P&S: Quad-Rotors: Control and Estimation

Abstract

The category of "Laboratory Courses, Projects, Seminars" includes courses and laboratories in various formats designed to impart practical knowledge and skills. Moreover, these classes encourage independent experimentation and design, allow for explorative learning and teach the methodology of project work.

Objective

The objective of this P&S is to make a real-world quad-rotor fly autonomously by applying the control and estimation theory taught in class. Details of this P&S course can be found at: https://www.dfall.ethz.ch/pands.php A video showing highlights from HS2018 can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEg-XHSXd58 A video showing how we adapted to the online setting for COVID-19 can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHcfb3OprB

Content

In the first half of the P&S, we will introduce the physical model for a quad-rotor and use this to apply the control and estimation techniques that are taught in the 5th semester in the Control Systems 1 (CS1) class. The students will then create their own control functions for a quad-rotor and test these in simulation. The second half of the course will involve the students implementing the control and estimation algorithms they design in the real-world on our fleet of nano-quad-rotors. Once stable flight is achieved, the students will have the freedom to perform tasks with the quad-rotor. By implementing the control and estimation algorithms on a real quad-rotor, the students will gain experience in how decisions in the modelling and design stage affect real-world performance. The simulations will be coded in MATLAB, and the real-world implementation in C++. Important Information: Students must be in the third year of their Bachelor's. After the first meeting of the class, students will be divided into two groups and the classes for each group will take place on alternating weeks. It is preferable (though not mandatory) to have taken the Control Systems 1 (CS1) course; students who did not take CS1 will need some additional reading to understand some aspects of this P&S.

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