At this year's CES, drones emerged as one of the most talked-about topics in the exhibition. Companies like DJI, Parrot, 3D Robotics, AirDog, and others showcased their latest innovations. Even tech giants like Intel and Qualcomm displayed aircraft with advanced communication capabilities and automatic obstacle avoidance features. Drones quickly became a hot product in 2015, and we haven't had time to fully explore their potential yet. To gain deeper insight, the magazine reached out to several companies to understand the hardware structure of drones and their future technological advancements.
(Note: In this article, the term "drone" refers to multi-axis aircraft. Compared to fixed-wing drones, multi-axis models are more stable and capable of hovering. The internal hardware structure is illustrated in the following figures.)
These are basic diagrams of standard products. More advanced systems, such as those used by RC enthusiasts or aerial photographers, require additional modules like pan/tilt mechanisms, cameras, video transmission systems, and receivers.
**Flight Control Brain: Microcontroller**
On the flight control board of a quadcopter, there aren’t many chips involved. For toy-grade drones, the main function is simply to receive commands from the remote control and manage the four motors to achieve flight or hover.
Ren Yuan, a senior engineer at STMicroelectronics, explained that the key components of a UAV or multi-axis aircraft include flight control and remote control. Flight control involves ESC/motor control, aircraft attitude control, and pan/tilt control. The mainstream ESC control methods today are BLDC square wave and FOC sine wave control. STMicroelectronics’ STM32F051 and STM32F301 series are widely used due to their high integration, compact size, and cost-effectiveness. For attitude control, ST offers various STM32F0, STM32F3, and STM32F4 series based on external sensors. For pan/tilt control, the STM32F301, STM32F302, and STM32F405 series are commonly used in aerial photography products. Additionally, for remote controls, the STM32F0/STM32F1 series are used in traditional models, while the STM32F429 is increasingly used in color-display remote controls due to its built-in TFT driver.
Xintang’s MCU team mentioned that multi-axis aircraft consist of different modules such as remote control, flight control, power system, and aerial photography. Depending on the performance level, MCUs ranging from 8051, Cortex-M0, Cortex-M4, to ARM9 are used. For example, small four-axis flight masters require integrated functions like remote control reception, flight control, and power drive in QFN33 or TSOP20 packages using the Cortex-M0 MINI54 series. Mid-to-high-end models use the Cortex-M4 M451 series with built-in DSP and floating-point units for flight control, while ESC boards for brushless motors adopt the MINI5 design. Low-end remote controls use the 8051 N79E814 in SOP20 packages, and mid-to-high-end ones use the Cortex-M0 M051 series. The N329 series SOC with built-in ARM9 and H.264 video decoding is used in 2.4G and 5.8G aerial photography systems.
On the flight control board, the MCU replaces the CPU for control and processing. Since flight control involves floating-point operations, a simple 32-bit Cortex-M4 core MCU can handle it well. Some MEMS sensor chips integrate DSP, allowing even simpler 8-bit microcontrollers to perform effectively.
**Qualcomm and Intel Push the Flight Control Master Chip**
At this year’s CES, Qualcomm and Intel showcased more feature-rich multi-axis aircraft. They used more powerful CPUs than traditional MCUs or ARM Cortex-A processors as the main control chip.
In addition, XMOS, a European processor manufacturer active in the robotics market, has also entered the drone field. Dr. Paul Neil, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at XMOS, stated that XMOS’ xCORE multicore microcontroller family has been adopted by OEM customers of some UAV/multi-axis aircraft. These systems use XMOS multicore microcontrollers for both flight control and internal communication.
Paul Neil said, “The xCORE multicore microcontroller family features between 32 and 32 32-bit RISC cores with frequencies up to 500MHz. It also includes a Hardware Response I/O interface that provides superior real-time I/O performance with low latency. This multi-core solution supports fully independent execution of system control and communication tasks without any real-time operating system (RTOS) overhead. The hardware real-time performance of the xCORE microcontroller enables our customers to implement very precise control algorithms without system jitter. These advantages make xCORE multicore microcontrollers ideal for high-reliability, high-real-time applications like drones.â€
STMicroelectronics also revealed that the STM32F7 series uses the latest Cortex-M7 architecture, combining high performance, real-time functions, digital signal processing, and high integration to provide solutions for aircraft customers requiring high precision control. The STM32 Dynamic Efficiency microcontroller family strikes the perfect balance between dynamic power and processing performance, making aircraft designs more efficient.
Multi-axis aircraft typically use four to six brushless motors to drive the drone's rotors. Motor drive controllers regulate the speed and direction of the drone. While each motor usually requires an 8-bit MCU for control, some systems use a single MCU to control multiple BLDC motors.
