Avionics System Development for a Rotary Wing Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle

This study covers the avionics system design for an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) that can successfully detect and lock down rival unmanned aerial vehicle targets as many times as possible in air-to-air combat. With the artificial intelligence (AI) supported development board and high resolution/wide-angle camera on it, easy detection of competitor systems is provided. The captured images and flight data are processed with the AI-algorithm working on the developer kit with 48 tensor cores on it. Moreover, flight telemetry data is transmitted to the ground station at a range of 40 km, end-to-end encrypted and with low latency. Through 2.4 GHz radio frequency control, manual control can also be performed in an encrypted way and at a sufficient distance. Designed as a hexacopter, the UCAV can also avoid locking up of counter-unmanned systems with its high maneuverability. As a result of the proper design of the avionics and electrical system architecture, it can perform different tasks such as snapshot and data transfer, as well as being able to fly fully autonomously.