Parrot ANAFI Ai - Sensors

8 v1.8
CFD views of ANAFI Ai arms
Test in development phase:
• Tests carried out on the bench of the propulsion unit (engine, propellers),
• Wind tunnel tests to determine aerodynamic performance (body, propellers),
• Production test:
o All the sub-assemblies making up the UAV are checked on the production bench.
o Every drone undergoes a flight test before it is packed: take-off, hovering, landing.
Sensors
To ensure its safe flight, ANAFI Ai is equipped with:
- 2 IMU (an ICM-40609-D and an ICM42605)
- LIS2MDL magnetometer
- UBX-M8030 GPS
- TI OPT3101 time-of-flight (ToF)
- LPS22HB barometer
- vertical camera
The ToF is responsible for providing a ground distance measurement and consists of an infrared
transmitter-receiver measuring the drone-object distance according to the round-trip time of a light
emission between the object and the onboard sensor.
The ToF has the following advantages compared to the ultrasound:
- Smaller minimum measurable distance: 10 cm versus 40 cm for the ultrasound
- Higher maximum measurable distance: 9 m for a target with IR reflectivity of 80%, against
5 m for ultrasound on concrete.
- No disturbance from other close-by drones
Several calibrations are applied to the ToF to ensure the reliability of its measures:
- Crosstalk correction on each individual drone (between diode and photodiode)
- Distance offset on each individual drone (based on a known distance)
- Temperature sensitivity (compensation by a distance offset dependent on the
temperature)
- Ambient IR light sensitivity (compensation by an offset dependent on the light intensity)