In order for this project to function efficiently and serve its purpose well, it needs to satisfy requirements that are defined by the problem. As we had discussed in previous sections, the controller needs to be intuitive to operate because the police officers cannot afford to have long training sessions. The controller and the drone need to operate together and transmit live video in an indoor setting up to a range of at least 30 meters to ensure a versatile usage. The controller and the drone should be lightweight so they do not hinder the movement and carrying capabilities of the officers in action. Last but not least, the setup time for the system must be within five minutes since timing is always important in every emergency situation.
We decided to divide the project into three parts: gesture controller, communication base, and quadcopter. Our design separates the controller and communication base to minimize the weight of the gesture controller, thereby minimizing the fatigue and reduction in mobility of the wearer. Instead, the communication base will do the “heavy lifting” in terms of calculation and interpretation of the gesture and data transmission between the controller and quadcopter. Below are the deteailed design specification for each part.
Hand Controller
- The hand controller will be able to fit most hand sizes
- The hand controller will weigh less than 200 grams
- The hand controller will have a battery that will last at least 10 consecutive minutes without needing to change the battery
- The hand controller will be robust enough to fall from 1.5 meters without breaking.
- The directional and specialized control signals from the hand controller to the base will be 433 MHz radio signals
- It will sense the position and movement of the hand such that it can be converted and sent to the quadcopter as flight directions
- The hand movements that signal flight directions will be simple and intuitive
- There will be specialized controls, Stop, Hover, and Take Off that will take priority of the directional movement of the hand when sending flight controls to the quadcopter
- Calibration for the 9 DOF Sensor
Quadcopter
- The quadcopter should be smaller than a 25*25*25cm3space
- The quadcopter should weight less than 1.5 kilogram
- The quadcopter should fly for at least 10 minutes when fully charged
- It should take no more than 3 hours to fully charge the quadcopter
- The maximum speed for the quadcopter is 10 meters per second
- The quadcopter should be robust enough to fall from 3 meters high without breaking
- The quadcopter should respond to the gesture controller within 0.6 seconds.
- The quadcopter needs to have a camera that is able to send live video to a monitor
- The paring between the receiver on the quadcopter and the transmitter on the base should be less than 5 minutes.
Communication Base
- The base should take roughly 10 * 10 *10 cm3space (without monitor)
- The base should weight less than 4 kilogram
- The connection range between controller and base should be at least 5 meters indoor
- The connection range between quadcopter and base should be at least 30 meters indoor
- The connection range between video transmitter and base(monitor) should be at least 30 meters indoor with less than 0.6-second delay
- The camera resolution should be at least 960p (for digital) or 900 TVL (for analog) and have a similar result in dim light
- The base can operate for at least an hour without a recharge
- Setup time less than 5 minutes