computing load are also pr esented . A solution to the low -cost low -complexity issue is presented along with simulation results suggesting its feasibility.

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