Smart Perception And Autonomous Response Core

Abstract: The increasing deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in surveillance, inspection, and defense applications has highlighted the need for reliable obstacle detection and avoidance systems. Conventional approaches primarily depend on centralized processing architectures, which may introduce computational overhead and response delays during close-range obstacle encounters. This paper presents the Smart Perception and Autonomous Response Core, a dedicated low-latency perception module designed to enhance obstacle awareness and autonomous response capabilities in UAV platforms. The proposed system integrates a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor with an STM32H7-based embedded processing unit to independently monitor the environment and perform rapid decision-making. The module incorporates dedicated power management circuitry and MAVLink-compatible communication interfaces for seamless integration with existing flight control systems. By offloading proximity-related processing from the primary flight controller, This module aims to improve responsiveness and operational safety in dynamic environments. The modular architecture of the proposed system also provides a foundation for future enhancements involving multi-directional sensing and advanced autonomous navigation capabilities. The developed prototype demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a compact perception framework for close-range obstacle detection in UAV applications.

Keywords: Smart Perception and Autonomous Response Core, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Time-of-Flight (ToF) Sensor, Obstacle Avoidance, Edge Computing, MAVLink Communication, Real-Time Embedded Systems, Autonomous Navigation.