ARM cortex-M3 based SoC design for drones

Abstract

This project report investigates the development of a drone control system using ARM Cortex-M3 based System on Chip (SoC) and the need for indigenously designed SoCs. The objective was to interface the Cortex M3 processor, AHB bus matrix, AHB peripherals such as SRAMs, UART, GPIO, I2C, IMU sensors to process sensor data, and generate control signals for Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC) to maneuver the drone. The project required extensive research in Cortex M0 based SoC before exploring M3. Results demonstrated successful communication between the M3 processor, AHB bus and AHB peripherals as simulated and tested on FPGA. Future work focuses on integrating sensors and motors with our peripherals to adapt our general-purpose SoC for drone-specific applications and hardware verification later on.