Article directory
2 Hard Iron magnetic distortion
3 HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop simulation)
1 GCS
GCS : Ground Control Station. Software running on a ground-based computer that receives telemetry information from an airborne drone and displays its progress and status, often including video and other sensor data. It can also be used to transmit in-flight instructions to unmanned aerial vehicles.
2 Hard Iron magnetic distortion
Hard Iron magnetic distortion : Deformation caused by magnets or magnetized metal on the fuselage will affect the compass. These distortions are the same relative to the compass position in all headings. Most of these distortions can be compensated for by adding a constant offset to the values returned by the three-dimensional magnetometer (compass).
3 HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop simulation)
HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop simulation) : Conduct a simulation where software running on another computer generates data simulating data from the autopilot sensors. The autopilot is running and does not " know " that the data is simulated, so it reacts no differently than real sensor data. Hardware-in-the-loop uses the physical hardware of the autopilot connected to a simulator rather than simulating the autopilot in software. In an " open-loop " simulation, the software simulator feeds data back to the hardware autopilot ; in a " closed-loop " simulation, the hardware also feeds data back to the software simulator.
4 I2C
I2C : A serial bus that connects multiple low-speed peripherals, such as sensors, to a microprocessor. See here ( this ) for more information.
5 IDE
IDE : Integrated development environment, such as Arduino editor/downloader/serial monitor software. Usually includes a debugger.
6 IMU
IMU : Inertial measurement unit, such as ArduPilot OilPan . There are usually at least three accelerometers (which measure the gravity vector in the x , y , and z dimensions) and two gyroscopes (which measure rotation about the tilt and pitch axes). Neither sensor is sufficient on its own, as accelerometers are biased by motion (i.e. they create " noise " over short periods of time), while gyroscopes tend to drift over time. Data from both sensors must be combined in software to determine the true attitude and movement of the aircraft, thus creating the AHRS (see above). The Kalman filter (see below) is one technique that does this. Autopilots nowcombine central processing units and sensors into one, replacing the Kalman filter.
7 Inner loop/Outer loop
Inner loop/Outer loop : Usually used to refer to the stabilization and navigation functions of the autopilot . The stabilization function must run in real time, up to 100 times per second (the " inner loop "), while the navigation function can run as low as once per second, and can tolerate delays and interruptions (the " outer loop ").
8 INS
INS : Inertial Navigation System. This is a method that uses an inertial navigation system to calculate position based on initial readings from the Global Positioning System, and then based on readings from motion and speed sensors. Very useful when GPS is unavailable or temporarily loses signal.
9 ICSP
ICSP : Circuit Serial Programmer. A way of loading code into a microprocessor. Usually appears asa six-pin (two rows of three-pin) connector on the PCB . To use this method, you need aprogrammer that uses the SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) standard, such as this product.
10 Kalman Filter
Kalman Filter : A relatively complex algorithm, in our application, mainly used to combine accelerometer and gyroscope data to accurately describe the attitude and movement of the aircraft in real time. See here ( this ) for more information.
11 LOS
LOS : line of sight. See VLOS below.
12 LiPo
LiPo : Lithium polymer battery, also known as lithium polymer battery. Variants include lithium-ion ( Li-Ion ) batteries. This battery chemistry is more powerful and lighter than NiMH and NiCd batteries.
13 MAVLink
MAVLink : Micro air vehicle communication protocol used byrotorcraft and fixed-wing family autopilots . More informationabout MAVLink can be found here .
14 MAV
MAV : micro air vehicle. A small unmanned aerial vehicle. More information is available here .
15 NMEA
NMEA : National Marine Electronics Association GPS information standard. When we refer to " NMEA sentences " we are referring to the ASCII string from the GPS modulelike this: $GPGGA,123519,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9 ,M,,47 .