Multicopter Design and Control Practice

This book is the sister book to "Introduction to Multicopter Design and Control," which was published by Springer in 2017. It focuses on using a practical process to help the readers to deepen their understanding of multicopter design and control. New tools and new tutorials on multicopters are presented, which can help readers move from theory to practice. The book addresses eight main tasks: multicopter propulsion system design, multicopter modeling, multicopter sensor calibration, multicopter filter design, multicopter attitude controller design, multicopter set-position controller design, semi-autonomous multicopter flight control decision-making design, and multicopter fail-safe logic design. Each task consists of three step-by-step experiments, ranging from the introductory to more advanced levels: basic experiments, analysis experiments, and design experiments. The experiments presented here employ: (1) The most widely-used flight platform - multicopters - as a flight platform; (2) The most widely-used flight pilot hardware - Pixhawk - as a control platform; and (3) One of the most widely-used programming languages in the field of control engineering - MATLAB + Simulink - as a programming language. Based on the current advanced development concept "Model-Based Design" process, the three aspects mentioned above are closely linked. Each experiment is implemented in MATLAB and Simulink, and the simulation test is carried out on a built simulation platform. Readers can upload the controller to the Pixhawk autopilot using automatic code generation technology and form a closed loop with a given real-time simulator for Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) testing. Throughout the process, readers will be introduced to the basic process of model-based design, also including the composition, mathematical model and control of a multicopter. They will come to master a variety of modern tools, such as MATLAB+Simulink and FlightGear in the development and computer simulation, an HIL simulator, the Pixhawk autopilot, and remote control transmitter in the HIL simulation test. The design task also includes outdoor flight experiments, so that readers experience the full development process of a multicopter.