**EMS/Sensors for Multi-Axis Drones**
Chen Yimin, General Manager of Shenzhen Fuwei Kechuang Electronics Co., Ltd., believes that although most consumer-grade drones have upgraded from three-axis to six-axis MEMS, they often use cost-sensitive consumer-grade sensors found in tablets or smartphones. However, professional aerial photography and mid-to-high-end drones designed for RC enthusiasts use higher-quality sensors to ensure more stable and safe flights.
Zhao Yanhui, ADI Asia Pacific MEMS Product and Application Manager, introduced ADI's industrial-grade gyroscopes such as ADXRS652, ADXRS620, ADXRS623, ADXRS646, and ADXRS642, along with industrial accelerometers like ADXL203 and ADXL278, which are widely used in professional-grade aerial equipment. Commercial-grade accelerometers like ADXL335, ADXL326, ADXL350, and ADXL345 are also commonly used in all-in-one machines and various aircraft.
These MEMS sensors help achieve smooth control and assisted navigation. The ability of the drone to hover and capture aerial footage relies on the MEMS sensors detecting changes in pitch and roll during flight. Once detected, the motor adjusts accordingly to stabilize the aircraft. This is a typical closed-loop control system. To measure angle changes accurately, a combined sensor is usually required, as neither an accelerometer nor a gyroscope alone can provide reliable data. Gyroscopes measure angular velocity, but to determine the actual angle, integration is needed. However, even in a zero-input state, gyroscopes still output noise, leading to accumulated errors over time. Accelerometers, on the other hand, can measure tilt angles based on gravity decomposition and correct the gyroscope's errors under static conditions. A common approach is to use complementary filtering, combining the outputs of both sensors to calculate angular changes.
As drone functionality expands, GPS sensors, infrared sensors, air pressure sensors, and ultrasonic sensors are increasingly being used. Solution providers are integrating these sensors to develop drones capable of automatic collision avoidance, meeting future regulatory requirements. Drones with built-in GPS can return home with a single button press, preventing them from flying away. Software can also set sensitive areas near airports or restricted zones to prevent takeoff.
**Wireless Control and Video Transmission**
For entertainment-class drones, wireless remote control technologies like 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz are sufficient. Although the 433MHz band has strong penetration and long-range capabilities, it lacks anti-interference properties, so it isn't used in remote-controlled drones or aircraft. 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz RF chips are widely available from various manufacturers and have been used by remote control toy companies for years.
Because multi-axis drones can fly stably, when equipped with a pan/tilt and camera, they can transmit live video to the ground via wireless communication (5.8G, Wi-Fi, or LTE), which is more widely used. Pan Jianzhang, Director of the Product Technology Development Department at Hetai Semiconductor, believes that four-axis aerial vehicles, once used for specific purposes like traffic monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, urban planning, border patrol, disaster monitoring, and agricultural crop growth tracking, are now moving toward mass consumers, becoming smart hardware products.
In terms of video transmission, DJI has long led the aerial drone market by wirelessly transmitting 1080P HD video. Many domestic entertainment drone manufacturers still struggle with this. The common practice is to carry a camera on the PTZ, fly high, and then return to the ground for inspection, which doesn't meet the needs of aerial photography because the images can't be viewed in real time. Chen Yimin noted that many systems use the 5.8 GHz band to transmit analog video to the ground, reaching distances of over 600 meters. However, this method requires converting HD (1080P or 4K) video into 720P on the aircraft before transmitting it as a digital signal to the remote control display, which is technically complex and may result in mosaic, lag, or freezing, leading to poor image quality suitable only for casual users.
Currently, no professional WiFi chip manufacturer has developed long-range, high-definition video transmission chips, including Broadcom and Qualcomm. However, with the booming drone market, wireless chipmakers are already planning to launch dedicated chips. “In the future, we will see dual-mode chipsets that can simultaneously connect to controllers and displays,†said Broadcom’s Brian Bedrosian.
Before the introduction of dedicated chips, software-defined radio (SDR) was used to solve the conflict between long-distance and high-bandwidth transmission. Before Analog Devices' SDR technology, RF engineers implemented long-distance, high-bandwidth wireless transmission using discrete devices, but the solution was complex, costly, and time-consuming, making it unsuitable for consumer products.
**Technical Challenges That Drones Will Still Face**
Although the future of drones looks promising, they still face numerous technical challenges, including battery life limitations, more efficient rotor designs, improved remote control and communication, and more user-friendly software to enhance adoption. While these issues may eventually be solved through continuous investment by companies, there remains a persistent problem that plagues drones, especially professional aerial camera manufacturers.
Professional aerial drones can cost up to 10,000 RMB and are often equipped with high-end cameras. If a failure occurs, causing a crash, it can lead to significant financial loss or even pose a risk to people on the ground. In professional forums, drone crashes—referred to as “fried machines†by enthusiasts—are frequent. This is a major concern for professional aerial photography manufacturers. The main issue is that even if a crash results in a video or “wreck,†it's difficult to determine the real cause of the accident, making it hard to improve safety and reliability.
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