Systematic Design and Experimental Verification of the Avionics Unit for Mars Quadcopter

Based on the joint exploration of Mars through orbiter, rover, and other methods of detection, the US Ingenuity Mars Helicopter completed the Mars hovering and flight mission, expanding the methods for Mars exploration. Previously, researchers focused primarily on the feasibility of Mars aircraft concepts, with relatively little attention paid to the design of avionics units. Therefore, this article designs an avionics unit for the Mars quadcopter and validates its feasibility and effectiveness through experiments. First, according to the quadcopter’s mechanical structure, we design the hardware architecture of the avionics unit, complete the device selection, and design the avionics boards. Next, we develop the software architecture and its subordinate guidance, navigation, and control subsystems, and develop modular software programs. Then, we define the communication protocol between subsystems’ processors and design the data transmission flow. Finally, flight experiments of the prototype demonstrate the operability and effectiveness of the avionics unit. This article provides a technical reference for the application of the Mars quadcopter in Mars exploration missions.