Solar Powered Autonomous Hex-Copter for Surveillance, Security and Monitoring

Due to innovation in machine automation and artificial intelligence (AI), surveillance and security paradigms are changing. The unmanned aerial vehicles are designed for surveillance of high importance area, that are either difficult to access or are located in dangerous zones. This paper focuses on design and construction of hex-copter with surveillance capabilities. The designed hex-copter has the ability to fly autonomously and cover the predefined path as well as send the video signals which are to be viewed on the ground base station, i.e., PC and smart phones etc., also the UAV is fully capable of self-controlled flight and solar based self-powering mechanism. For self-control mechanism, our design includes an ArduPilot Mega (APM) Version 2.8 flight controller having an in-built microcontroller with capability of interfacing with GPS and Inertial measurement sensor unit. The auto-flight path is generated with the help of mission planner software. For the surveillance purpose, a camera is attached with the hex-copter that transmits video data wirelessly to the ground station. This system provides an extremely maneuverable and versatile platform for applications like surveillance and aerial photography. It can be used for government agencies, military applications, and disaster relief etc.