Autopilot design and path planning for a UAV

On the market there are many Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) airframes and many autopilot packages. This masters degree project aims at evaluating the combination of the SmartOne airframe and the MP2128g autopilot and to develop path planning algorithms, i.e. search and track. To do this the UAV was modeled with analytical aerodynamics and then simulations were performed. This gave a set of control gains for the autopilot's stabilizing part as well as a reference for future flight testing and validation. To supplement a larger part of flight testing with simulation is a cost effective way of achieving a well tuned autopilot. The path planning algorithms were constructed, the search algorithm is a versatile and robust pattern that can be easily applied to an area. The tracking algorithm is a novel approach using target velocity estimates to perform close tracking.