Development of the MAVSTAR Micro Aerial Vehicle and Base Station for IMAV 09

The development of a dual-rotor coaxial Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) and a Base Station (BS) for the 4 US-European workshop and flight competition for micro air vehicles (IMAV09) competition is presented in this paper. The design of the MAV is based on a platform developed for a previous competition but has been upgraded with increased sensor capability and payload capacity while maintaining an overall size of 35 cm. Both the MAV and BS contain substantial safety and reliability improvements which are intended to prosecute the competition objectives in an efficient manner. Results show that the communication systems perform reliably in an indoor environment and the MAV is capably of stable hover while under manual control. Following the competition, the complete system will be used to demonstrate autonomous control for applications such as indoor search and rescue.