Store-and-Forward Networking Solutions with Autonomous Aerial Vehicles

179 Pages·2017·11.94 MB·English

Eindhoven University of Technology
MASTER
Store-and-forward networking solutions with autonomous aerial vehicles
Balasubramanian, S.
Award date:
2014
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5T746, Graduation project
Eindhoven University of Technology
Thales Nederland B.V
Store-and-Forward Networking Solutions with
Autonomous Aerial Vehicles
Robotics and Networking
Shyam Balasubramanian (Embedded Systems, 0785610)
Committee:
Prof. Dr. H. Corporaal (TU/e)
Dr. Ir. P.H.F.M. Verhoeven (TU/e)
Ir. M. Wijtvliet (TU/e)
Dr. Ir. M de Graaf (Thales)
Dr. Ir. G.J. Hoekstra (Thales)
January 2, 2014
Abstract
Inthisthesis,thetechnologyofMobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs)alongwithDisruption Tol-
erant Networking (DTN),astore-and-forwardapproach,ismadetointeractwiththenavigation
softwareofamultirotoraircrafttoperformcertaintasksduringnavigation,autonomously.
The MANET is a popular research topic that deals with the routing of information between
systemsinmotion. TheDTNisafairlynewfieldofresearchthatenablesnetworkinginextreme
environmentsthatmaylackcontinuousnetworkconnectivity. Mostofthepriorworkinthearea
ofMANETsandDTNhavebeenperformedusingsimulations. Thisresearchaimstoextendthe
mobile networking with DTN technology in order to improve the robustness of communication.
A practical implementation presents the complex dynamics of wireless environments and poses
new challenges.
The multirotor is chosen as the mobile node and is made to fly to several waypoints (base sta-
tions)usingGPS.Ithoversinthegivenregionbyestablishinganon-the-flynetworkconnection.
Exchange of required data such as files, video or any critical data exchange is initiated upon
a successful connection. This concept leads us to diverse potential applications where network
infrastructure is unavailable; such as in the field of military operations, surveillance of civilian
areas and forwarding video images during search and rescue operations.
Themainfocusofthisresearchisonthedeploymentofanautonomousmobilenodetoexchange
data with other static nodes, using DTN technology. Further, extensions to DTN are proposed
and a new algorithm is developed to make autonomous networking more intelligent. Additional
researchanddevelopmenthasbeencarriedouttoimprovethestabilityofthehoveringplatform
and to extend the flight times.
Keywords
DTN - Disruption Tolerant Networking
MANET - Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks
UAV - Autonomous Multirotor, Multicopter, Micro-Aerial Vehicles or Drones
1
Acknowledgements
ThisthesisiswrittenaspartofmymasterdegreeinEmbeddedSystemsatEindhovenUniversity
of Technology. The work in this thesis is conducted at Thales Nederland B.V., at Huizen.
I have always had a deep interest for how stuff works and this especially applies to embedded
systems and aerial robotics. The main motivation of this work is towards application specific
multirotors. Implementing, experimenting and extending the state-of-the-art multirotor tech-
nology has been a perfect assignment for me. Working in the area of wireless networks has been
an equally rewarding experience.
I would like to extend my gratitude to prof. dr. Henk Corporaal, my graduation supervisor
at Eindhoven University of Technology. His timely guidance and encouragement to explore the
amazing world of multirotors has helped me immensely. I thank ir. Mark Wijtvliet whose ideas
in thesis have helped me reflect on my work. I would like to show my appreciation to dr. ir.
Richard Verhoeven for accepting to be part of this committee.
AtThalesNederlandB.V,Ihavebeengiventhefreedomtoexploreandtopursuitanynewidea
that I have come up with. For giving me such freedom in my work, and for their guidance, I
would like to thank dr. ir. Maurits de Graaf and dr. ir. Gerard Hoekstra, my daily supervisors
at Thales. My appreciation to Robert Hodkinson, for all the fruitful technical discussions we
have had during my tenure. I thank my colleagues Javier, Stefan and Gertjan for critical review
of my work and their timely feedback. My colleagues Sunil John, Suhas Pai and Ashwin Bhat,
at the University of Eindhoven, who have encouraged me to pursue my dream.
In the end, I offer my special thanks to Vimitha for her love and care and to make me into
a better person. My family in India, for without whose love and encouragement I would have
forgot to innovate.
