Quadrotor Mission Statement

Objectives:

• To create a fun flying vehicle that is capable of hovering flight with at least some degree of autonomy
which will serve as a flying testbed for advanced control law and estimator implementations.
• To allow me to extend my knowledge and skills in the following areas: Controller schemes, Kalman
Filters (and/or other estimators), embedded s/w, microcontrollers, sensors, motor control, radio (or
other remote) control and telemetry, Scilab/Scicos (and other design, analysis and simulation tools),
blogging, and website creation.

Goals:

1. Explore multiple control schemes (PID, LQG/LQR, LTR, H-inf, Sliding Mode, Backstepping, etc.) and
estimators (Kalman, Extended Kalman, Unscented Kalman, H-infinity, Particle, Complementary. etc.)
Compare performance, code size and execution times, and design effort.

2. Document the project extensively, via blog, website, tutorials, and reports (at roughly the level of an MS
thesis). The intent is that (almost) anyone could re-create what I've done (but not necessarily to create
something that would appeal to the largest possible audience)

3. Release all derivative code and documentation under an appropriate Open Source License (GPL? MIT
License?)

4. If there is any truly innovative contribution, I will not rule out writing an academic paper and/or starting
a commercial venture.

5. Write an article for e.g. Servo or other paying publication, to help defray costs (and because I think it
would be enjoyable)

6. Use open-source / free tools where possible (but not exclusively - for example will probably use
Windows XP)

7. Design using real engineering practices (based on data, experiments, models, etc.) not guesswork. Explore
the design space via component choice trade studies and sizing trades.

8. Use Hardware in the loop simulation, if possible.

9. Minimize machining, soldering, etc.as much as possible (at least initially). Buy off the shelf components
where feasible. Focus on software and design.
Vehicle Requirements:

1. Safe, simple operation both indoor (in a sufficiently large area) and outdoor.

2. Autonomous position control and trajectory tracking.

3. Fully acrobatic capable – no restrictions in inertial space.

4. Direct human control (via joystick / RC) as an option (can be higher levels of augmentation: pure
(mixed) rotor speeds, rate command/attitude hold; translational rate command/position hold; rate of
climb/altitude hold.)

5. Mixed or semi-autonomous control: control actions initiated from keyboard commands or even voice
commands.

6. Environmental perception through various sensors and sensor fusion algorithms.

7. Communication with ground station.

• Minimum: 7 states down + 4 controls up @ 10 Hz

• Preferred: 20 parameters down + 8 controls up @ 100 Hz
• On-board data storage (memory card) also acceptable, minimum 5 minutes record time.
•
8. Minimum payload: one camera, transmitting preferred, but on board video recording for off-line playback
is acceptable

9. Minimum flight time: 7 minutes; desire 15+

10.Maximum diameter: 1 meter; desire 0.5-0.7 meter

11.Budget: $1000; desire: $500 or less.

RLB 2/6/2009