Ultrasonic Sensor Assessment for Obstacle Avoidance in Quadcopter-based Drone System

This paper discussed obstacle avoidance system in quadcopter-based drone. A prototype was built and offline online assessments were conducted. Prototype was built by using 4 propellers; an arduino module was inserted to process avoidance schema. Six ultrasonic sensors were employed to detect obstacle presence and fuzzy based algorithm determined the drone decision to surroundings. Assessment was mainly conducted to determine distance sensor performances. Study revealed that sensor installations should be far enough from the propellers as noises disrupted ultrasonic sensors. Offline test shows small error on measured distance, while online test shows higher error. Further solution is required to maintain distance measurement error low.