Description
Objectives
The main objective of this course is to provide an introduction to fundamental concepts involved in the design and autonomous operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The following intermediate goals are considered: - Identify the preliminary phases of vehicle modeling and design. - Revisit and apply key concepts from systems theory. - Understand, implement, and experimentally test motion control and state estimation solutions rooted in linear and nonlinear control and estimation theory
Syllabus
- Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Vehicle configurations and classification. UAS components. Applications. 2 – Modeling and Design Rigid- body kinematics and dynamics. Attitude representations. Model linearization and state-space modeling. Airplane modeling and design. Quadrotor modeling and design. 3 - Motion Control Linear and nonlinear control techniques. Application to airplane motion control and quadrotor motion control. 4 - State Estimation Sensors for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Kalman Filtering. Attitude estimation. GPS/INS Integration. 5 - Motion Planning Dubin’s paths. Point-to- point algorithms. Coverage algorithms. Optimization-based methods. 6 - Additional Topics Multi-vehicle cooperative control. Vision-based control. Agile maneuvering. 7 - Applications and the future of UAVs Current and future applications. Open issues for effective and reliable operation.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of fundamentals of Linear Algebra, Differential and Integral Calculus, SISO Control, Rigid-body Mechanics, and Flight Control
Cross Competence Component
The lab work will offer the students the opportunity to develop the following skills: 1) Critical and innovative thinking: critical analysis of situations and results obtained in theoretical analysis, simulations, and experiments. 2) Interpersonal skills: group communication and workload distribution. 3) Information and media literacy: exploitation of computational and media tools from a users perspective; ii) report preparation. Soft skills will account for 20% of the evaluation of the laboratory component.
Laboratorial Component
The laboratory component comprises 3 group assignments, all involving flight experiments with real quadrotor vehicles and the submission of written reports. The first 2 laboratory assignments are divided in 2 sessions of 3 hours each (20%+20% of final grade). The 3rd laboratory assignment has 3 sessions of 3 hours each (30% of final grade). Grading is based on the evaluation of the reports and individual performance in the lab.
Ethical Principles
All members of a group are responsible for the group’s work In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.