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Develop a Quadrotor Simulator and Controller
Roy Vorster
Roy Vorster
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Develop a Quadrotor Simulator and Controller

Use Python to write a simulator for a quadrotor, explore its behavior and write a feedback controller to stabilize it.

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Thursdays
 at
6:00
P.M.
 ET /
3:00
P.M.
PT
8 weeks, 2-3 hours per week
Intermediate
No experience required
No experience required
Some experience required
Degree and experience required

Description

A startup drone company is developing a new small drone and before building it, we need to evaluate its stability and iterate on the design. In this Build Project, you’ll wear the hat of a Robotics Engineer and develop a model to simulate the drone and write a feedback controller to stabilize it. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you’ll become familiar with feedback control and dynamics modeling techniques using tools like Python and NumPy. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real robotics team.

Session timeline

  • Applications open
    June 24, 2024
  • Application deadline
    July 21, 2024
  • Project start date
    Week of July 8, 2024
    Week of
    August 5, 2024
  • Project end date
    Week of

What you will learn

  • How to derive the equations of motion for a dynamic system
  • How to derive a feedback controller to stabilize a dynamic system
  • How to use Python to implement a simulator
  • How to use Python to do linear algebra
  • How to use Git to collaborate with others and log your progress
Build Projects are 8-week experiences that operate on a rolling basis. Selected participants engage in weekly live workshops with a Build Fellow and 2-15 other students.

Project workshops

1
Introductions
2
Deriving the Equations of Motion for a 2D Quadrotor
3
Implementation and Structure of the Simulator
4
Expanding our Quadrotor Model to 3 Dimensions
5
Review and Introduction to Feedback Control
6
Deriving a Feedback Controller
7
Review and Trajectory Generation
8
Presentations

Prerequisites

  • Basic experience with Python. You should understand concepts like functions, loops and classes and have experience writing simple programs.
  • Familiarity with linear algebra (e.g. followed an intro linear algebra course).
  • A problem-solving mindset
  • A strong interest in planning- and control problems in robotics!

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About the expert

Roy Vorster

Mechatronics Engineering Fellow
Open Avenues Foundation

Roy Vorster is a Mechatronics Engineering Build Fellow at Open Avenues, where he works with students leading projects in quadrotor dynamics- and control.

Roy Vorster is an autonomy engineer at Skydio where he works on the planning- and control team. Roy Vorster has over 2 years of experience in the field of mechatronics engineering, specifically with control systems.

His previous experience includes working as a control systems engineer with the Mercedes F1 team.

He holds a degree in aerospace engineering from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

A fun fact about him is that he has an amateur endurance racing team with a group of friends.

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