Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Your application

Please complete the following fields to be considered for this project.

Please fill in this required field.
Please fill in this required field.
Please fill in this required field.
Please fill in this required field.
Please fill in this required field.
How much commitment will you have to this project?
Please select an option.
Are you available to dedicate 1-2 hours per week to the Build Project?
Please select an option.
Cancel
Your application has been 
successfully submitted!
Explore more projects
Close
You already submitted an application for this project.
Explore more projects
Close
There was an error submitting your form. Please try again later or contact us.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

This project is no longer accepting applications. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified of new projects!

Get updates
Develop a Quadrotor Simulator and Controller
Roy Vorster
Roy Vorster
Get updates
Register today
Apply now
Description
Learnings
Workshops
Prerequisites

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.

Register today
Apply now
Roy Vorster
Mechatronics Engineering Fellow
Open Avenues Foundation
Open Avenues Foundation
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
Learnings
Workshops
Prerequisites

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

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!

Sign up today

Get access to all of our Build projects, including this one, by creating your Build account!

Register today
Log in

Apply to

Roy

's project today!

Get started by submitting your application.

Apply now

Stay updated!

Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when projects reopen!

Please fill in this required field.
By clicking “Subscribe” you agree to our Terms of Services and Privacy Policy.

Thanks for subscribing!

We'll notify you when projects reopen. In the meantime, you can explore our resources and learn more about our Fellows.

Discover our articles
There was an error submitting your form. Please try again later or contact us.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
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.

Visit
Roy
's Linkedin

Open Avenues Foundation
Visit
's Linkedin
More like this Project
Open Avenues Foundation
Application closed

Drone Mounted with 3D Surface Scanner for Aircraft Structural Inspections

Teja Swaroop Reddy Seelam
 |
Aerospace Engineering Fellow
and 1 more
Open Avenues Foundation
Application closed

Developing Bio-based (CNSL) Cellular Products

Abdul Al Alawi
 |
Materials Engineer Fellow
and 1 more
DREAM Venture Labs
Application closed

Find Your Business in Digitalized Manufacturing

Eldar Shakirov
 |
Industrial Engineering Fellow
and 1 more
Open Avenues Foundation
Application closed

Build Reinforcement Learning Controller for Lunar Lander

Igor Sadalski
 |
Mechanical Engineering Fellow
and 1 more
Open Avenues Foundation
Application closed

Engineering Bid Preparation for HVAC Systems

Alsten Lobo
 |
Mechanical Engineering Fellow
and 1 more