Parts of a Drone Sub System

Parts of a Drone Sub System

Drone Sub System

Subsystems

By : Jakkir Hussain,

Subsystems or electrical subsystems are technologies required in a system to fulfill the intended usage of the system. Broadly speaking, subsystems fall into any one of the following computer architecture parts: input, output, storage, and communication devices.



Figure 1-4. Parts of a drone

Input

A touch panel, keyboard, mouse, microphone, camera, sensors, and remote control are some examples of input devices of a system.

Output

Displays, speakers, motors, fans, and LEDs are some examples of output devices of a system.

Storage

Memory, flash, hard disk drive, optical drive, secure digital, and solid state drive are some examples of the storage devices of a system. 

Communication Devices

Wired LAN (local area network), wireless LAN, mobile networks (3G, 4G, and LTE), GPS (Global Positioning System), and USB are some examples of the communication devices of a systems.

All of the subsystems listed above may or may not be a part of a particular drone design. The target application picks the right subsystems to be part of the drone system design.

For example, if the intended application of a drone is surveillance, it should be equipped with a high resolution camera and the SOC used in the system should be capable of accepting and processing the high speed data from that camera. The PCBA should be designed in such a way as to 

interconnect the high speed data between SOC and the camera module and then be capable of transmitting the live or recorded data via the wireless communication modules.

Besides SOC, the camera module, wireless module (WiFi/3G/4G modules), memory, internal storage, sensors, and flight controllers are the basic required subsystems for a surveillance drone. Figure 1-4 is the transparent view of the internal parts of the drone, highlighting a few high-level subsystems, which are visible.

Subsystems play an important role in defining the specifications of the product. (“Product” is the right term for a system when in production stage and available in the market). An end user will see these subsystems as a feature list when selecting a product. A typical drone will have the features listed in Table 1-1.Figure 1-4. Parts of a drone

Table 1-1. Basic Features of a Drone


Table 1-2 lists the specifications covering additional internal features of the drone system. It must again be noted that the specification here is for an example drone and will vary from one drone system to another. As seen earlier, some subsystems from the list may or may not be required for the target application of the system.

Table 1-2. Detailed Features of a Drone System




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