Shyam Balasubramanian
Hilversum, January 1, 2014
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About Thales
Thales is a French company with top market presence, in both military and civilian domains.
Thalesisoneofthemostwellknowncompaniesinthesectorsofdefense,groundtransportation,
civil security and aerospace.
Figure 1: Thales Group logo.
Thales Nederland B.V is a Dutch brand of Thales group, has about 2,000 employees working
at various branches, located in Hengelo (HQ), Enschede, Eindhoven, Delft and Huizen.
Thales, located at Huizen, is the leading defence communications company in The Netherlands.
It is a supplier of high quality integrated communications equipments for both the military and
commercial organisations, with requirements for high technology multimedia networks.
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Contents
List of Abbreviations 7
1 Introduction 13
2 Related Work 17
3 Mobile Platform Selection 21
3.1 Classification of aerial vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Multicopter platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 Networking platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4 Wireless Networking 34
4.1 Internet protocol stack (TCP/IP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2 Wireless networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.3 Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.4 MANET routing protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.5 Selection of OLSR routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5 Disruption Tolerant Networking 43
5.1 DTN history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.2 Features of DTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.3 Bundle layer protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.4 IBR-DTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.5 IBR-DTN mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.6 Limitations of DTN design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.7 Extending the DTN design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6 Network Setup on Raspberry Pi 56
6.1 Node configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.2 MANET setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.3 Mesh network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.4 OLSR plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.5 OLSR and IBR-DTN configuration settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.6 Communication between layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7 Multicopter Hardware 69
7.1 System architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.2 Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.3 Flight controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.4 Electronics and actuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
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7.5 Power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.6 Communication equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
7.7 Frame specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.8 Networking hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.9 List of components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8 Multicopter Software 84
8.1 Mathematical model of the quadcopter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.2 Sensor Fusion Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.3 Quadcopter configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
8.4 Software architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8.5 Modes of operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.6 Flight configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
9 Performance Analysis and Improvements 93
9.1 Measures to improve stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
9.2 Hover tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.3 Power consumption tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.3.1 Power consumed by networking hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.3.2 Power consumed by aerial vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
10 Aerial Network Protocol 101
10.1 Extended network stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
10.2 Background of the protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
10.3 Aerial-network protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
10.3.1 XML Configuration file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10.3.2 Query the OLSR and DTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
10.3.3 Client server architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10.3.4 Network flight interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
11 Waypoint Networking 109
11.1 ETX Measurements with antenna orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
11.1.1 Tests with antenna orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
11.2 Mission Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
11.3 Waypoint networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
11.4 Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
12 Analysis of Interferences 117
12.1 Wireless devices on multicopter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
12.2 Understanding power scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
12.3 Frequency bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
12.3.1 2.4 GHz spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
12.3.2 1.5 GHz spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
13 Extended Flight Times 127
13.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
13.2 Factors affecting flight time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
13.3 Selection of components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
13.4 Power analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
13.5 Energy source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
13.6 Flight time results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
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14 Conclusions 138
14.1 Summary of contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
14.2 Insights and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
14.3 Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
A Hardware and Software Details 142
B Networking Principles 146
C Complete Network Configuration 149
Bibliography 173
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List of Abbreviations
AHRS Attitude and Heading Reference System
API Application Programming Interface
BPA bundle protocol agent
dB Decibel
dBm decibel-milliwatt
DCM Direction Cosine Matrix
DHT Distributed Hash Table
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
DTN Disruption Tolerant Networking
EEPROM Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
ESA European Space Agency
ESSID Extended Service Set Identification
ETX Expected Transmission Time Metric
ETX Expected Transmission count metric
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IMU Inertial Measurement Unit
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical band
LOS Line-of-Sight
MAC Media Access Control
MANET Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks
MAV Micro Aerial vehicles
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NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
OLSR Optimized Link State Routing
OSI Open System Interconnection
P2P peer-to-peer
PC Personal Computer
PID Proportional-Integral-Derivative
PWM Pulse Width Modulation
QoS Quality of Service
RF Radio Frequency
RTC Real-time clock
SANET Static Ad-Hoc Networks
SenSafety Sensor Networks for Public Safety
SNR Signal-to-noise ratio
SQL Structured Query Language
TTL Time-to-live
UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
WP Waypoint
TTL Time-to -live
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