Intelligent control of quad-rotor aircrafts with a STM32 microcontroller using deep neural networks

Purpose - Deployment of deep neural networks on embedded devices is becoming increasingly popular because it can reduce latency and energy consumption for data communication. This paper aims to give out a method for deployment the deep neural networks on a quad-rotor aircraft for further expanding its application scope. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, a design scheme is proposed to implement the flight mission of the quad-rotor aircraft based on multi-sensor fusion. It integrates attitude acquisition module, global positioning system position acquisition module, optical flow sensor, ultrasonic sensor and Bluetooth communication module, etc. A 32-bit microcontroller is adopted as the main controller for the quad-rotor aircraft. To make the quad-rotor aircraft be more intelligent, the study also proposes a method to deploy the pre-trained deep neural networks model on the microcontroller based on the software padoges of the RT-Thread intemet of things operating system. Findings - This design provides a simple and efficient design scheme to further integrate artificial intelligence (Al) algorithm for the control system design of quad-rotor aircraft. Originality/value - This method provides an application example and a design reference for the implementation of Al algorithms on unmanned aerial vehicle or terminal robots.