Development and Implementation of a Modular Interface for a DroneCAN Communication Bus

This paper presents a modular and cost efficient interface for connecting the various distributed components of drones including actuators and sensors to a DroneCAN communication bus. The developed system features extensive modularity in both software and hardware. Thus, the interface not only allows the interconnection of different drone components regardless of their inherent communication protocol. It also enables flexible mechanical integration into space and weight-constrained environments and the realization of customized decentralized functions like sensor data pre-processing and intelligent self-awareness. Several demonstrators were used to validate the concept and verify its functionality throughout the development process.