Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Control Laboratory

3 units

This course covers the integration of dynamical systems and control engineering principles toward the manipulation of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), sometimes referred to as a drone. Students will analytically transform a nonlinear description of the UAV system used for dynamic simulation into a conventional, linear state space system. Students will use key control engineering concepts -- including system identification, state estimation and control synthesis -- to command their UAVs to hover, climb, and orbit. In addition to principles of estimation and identification, students will learn about the theory of guidance and navigation, with projects such as flight planning and execution, collision avoidance, and competitive or cooperative tasks (e.g., formation flight). The overall objective is to expose students to the fusion of control, estimation, and identification techniques that are fundamental to systems theory.