Drones to Go: A Crash Course for Scientists and Makers (Paperback)

Chapter 1: Design

Chapter Goal: This chapter with maker impact, presents the most relevant information about what a drone is, including a historical and social context, the international standard that they use, certain safety considerations that the reader should have in mind before working with these aircraft, a description of generic components and their selection and connection, as well as a selected reference section in order to go deeper into these topics. As a result the reader will know technical details, as well as international standards and necessary cares for the design of drones and other vehicles.

? Concepts

o Historic context

o Etymologies and names in use

o Generic safety issues and international standards

o Types

? Components

o Action components

o Structure components

o Measurement components

o Command components

o Power components

? Component selection

o Vehicle selection process

o Autopilot selection process

o Remote control selection process

? Component connection

o Mechanical connection

o Electrical connection

o Control connection

? References of the chapter

Chapter 2: Modeling

Chapter Goal: This chapter with scientific impact, focuses on the modeling of drones. It describes frames of reference, kinematics, dynamics, model of propulsion or allocation and linear modeling considerations. Finally this chapter includes a selected reference section to delve into the topics described. As a result, the readers will be able to model a drone and to extend their knowledge to other types of vehicles and aircraft.

? Frames of modeling

? Translational kinematics

? Rotational kinematics

? Forces operating in a multicopter and in its propellers

? Translational dynamics

? Rotational dynamics

? Propulsion Model

? Linear Simplifications

? References

Chapter 3: Control

Chapter Goal: This chapter with scientific impact, presents 4 of the most used drone controllers based on two classifications, one that visualizes said aircraft as vehicles and the other as robots. Also presents control concepts and stability bases of Lyapunov theory of stability. Finally, a section on the trajectory planning is presented and concludes with a selection of references on each addressed topic. As a result, the reader will be able to understand and implement most of the drone controllers available, including the powerful geometric control and extend their knowledge to other types of vehicles and aircraft.

? Control concepts

? Useful-zero concept

? Robot mode control

o Fully linear Cartesian control with no yaw variation

o Fully linear Cartesian control with yaw variation

? Vehicle mode control

o Spherical control (rudders and guide vector)

o Introduction to geometric control for drones (thrusters and guide vector)

? Introduction to lyapunov stability through lyapunov functions for linear and nonlinear systems

? Definition of desired values: regulation, trajectory monitoring or point-to-point monitoring

? References

Chapter 4: Simulation

Chapter Goal: This chapter has both maker and scientific impact, it presents a topic discarded in practically all the books and references available, and which consists of the generic simulation of drones. In this case, we use in particular the Matlab/Simulink tools, but the knowledge is extendable to any other programming environment, including open source simulators. The approach is based on the use of state-space variables and a graphic representation through processing blocks. At the end of the chapter, selected references are presented, most of them available through Apress and Springer. As a result, the readers will be able to design their vehicles by using software tools, and also to extend this type of knowledge to other kinds of vehicles and robots.

? Simulation types

? State-space representation

? Representation with blocks

? Simulation using Simulink/Matlab and user-defined functions

? References

Chapter 5: Implementation

Chapter Goal: This chapter has a scientific and maker impact and presents topics that are also discarded in many publications, related to core implementation details such as the signal processing for sensors and actuators, data transmission, the ways to program a drone and a breviary with the main commands used in the most popular software development interfaces. As a result, the reader will be able to understand briefly how to program a drone or any other robotic vehicle and will be able to deepen their knowledge with the included selected references.

? Drone tasks

? Drone signal processing

o Filtering

o Saturation 

o Biasing and mapping

o Data casting

? Data transmission theory 

o data types and subtypes

o UART introduction

o UART Sending

o UART Reception

o UART Verification

o UART Taking turns

? Available ways for programming a drone

? Some useful commands available at most used SDKs

o Input commands

o Output commands

o Sensor commands

o Actuator commands

o Signal-processing commands

o Communication commands

o Time commands

o Miscellaneous commands

? References

Appendices

Appendices Goal: The appendix are selected topics as differential flatness, sliding modes, rotational representations, a brief on linear control and how to use these topics with drones and how to extend the knowledge to other kind of aircraft. Furthermore is included an appendix on drone power consumption and consequently motor selection through analitycal calculation or through simulation. Each appendix has is one set of selected references

? A1: On differential flatness and multicopters

? A2: About sliding modes and multicopters

? A3: How to use of this book with helicopters, omnicopters, airplanes, etc.

? A4: Other types of rotational representations for drones

? A5: Brief on linear control

? A6: About the power consumption and maximum flight characteristics of a drone

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