If you already know programming basics and want to understand how rotorcraft function, what they can do and how to make them do stuff, you are in the right place.

The drone industry is worth more than 130 billion dollars and is growing rapidly.

Don’t feel you are not smart enough

Successful software engineers are smart, but many have an insecurity that they aren’t smart enough.

I originally created this as a short to-do list of study topics for becoming a software engineer, I am publishing this list to share my 3 year list of topics that I studied on the side during the curriculum of a Computer Engineering and Informatics degree. This is a list of short and medium length study topics to obtain knowledge regarding autonomous rotorcraft. The items listed here will give you enough knowledge to be able to understand how they work, their limitations and effort required to make them fly. Happy studying!

The complete list is published on Github. Click here to access it.

Table of Contents

• What is it?
• Why use it?
• How to use it
• Don’t feel you aren’t smart enough
• You can’t pick only one language
• Book List
• Before you Get Started
• What you Won’t See Covered
• Prerequisite Knowledge
• Optional Courses
• Simulation and Control
• Control Theory
• Sensors and State Estimation
• Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
• Path Planning
• Mechatronics
• Existing Drone Software
• Existing Drone Hardware
• The Flight Controller
• Building a Racing FPV Quadcopter
• Building Fully Autonomous Rotorcraft
• Once You’ve Finished
• Other Resources
• Drone Usage in Industry
• Other Kinds of Vehicles
• More Advanced Topics
• Other Interesting

Simulation and Control

• This is the basis of rotorcraft that is going to get covered first. These few resources will make you understand what a drone needs to fly bad, good, with the help of extra autonomy engines or with the help of a pilot.

• After this part, the corks and screws of each subsystem is going to be investigated thoroughly.

• [ ] Matlab Tech Talks - Understanding Control Systems

• [ ] Matlab Tech Talks - Drone Simulation and Control

• [ ] Introduction to 6-DOF Simulation of Air Vehicles (pdf)

• [ ] Betaflight: PID Tuning Guide

At this point, you might wonder: This is only for four rotors. Don't worry, the extra ones are only used to have resilience. In the future this is going to be populated with more types of rotorcraft like submarines, VTOL drones and wings.

Continue Studying at Github

drones #ai #autonomous