Estudio, desarrollo e integración de equipos auxiliares para el control y/o monitoreo de plataformas robóticas: diseño e implementación de un prototipo receptor del posicionamiento de una aeronave que sirva de apoyo a un usuario para la localización de la plataforma aérea.

Abstract

This project describes the procedure followed for the design and implementation of an auxiliary electronic prototype based on LoRa communication for helping in the search of a lost platform. A theoretical compendium is presented concerning topics such as terrestrial radio navigation systems and algorithms to determine the distance and azimuth between two geographic points. In addition, a brief review of the main characteristics of the LoRa technology is included, as well as the effects of the possible interferences due to obstacles that may occur in a radio frequency system. For the development of the electronic receiver prototype, commercial electronic modules are considered. For this reason, a selection of electronic modules is presented to execute the search algorithm, such as radio frequency modules, magnetometer, graphic display, external memory, development card, and battery management system. Additionally, a detailed description of the most relevant configuration parameters of the LoRa technology is presented. For the design of the hardware and software related to the receiver prototype, use has been made of Open-Source prototyping tools, for which reason, a brief description of the selected software tools and the steps followed for the development of the prototype are presented. The tests and results show that a large line-of-sight data reception range can be achieved using LoRa technology. However, the data reception distance is significantly shortened when performing ground search tasks in the presence of forest vegetation and without line of sight.